Harry Thomas comments on Superman and the Molemen: “The film makers wanted to use children to play the mole men. After reading the script I told them that we don’t want children for this picture. Their skin isn’t porous enough for the make up, they can’t act and worst of all their stage mothers are always disrupting things. I suggested using little people instead and producers agreed.

They offered suggestions, but left the execution of the make up to me. The producer had wanted the mole men to look frightening and hideous. But how was Superman supposed to feel sympathy towards something monsterous looking? I made them pathetic and I’m glad I did. Your heart really goes out to these gentle little people. They lived underground, so I kept their makeup on the pale side. I made their bald heads appear larger than their faces. Since I couldn’t find bald caps small enough to fit their tiny heads, I had to make them. I stuffed the bald caps with cotton to fill them out.

George Reeves was fun to work with. One time I walked into his dressing room and he was singing. I told him that “I can sing too,” so we sang a little song together. I remember one time I was putting on his make up and he said “ouch”. So I asked him, “Superman, did I hurt you?”

During the first season of the television series, I received a few letters from angry parents who complained that their kids were trying to fly out of windows and were falling on their faces. The kids were trying to imitate Superman! Well, I had nothing to do with making Superman fly, but the parents saw my name in the credits as make up artist and said, “Aha, he’s the one. He put the costume on Superman and made his face up.” The parents were really very hostile. I didn’t want to ignore the letters so I wrote them little notes back and said “I’d like to fly, myself. Why don’t you watch your kids?”