Apollo 13 Genealogy Part 2

Okay, there's a second runner up for Jerry at NASA. This guy.

And, because I have overthought myself into face blindness, here's someone who may be the same guy with glasses. Or not. 

(The eyebrow in the high school photo is even more convincing for this guy.)

Of course, this guy(s?) had to be disqualified from the first round because a) he's wearing a mission control headset, not a press room headset, and b) Jerry would have been around 36 in 1970. I mean, he was 12 years away from dying of alcoholism, so I'd expect to see some wear, this guy looks 50 at least.

It was nice to see his high school photo. I think I do resemble him a little in the chin and jaw. Oh, wait, let me get in to Photoshop and spend three hours doing a comparison. (Or not.)

 

Comments

[KC]

The nose in the top photo doesn't look like a match to me? Second photo, maybe, though. (also, who knows what they did while filming in terms of "casting" people to play different generic roles if they were trying to get good representative film of one type of thing but the real people were busy with something else, and who knows whether they used old mission-control headsets for some non-mission-control people, or let non-mission-control people listen in on mission control as a treat, so...?)

[theQueen]

KC - I solidly deny any shenanigans happened, such as putting people into roles they didn't have, because the film footage was taped in 1970 when accuracy in journalism meant something. And, NASA would have to be scrupulous because they already had moon-landing deniers out there. And, if anyone would be the guy to school filmmakers on journalistic integrity it would be Jerry.

[KC]

I mean, for filming things *as they happened* definitely yes!!! But if they were also filming chunks of "how does stuff work around here normally" footage (like they used on children's TV shows), then fill-ins/demonstrations with someone other than the normal person would be reasonable? (I have not seen the documentary, so I don't know whether they have any "this is how this machine works" sorts of things where the person doing the stuff might not be the normal person to do it, just someone who also knows how and who is available and who doesn't gibber when put in front of a camera)

I was also thinking that they might have extra headsets for backup (because if an important person's headset dies, you need to sub one in right quick), and that other people might be allowed to listen in on those headsets in rotation for really cool parts, but then realized that the *audio* from the mission control headsets was probably the same audio sent to press headsets? Or would the press headsets have had only partial audio, or a live feed of an expert summarizing and un-tech-jargon-ing the mission control headset audio?

[TheQueen]

KC - I have no idea. Gary had an interesting question, which was “why do you care? You know he worked there from his Obit.” And what it really comes down to is “I want to see how he looked and acted when he got older.” Why? I don’t know.

[KC]

I would assume that "why" is basically because he has a connection to you and you have unresolved questions and you could *maybe* at least get to see what he looked like when he got older, out of that whole batch of unresolved questions, which isn't necessarily all that much but it's at least something?

(I would bet that if someone gave you a 10-box dossier on Jerry of all his preferences and choices and favorites and least-favorites and mini-golf scores and gas mileage per year, you would either flip through the whole thing looking for the things you *really do* want to know, or that you'd be interested initially in his breakfast cereal choices and his preferred sock length and what shades of paint he would or would not consider for a car and then eventually get more or less sated, put it down, and then pick it up again when the Stuff popped up into your head.)

Grief/Stuff is a legitimate reason to want to know random things, is what I'm saying. (it's not a legitimate reason to stalk someone or to break into their house or whatever, but it's a legitimate reason to do photoshop on documentaries, anyway!)

If you wanted, you could probably contact NASA archives to see what info they have. Biological father would be reason enough for them to disgorge anything non-classified if they have proof he's dead, probably, and they might have employee photos (or might not; I don't really know how they did that sort of stuff for not-astronaut staff). But that would also require figuring out whether you care that much and/or whether you're willing to have NASA think you care however-much they'd think you cared. But wanting to know more about someone, even when you also kinda want to kick that person in the patootie (or want to not care at all), is legitimate.

[theQueen]

KC - Surprisingly, the NASA archives are thin. (They are also free, considering we or our parent's taxes paid for them.) If he were a mechanical object he'd be there. Faces not so much.