Forrest J. Ackerman the Drink Tank
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Forrest J. Ackerman The Drink Tank 191 I’ll miss Forry. I didn’t spend My family went to LA that much time with him, I haven’t a lot. I love LA, to a degree, been to the Ackermansion since the and there was a lot to do late 1980s or to the Ackermini-man- there. One day, I think right sion, but I always felt that there was around the time of the 1984 always Forry, there even if not present. WorldCon, we went over to I’ve never known fandom without For- Forry’s place, as fans had ry, and I think that everyone in fandom been doing for a few dec- can say that. He was such a part of ades at that point. Forry everything and so over-whelmingly walked around with us, important to the formation of our tradi- telling stories and cracking tions. Like Lloyd Penney said “if there jokes. I remember that he hadn’t been a Forry, we would have was so happy to be showing had to create him.” people around, and he had Forrest J Ackerman’s passing is the best stuff ever. I can the only time I can remember a New vividly recall the False Maria York Times obituary mentioning spe- and I seem to remember cifically that someone was a science him showing us a model of fiction fan. It’s easy to understand a dinosaur from King Kong. why, he was the most identifiable SF I was the only kid of the group, which and writers and people who were big fan ever, even during the periods when was my family and another couple, and deals around the world. He told the he was less than active, he was always I was big-eyed with excitement. story of the time that young filmmak- known to us, always talked about, al- This guy lived in a museum! ers who would ask him to watch their ways felt. I had been going to museums my movies and give blurbs, about how he Why did I take his death so hard entire life. School went to a museum acquired some piece or another for his when I hardly knew the fellow? Well, a month, Mom or Dad would drag me collection and how much he had to beg there’s the fact that this fandom that I to the Rosecrusian or the de Young or to get this that or the other thing. I re- love grew from seeds he helped plant. the Academy of Sciences, but this was member the top hat that I thought was There’s also the fact that my love of so much cooler than mummies, Asian from a Jack the Ripper movie, but was movies partly came from the minds of art and African Mammal Dioramas. really from London After Midnight. those who were inspired to go into the This was fun stuff. This was a guy who And I remember him smiling. business by reading Famous Monsters had everything you could see on Dial- This guy lived at his museum of Filmland. The biggest reason is that ing for Dollars when they’d show old and he was smiling, excited still by Forry is the reason I’m working in a movies like Things to Come or When the objects, by getting to share them. museum today. Worlds Collide. He had death masks, That’s why I knew I would work at a That’s right, it’s all Forrest J something I’d never seen, and he had museum when I grew up, and that’s Ackerman’s fault. signed photos of all sorts of movie stars why I’ll never work anywhere else. Forry and Me the convention and I, along with several important work, the salvaging of movie A memoir of Forrest J Ackerman other fans, had dinner with Forry in the props for display at the Ackermansion, By Steven H Silver hotel dining room the first night. much downsized since its heyday. Forry was quiet at dinner that As a fanwriter, Forry was no Walt The first time I met Forry, I believe, night, perhaps the result of his harsh Willis. As an author, he was no Ray was at a Rivercon on July 29, 1994. The travel schedule. I don’t think I had ever Bradbury. As an editor, he wasn’t a John day I was leaving for the convention, I seen him that quiet. Nevertheless, we W. Campbell, or even a Hugo Gernsback. had picked up a copy of Reel Futures: The knew that he was listening to every word Nevertheless, Forry’s influence on the field Stories That Inspired 16 Classic Science that we said and filing it away for stories of science fiction was as great as any of Fiction Movies, edited by Forry and Jean he might relate to make it sound much those men and more. In the wide world, Stine. Naturally, since I knew Forry would more exciting than the simple dinner he may not have the name recognition be at the con, I took the book with me. it was in a restaurant in Bloomington- of Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, George Early in the con, I found myself Normal, Illinois. Lucas, or Steven Spielberg, but he helped sitting in front of Forry at a panel. Before For Forry was a raconteur of the mould the public perception of science the panel started, I asked if he would sign highest caliber. His skill was in taking a fiction as much as any of those men. He the book and he agreed. When I passed it story, however mundane, and breathing helped form the field and, perhaps more back to him, Forry expressed confusion. a life into it that make the listeners wish importantly, the culture that surrounds it He had never seen the book before, had they had been present when the events in fandom. not yet received his author’s copies. He happened. I, and many others, have tried signed it for me and then asked if he could to get Forry to write his memoirs, flip through it. Of course I agreed, and I and they may exist, but they didn’t get the book back until after the haven’t been published, except for panel was over. Forry spent the entire pieces here and there in fanzines time flipping through the book. When he that some enterprising fan might did return it to me, he invited me to stop one day piece together into a by the famed Ackermansion if I was ever coherent narrative. in Los Angeles and gave me his phone Another aspect of Forry’s number (MOONFAN). ability as a raconteur was to build I was never able to make it to the up his own involvement. He has Ackermansion. numerous great accomplishments The last time I saw Forry was under his belt, from his at Ditto in 2001. Partly to honor the editorship of Famous Monsters other contender for the title of Greatest of Filmland (a magazine which, I Fan Ever, the convention was held in admit, I’ve never looked through) Bloomington, Illinois, home of Wilson to the popularization of the term Tucker. Forry had flown in for the “sci-fi” (although there is strong convention, but because of a mix-up, indication that Heinlein used it he thought the con was in Bloomington, before Forry) to his work as an Indiana. Good communications and long agent (usually for minor authors distance driving on the part of other fans whose work would disappear brought Forry from Indiana to Illinois for otherwise), to perhaps his most I met him twice. A gentleman to his followers. Once, when I was in filmdom’s history, donated by Forry’s who flirted beautifully. I kissed him college, I called his home and left a many industry friends, were scattered on the cheek and called him sugar message. (His phone number was an and strewn about the place, fondled by the last time I saw him. open secret.) It blew my young mind fanboys. -M Crasdan when he called me back and talked for Forry would hold court, regal- what may have been a half hour. On ing his people (and I still count myself Sci-Fi Forry’s A Jolly Good Fellow his dime. among them) with stories of Bela Lu- David Thiel, http://thielavision.com/ Perhaps the most remarkable gosi and Boris Karloff. I’m sure that he thing about Forry was the fabulous loved the attention, but still, one has to One thing that I missed during “Ackermansion,” his house in the Hol- appreciate the commitment and will- my recent spell of gastrointestinal dis- lywood outskirts in which resided a ingness to share. tress was the passing of uberfan For- massive collection of novels, photos, During my year in L.A., I had a rest J Ackerman last Thursday. Acker- movie posters and props. On most eve- couple of significant encounters with man could’ve laid claim to a significant ry Saturday afternoon for many years, Forry. I once had lunch with him, place in pop culture history for several Forry held an open house in which though I’m pretty sure that the reason reasons. He coined the term “sci-fi.” fans from all across the world visited he invited me had more to do with my As a literary agent, he represented Ray to stumble in slack-jawed awe through roommate at the time, a young woman Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft and L.