Ulysses' Twilight Zone connection

Even though Anne Serling spent most of her childhood living at 1490 Monaco Dr. in the Pacific Palisades of Los Angeles, just over three miles from the beach at Santa Monica, she always relished getting away each summer on family vacations to the Finger Lakes.

Anne’s great-great grandfather on her mother’s side, George Chapman Caldwell, was the noted chemist, horticulturalist and lecturer who was the first professor appointed at Cornell University at its onset in 1868. Caldwell Hall at Cornell was named posthumously in his honor in 1913. As a way of escaping Ithaca during the summer, Caldwell and his son Frank built a cottage by Cayuga Lake on the outskirts of Ulysses near Interlaken and there the family has gathered annually now for some 130 years.

“It has a lot of history,” Anne said of the cottage. “Of course my father loved getting away from Hollywood and coming here.”

Her father was the famed 1950s and '60s television icon Rod Serling who, as a screenwriter and producer, became a vivid part of American pop culture. His most famous work, “The Twilight Zone,” still has legions of fans even though the original television series has been off the air for more than half a century.

Rodman Edward Serling knew the Finger Lakes well. He was born in Syracuse on Christmas Day, 1924, but by the time he was two, his family had moved to Binghamton. There, he grew up, and attended high school where he was editor of the student newspaper. He would always hold a sentimental attachment for the town.

In 1948, when Serling married Carol Kramer, they honeymooned at the Cayuga cottage which by that time belonged to Carol’s grandmother, Louise Caldwell. For the Serling family, which eventually included two daughters, first Jodi and then Anne, it became summertime tradition to return to the lake.

Like her father and mother, Anne gravitated back to the area, not just to regroup and recharge from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood, but because of the distinctively changing seasons. She graduated with a degree in elementary education from Elmira College, and on July 23, 1986, married architect Douglas Sutton on the porch of the cottage. They made Ithaca home.

Carol Kramer Serling still lives in California but returns each summer to the cherished family cottage.

“It is becoming more and more difficult for her to travel,” Anne said of her mother who is now 87. “My dad loved the cottage and of course we enjoy it as much as possible.”

Anne’s activism

Rod Serling was passionately engaged in the struggle for racial equality and after seeing hand-to-hand combat in the Philippines during World War II became an anti-war activist. He passed his passion for doing the right thing, on to his daughters and it seems evident with Anne.

She was among those initially asked to participate in the “Dedicate Your No Trump Vote” blog on social media when it was launched recently and her post, which went up last week, immediately went viral.

“At first, didn’t we all laugh at the idea of Donald Trump?” Anne asked Friday afternoon. “Now it’s not funny. I want to be very honest with you; I have openly wept after hearing some of the things this man has said.”

Trump has claimed publically to be a fan of “The Twilight Zone” and especially the episode entitled, “A Nice Place to Visit,” where, as Anne describes it, a “venal man” who dies in an accident is accorded any wish he desires and exclaims he wants to “win, win, win” no matter what the cost; the consequences be damned.

“My father would be apoplectic at the very idea of Donald Trump,” Anne said. “Then deeply, deeply saddened and then outraged.”

Although Anne appears refined and reserved, she believed it was important to take to the bully pulpit and encourages others to do the same.

“I think everyone should speak out,” she said.

A lasting legacy

It was while at the cottage on the family’s annual pilgrimage here in 1975, when Rod Serling suffered a heart attack. He was admitted to what is now Cayuga Medical Center where he spent two weeks recovering, only to have another, more serious attack within the following weeks. Serling’s heart condition was more complicated than anyone initially imagined and after what was then an uncommon open-heart surgery, he died on June 28.

A memorial service was held at Sage Chapel on the Cornell campus after which, Serling was buried in Lakeview Cemetery on County Road 150 in Interlaken. He was 50.

Based on the number of stones and pebbles currently placed on the headstone, the grave appears to still be visited regularly over 40 years later.  Nearby is the grave of Serling’s brother Robert, the journalist and novelist, who died in 2010.

In perpetuating her father’s legacy, Anne sits on the board of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation, established in 1986. Additionally, a successful writer in her own right, she is noted for her essays, poetry and an autobiography, “As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling,” which was published by Kensington Books in 2013 and is now out in softcover.

Public television station WSKG in Binghamton also sponsors the annual Rod Serling Film Festival – which originated in 1995 as the Rod Serling Video Festival – with awards going to the youngest and most innovative of filmmakers. The festival is in partnership with the Rod Serling School of Fine Arts, part of the Binghamton City School District,

Compilations of the winning films this year will be screened at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Art Mission and Theatre, 61 Prospect Ave, in Binghamton and the public is invited.

Ulysses Town Talk appears every other week. Contact David Wren at ulyssestowntalk@gmail.com