I am an aquaintence of Mr. Peter Merlin's father. It may interest you to know, he served in WWII Navy and later in the occupation of Japan, and after the war, he became an actor on stage, film, and TV. He won an Emmy for writing TV scripts. He is mostly known for his many appearances in horse-opera Westerns in the 50's and 60's, had 100's of appearances on film and tv in shows like Gunsmoke, etc.....Usually played the part of the "Bad Guy", which he loved.
His earliest TV show was as a wise-cracking Space Cadet in "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" which was a childs' sci-fi series that started on TV in 1950. I loved it!
He also authored many fictional and non-fictional books.
His name? Jan Merlin. I am proud to know him.