CAPTAIN FLASHBACK A fanzine composed for the 418th distribution of the Turbo-Charged Party-Animal Amateur Press Vagabond Auteur: Association, from the joint membership of Andy Director René Clair’s Life in Film Hooper and Carrie Root, residing at 11032 30th Ave. NE Seattle, WA 98125. E-mail Andy at Recent issues of CAPTAIN FLASHBACK have [email protected], and you may reach Carrie at been populated by a fascinating Frenchman at [email protected]. This is a Drag Bunt Press large in America, young German and American Production, completed on 4/21/2021. adventurers trying to break that Frenchman out of an Austrian prison, and how they joined CAPTAIN FLASHBACK is devoted to old fanzines, even more ridiculous schemes in the new French cinema, monster movie hosts, and other world. I had no particular intention of fascinating phenomena of the 20th Century. All continuing this trend, and yet found myself material by Andy Hooper unless indicated. encountering another noteworthy Frenchman Contents of Issue #29: who made an extended visit to Britain and Page 1: Vagabond Auteur: America, then returned to France to pursue Director René Clair’s Life in Film another series of remarkable creative Page 2: A Key to Interlineations in Issue #28 endeavors. In rapid succession, I discovered a Page 13: Comments on Turbo-Apa #417 pair of diverting fantasy films, then found that Page 16: Fanmail From Some Flounder Dept: they were directed by the same person; and Letters to CAPTAIN FLASHBACK. then learned that he also directed the highly Page 18: I Remember Entropy Department: successful 1945 mystery feature And Then Crime Cat Crusader” There Were None, as well as the 1935 British A comic strip by D. West comedy . Learning that Published in SNAPSHOT #1, February 2002 the same person made the landmark silent fantasy Paris Qui Dort, marketed to English- speaking countries as The Crazy Ray, I simply have to ask: Why has no one ever heard of writer and director René Clair? The man who would become René Clair was born in Paris on November 11th, 1898 and christened with the stately moniker of René- Lucien Chomette. His father was a successful soap dealer, and the Chomette family resided in the Les Halles neighborhood, which was home to the city’s most famous marketplace between the 11th Century and 1971. As young boys, René-Lucien and his older brother Henri explored every corner of Les Halles, and the picturesque people who lived and worked there would be a lifelong inspiration. He attended two respected schools, the Lycée René Clair with composer Erik Satie (seated) Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand; he on the set of Relâche in 1924. was reading philosophy when he turned 18 [Continued on Page 2] ------Issue #29, April 2021 ------

1 ------A Key to Interlineations published in March in CAPTAIN FLASHBACK #28: Page 3: “We can learn to hang drywall together. It’ll be fun.” Line from the 2019 novel Famous Men Who Never Lived by K. Chess. Clearly a work of fantasy. Page 4: “I’m so happy I have little cartoon birds flying around my head.” Sherriff Mike “Big Black” Thompson (Corey Reynolds), on the SYFY Network’s Resident Alien. Page 5: “She says the cartoon birds usually mean you’re unconscious.” Deputy Liv Baker (Elizabeth Bowen), via proxy, from Chris Sheridan’s Resident Alien. Page 6: “A person doesn’t change just because you know more.” Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli) explains her loyalties, The Third Man (1952). Page 7: “Constantinople suited me better.” A line from director Carol Reed’s original opening narration for his film The Third Man (1952). Page 8: “And now for some more of my incantational rites.” Catchphrase of the mysterious “Scorpio” on Pittsburgh station WPGH in 1976 and 1977. Page 9: “From the right distance, all movement looked like fate.” Also a line from the 2019 novel Famous Men Who Never Lived by K. Chess. Page 10: “They talk about the people and the proletariat.” & Page 11: “I talk about the suckers and the mugs – it’s the same thing.” Harry Lime () explains his world view in The Third Man (1952). Page 12: “Chess is the struggle against the error.” Attributed to chess master Johannes Zukerfort (1842-1888). ------The Vagabond Auteur reel, René-Lucien Chomette became René Continued from Page 1 Clair, a name that he would use for the rest of his professional life. and volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver at the front. Dada on Deadline René Clair appeared in a half-dozen movies René-Lucien was profoundly disturbed by the between 1920 and 1922; the most noted of horrors he observed in the First World War; these was director Jean Feuillade’s dramatic perhaps fortunately, his spine was injured in a serial Parisette in 1921. He was fascinated road accident, and by the time he was able to by all aspects of movie-making, and in 1922, drive again, the front had moved well away became the editor of a new “film supplement” from Paris. He wrote a book of shell-shocked to the monthly Théâtre et Comœdia illustrés. poetry titled La Tête de l’homme, which With an introduction from his brother Henri remained unpublished; but then began to Chomette, also a writer and director, Clair compose articles for L’Intransigeant, a one- travelled to Belgium and assisted the director time left wing daily that was slowly creeping Jacques de Baroncelli on several features in toward the right. It was an apt home for 1923 and 1924. Chomette, who was drawn to the avant-garde, but later developed an intractable nostalgia He finally got a chance to direct a project of for pre-war France that drove him toward the his own in 1924. In collaboration with sentimental and fantastic. producer Henri Diamant-Berger, he created a comic short feature titled Paris qui Dort His first involvement in the performing arts (“Paris which Sleeps”). In this story, a scientist came about through his friendship with Marie- invents a ray which freezes – paralyzes – a Louise Damien, a singer who performed under large proportion of the population of Paris, the stage name “Damia.” Chomette wrote often in embarrassing and inconvenient some song lyrics for her; impressed, if not positions. As the fraction of the city that infatuated, she persuaded him to come with remains at large comes to understand the her to Gaumont Studios during a 1920 casting situation, many of them set about call and he ended up playing the leading role systematically looting the city. in a film titled La Lys de la vie. Told that his chewy name was a trifle long for the credit

2 When the buzz around this short film became quite noticeable, Clair was approached by Francis Picabia and Erik Satie, who asked him to make a short film to be shown as part of their Dadaist ballet Relâche. (The title was a phrase meaning “cancelled” when applied to posters advertising theatrical performances, Ironically, the first performance was cancelled when principal dancer and choreographer Jean Börlin was too ill to appear.) Clair’s nonsensical short Entr’Acte starred Satie, Picabia and several other well-known avant- garde artists, and served to put him in their creative company. His next feature was a fantasy revolving around mesmerism and hypnotic suggestion, Le Fantome de Moulin-Rouge (1925). Clair adapted the screenplay from a novel by Walter Schlee, and the picture starred Albert Prejean, who had also appeared in Paris qui Dort. Prejean, Jean Börlin and ingenue Dolly Davis I Love Paris were the leads in Clair’s 1926 feature Le When sound was introduced to movies, Clair voyage imaginaire, The IMDB gives this was initially skeptical; he had no issues telling synopsis: “In a daydream, a shy bank clerk is stories without recorded sound, and regarded led by a fairy into a subterranean world where it as largely duplicating information he was people transform into animals and waxworks already communicating visually. But he also come to life. Lucie, his office crush, follows saw the potential of sound to convey him but a bad fairy is intent on keeping them information that was otherwise hidden to the apart.” viewer and to expand the environment in In 1927, Clair began working at Films which the story was told. Between 1930 and Albatros, a studio with the resources he 1933, he made four features utilizing sound, needed to make larger and more dramatic Sous les toits de Paris (“Under the roofs of stories. In 1927 he completed Le Prole du Paris”), , A nous la liberté (“Freedom Vent (“The Prey of the Wind”), and two For Us”) and Quatorze Juillet (“Bastille Day”). features in 1928, the comedy Un chapeau de All of these films featured an idealized view of paille d’Italie (“The Italian Straw Hat”) and a working-class Parisians – the people who had comic-melodrama Les Deux Timides (“Two populated his world as a child -- and an Timid Souls”). For these features, Clair wrote affection for the city that was embraced by adapted screenplays, collaborated on many audiences around the world. visual elements with designer Lazare Meerson The 1931 feature A nous la liberté has had a and supervised the editing of the film. He was particularly enduring reputation as Clair’s one of the first French directors to realize the masterpiece. The story of two convicts who role of an “auteur.” He developed a reputation escape to an odyssey that transforms them as one of the most creative directors in the into industrial magnates (and these are field and was seen as a peer of D. W. Griffith. supposed to be Clair’s realist films), it blends Charlie Chaplin and . [Continues on page 4]

------The public must always be surprised by what it expects. ------

3 ------No, Homer, very few cartoons are broadcast live. ------The Vagabond Auteur Continued from Page 3 musical comedy, social commentary and Given a figurative blank check, the billionaire visual puns and jokes that rival the work of quickly turns into an autocratic dictator with a Bugs Bunny. It still appears on many lists of crumbling grip on reality. Although the film the best 100 films ever made. now seems curiously prophetic (Donald Trump goes to Grand Fenwick), it was not well- Some of the sequences showing conveyer reviewed and failed to find an audience in belts and other machinery in the factory France. closely resemble sequences in Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 classic Modern Times. While in London to promote the British Although Chaplain and the film’s production premiere of The Last Billionaire, Clair met the team denied ever seeing A nous la liberté, prolific British film producer . Films Albatross indignantly sued them for An admirer of A nous la liberté, Korda was copyright infringement. Clair found the suit eager to have René Clair direct features in ludicrous and acknowledged Chaplin’s work Great Britain. He signed Clair to a two year as a great inspiration to him. If Chaplin had contract including the option to make up to been influenced by his work in turn, he three feature films. Considering Clair’s considered it an honor. previous record with “fairy stories” and fantasy, Korda agreed that their first picture After a decade of continuous praise, Clair together should involve something finally made a movie that was not considered supernatural. The basic premise was a success. The 1934 feature Le Dernier borrowed from “Sir Tristram Goes West,” a Milliardaire (“The Last Billionaire”) is set in a 1932 short story by Eric Keown. Because of tiny fictional European Kingdom on the verge Clair’s limited command of English, Korda of bankruptcy; in desperation, they turn to an hired the American playwright Robert impossibly wealthy tycoon for leadership. Sherwood to help him compose a script. Together, they wrote The Ghost Goes West, the story of a weary English spirit forced to confront the world of modern America. It starred Robert Donat and Jean Parker, with supporting performances by Elsa Lanchester and Eugene Pallette. The movie was very well-received by critics; Graham Greene praised Clair’s “camera sense” and the sense of “visual mobility and freedom” he created. The film was a quiet, sustained success, ranking at the 13th most popular British film of 1935-36. Unfortunately, Alexander Korda was never interested in quiet success; he lost interest in Clair after The Ghost Goes West and the other projects they had planned were never made. Clair finished only one more feature in England, the 1938 comedy Break the News, starring the dapper Jack Buchanan and gallic megastar Maurice Chevalier.

4 René Clair and Robert Sherwood had become much for her either, noting that she was good friends during their collaboration, and playing a woman of ill-repute in a city of ill- Clair had spent two weeks in the United States repute in its era of least restraint. A variety of visiting Sherwood and making contacts in the scenes were altered or excised, which was American film industry. After his contract with also a new experience for Clair. Korda expired in late 1938, René returned to Despite all the bad feelings surrounding the France, and was working on a celebration of film, it had admirers within the industry, and youth and childhood titled Air Pur when the received an Academy Award nomination for Second World War began and halted film Art Direction. production. In May of 1940, the French Information Minister asked Clair to work on Love and Witchcraft creating a new production center in the South Perhaps the relative lack of fantastic elements of France; and then a plan was floated to in was to blame for create an overseas site for the production of Clair’s poor experience with it. It took several French films, preferably in the United States. months for Clair to find another project that René was sent to America to arrange this, but suited him, and this time he was determined the project was defunded and abandoned to make himself understood. The celebrated before he arrived. American comedy director was to serve as producer, and Dalton Trumbo Undeterred, Clair travelled straight across the was to write the screenplay, country to Hollywood, where several studios were eager to hire him. His first project was The movie was , based on an with Universal and was the last of three unfinished novel by the fantasist Thorne pictures which producer had Smith. Smith’s Topper novels had been agreed to make with continental star Marlene successfully adapted for the screen by Hal Dietrich (Their first movie together, Destry Roach and Norman McLeod in 1937, with Rides Again, was one of Universal’s most sequels in 1938 and 1941. His novel The popular releases in 1939). The Flame of New Passionate Witch, completed by W. H. Matson Orleans was an antebellum comedy with a in 1941, had a cast of spirits effortlessly cast including Bruce Cabot, , preserved after death as in Topper, only these Mischa Auer and Andy Devine. Dietrich played ghosts were animated by a far more double roles as two sisters. Clair exhibited his malevolent hostility toward the living. usual control over many aspects of the film, The story opens in Salem, Massachusetts, including uncredited additions to writer where a puritan leader named Jonathan ’s script. Wooley (Wisconsin alumnus Frederic March, His lack of fluency in English made it difficult also playing his descendants Samuel, for him to help struggling star Bruce Cabot Nathaniel and Wallace Wooley) pronounces a and tore the actor apart, sentence of death on a witch named Jennifer later writing that he was “awfully stupid and () and her father Daniel (Cecil couldn’t remember his lines.” When the movie Kellaway). Before she dies, Jennifer curses failed to find an audience, most other studios Wooley and all his male heirs to marry the lost interest in René Clair. The Universal crew wrong woman and thus evade true happiness. apparently loathed working with him; Dietrich Their bodies are buried beneath a tree, which claimed that they practically ran her over apparently restrains their spirits from rebirth when the order came to strike the sets and or oblivion; instead they watch as generations wrap the production. On the other hand, of Wooley’s marry dismal, shrewish women Norman Krasna asserted that Dietrich had a and live in perpetual agitation and misery. “frozen face” and was completely incapable of [Continued on page 6] playing comedy. The Hays Office didn’t care ------It puts a terrible strain on the animators’ wrists. ------

5 ------My dear Bevis, I’ve driven a chariot with eleven horses. I’m the guy responsible for Ben Hur winning. ------The Vagabond Auteur Continued from Page 5 her. Naturally, she is fooled into drinking the potion herself, and is filled with a new resolve to help Wooley win the election. Of course, Daniel can’t let this go by; he conjures up a new body for himself, and sets out to both demolish Wallace and strip the recalcitrant Jennifer of her powers. Tempted by alcohol at Wooley’s wedding, he gets too drunk to remember a spell, and ends up locked in jail. Meanwhile, Jennifer reaches Wooley and he admits that he is really in love with her. An outraged Estelle finds them embracing and calls of the wedding, which prompts her equally outraged Father to denounce Wooley in every newspaper in the state. Unfazed, Jennifer uses every ounce of magic at her disposal, and Wooley wins the Spanish poster for I Married A Witch (1942) election by a margin of 2,335,000 to 0. Neither his opponent nor his family can bring In 1942, lightning splits the old tree in two, themselves to vote against Wooley. freeing Daniel and Jennifer to cause trouble in The lopsided result makes Wallace realize that the world again. They appear as streams of Jennifer really is a witch. And while she is too white vapor, and find refuge in various bottles, besotted with Wooley to notice, Daniel some of which are not quite empty yet. The pronounces the spell which will strip her of her latest descendant of Jonathan Wooley is powers. Bringing the couple to the tree where running for Governor and naturally, Daniel and the q\witches were once imprisoned, Daniel Jennifer are set on stopping him. She forces Jennifer’s spirit out of her body again, convinces her father to create a human body leaving Wallace next to her lifeless body, sure for her to live inside, with the goal of seducing to be charged with her death. Two plumes of candidate Wallace Wooley. The spell to white vapor appear before the tree, as Daniel resurrect her involves a large fire; Daniel prepares to trap Jennifer inside the intact therefore burns down the Pilgrim Hotel, where portion of it. But Jennifer pretends that she Wallace is staying, and Jennifer appears just has recovered her sense and asks to be in time for him to save her from the flames. allowed to gloat at Wooley’s torment. Through Wallace is engaged to marry a dreadfully some supreme force of will, Jennifer returns spoiled society girl named Estelle Masterson her spirit to Veronica Lake’s body instead; (June Hayward), whose father J.B. (Robert reanimated, she deftly caps the bottle in Warrick) happens to be Wooley’s most which Daniel planned to take his ease, important political underwriter. Breaking trapping him inside. She tells Wooley that love Wallace and Estelle up seems like the is stronger than witchcraft and declares her quickest way to Scotch his candidacy, so curse on the Wooley line to be broken. Jennifer sets out to seduce him. At first, she is Years later, Jennifer and Wallace are happily reluctant to use magic to attract him, but married with a clutch of children. In the final when he proves loyal to Estelle, she creates a scene, the housekeeper complains to them potion designed to make him fall in love with about their youngest daughter, who enters

6 and glides across the room astride the with a shortage of finished projects and housekeeper’s broom. Paramount had a surplus; and they apparently handed off their interest in René Clair at the A Witch Called Veronica same time. I Married A Witch premiered on October 30th, 1942, to quite positive reviews. Veronica Lake His next project came to Clair through another received good notices for her performance, European working in Hollywood. Arnold fearlessly strutting around in a pair of men’s Pressburger was a Jewish Austrian producer pajamas and casting spells as if that were no with nearly 50 feature credits, who had more remarkable than ordering room service. formed the major distribution company Cine She was not fond of co-star Frederic March (In Allianz with his partner Gregor Rabinovitch in a pre-production interview, he referred to her 1932. In 1936, the Nazis expropriated the as a “brainless little blonde sexpot, void of any company and forced its owners into exile. So, acting ability” and she replied that he was a Pressburger made various stops in West “pompous poseur.”), allegedly playing a European Cinema, producing The Return of variety of practical jokes on him, such as the Scarlet Pimpernel in Britain and three strapping a 40-pound sandbag to her chest in features in France, before the collaborationist a scene where March had to lift her up. Vichy government forced him to leave for Interestingly, Joel McCrea was originally America in 1940. intended to play Wooley, but opted out when His first American feature was The Shanghai Lake was cast, as he had not enjoyed making Gesture in 1941. In 1942, he produced a Sullivan’s Travels with her. wartime , with the German director In the final credits, René Clair was listed as Fritz Lang, Hangmen Also Die! And in 1944, both producer and director. First, screenwriter he produced , a fantasy Dalton Trumbo had left over differences with about a 19th Century newspaper reporter who Preston Sturges. Then Sturges left as well, but magically comes into possession of a paper Clair was still to cast a number of actors from from one day in the future. Sturges’ unofficial “stock company” in I As it is Written Married A Witch. Playwright Marc Connelly By all rights, It Happened Tomorrow should briefly worked on another draft of the have been produced and directed by the screenplay, then Robert Pirosh was hired to American film maker Frank Capra, who had create a final draft. These developments were spent some time developing it from a screen paralleled by several changes in the cast. story by Howard Snyder and Hugh Wedlock. Patricia Morrison was supposed to play When he discovered that their story shared Estelle, and Walter Abel was to play Wooley’s the same general premise as a forgotten one political adviser Dr. Dudley White. But when act play by Lord Dunsany, The Jest of Ha-Ha Joel McCrea dropped out, the delay in La Ba, Capra bought the rights to that as well. recasting Wooley allowed Veronica Lake to But Frank joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and make The Glass Key for director Stuart Heisler had to put off all work that wasn’t connected and a number of potential cast members had to documenting and winning the war. With to take on other projects. little hope of making the film before 1950, he Despite these and many other issues, the sold the rights to It Happened Tomorrow to movie was well-reviewed and drew Arnold Pressburger. respectable audiences. Clair was praised again for inventive direction and the score by Pressburger then asked René Clair to direct composer Roy Webb was nominated for an the movie. René agreed on the condition that Oscar. But Paramount traded the picture to they hire his friend , a former when that company was caught [Continued on page 8] ------If you took all the fanzines that were ever published and piled them one on top of the other, they would fall over. ------

7 ------Perhaps the earth’s crust is trying to wave to you. ------The Vagabond Auteur Continued from Page 7 Phillip Marlowe in his future. was signed to play Sylvia Smith, Stevens’ sometimes-imperiled love interest. Several veteran character actors were cast, including Jack Oakie, Edgar Kennedy, Edward Brophy, Sig Ruman and the venerable John Philiber as “Pop” Benson, who delivers the mysterious paper from the future. Philiber would die less than nine months after the movie’s premiere on March 27th, 1944. The film is wrapped in a Proustian frame; it begins with preparations to celebrate the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Great-Grandfather Lawrence and Great-Grandmother Sylvia. As children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren gather around, Great- Grandfather wants to tell the story of how he and Great-Grandmother met and were in It Happened Tomorrow married; but she cautions him that they will not believe it, that they cannot possibly reporter for the New York World and the first believe him. But the wrinkled and white-haired man to refuse an Academy Award, to write the old Dick Powell insists on telling his story screenplay. (His act was a protest calculated anyway. By setting the great majority of the to bring attention to the nascent Screen film in a flashback to the 1890s, there was no Writers’ Guild; Nichols finally accepted his need to mention the war or depict wartime award for writing the 1935 drama The conditions. (However, the picture still ends Informer in 1938.) Nichols was also with a card exhorting the audience to help nominated for his work on The Long Voyage bring about victory by buying bonds.) Home in 1940 and Air Force in 1943. His presence would help attract attention from We shift back to 1893, where a group of distributors, but Clair was also depending on reporters pine away for good stories, and his knowledge of American newspapers. As a wonder at the use of the paper’s morgues, former journalist the story also had a personal huge scrapbooks where editions from former resonance for Clair. He had lost his first job decades are kept. The ancient “Pop” Benson reporting for L’Intransigeant when he had runs the morgue and scoffs at the notion that fabricated a story at deadline that proved to news from 1843 is less worth knowing than be the opposite of what had actually the news of the present. After a lot of banter, happened. reporter Larry Stevens wishes for a copy of tomorrow’s paper, so that he could scoop his was Clair’s first choice to play the rivals at other papers. Pop agrees and slips reporter Lawrence Stevens. He probably went Larry the paper he requests. Still, it takes him through several other candidates before time to realise that he really has a newspaper settling on Dick Powell. Powell was then taking from the future. Given knowledge of an the first steps to change his image from a impending robbery, he sets out to foil it and perpetually juvenile song and dance man to a summons police to take the miscreants away. much tougher character actor, with roles But convinced that his perspicacity arises including Raymond Chandler’s private eye

8 from a conspiracy with the robbers, the police gunfight breaks out and the thief is shot and give Larry the third degree. The excitable killed. With Stevens’ wallet on him, he is Inspector Mullrooney (Edgar Kennedy) misidentified as Larry, and thus the false promises to dog Larry’s movements until he report of Stevens’ death appears in that finds proof that Stevens was “in on it” with the evening’s paper. He walks into the office just robbers. as the edition announcing his demise in blaring bold type hits the street. Another complication arises from the fact that Larry’s crush Sylvia is part of a vaudeville Larry and Sylvia are married; and the narrative mentalist act with her Uncle Oscar. Larry snaps back to the present day and the attempts to attribute his command of the gathering for their 50th Wedding Anniversary. future to her clairvoyance. But her Uncle And Great-Grandma tells Great-Grandpa that it admits to the police that their act is a phony doesn’t matter if the children believe in and his niece has no real knowledge of things miracles or not; they have had the miracle of to come. When Larry also arrives at just the their 50 years together all the same. right moment to save Sylvia from drowning in It Happened Tomorrow was certainly the most the river, it just brings more suspicion on him. personal of Clair’s Hollywood features. It had Stop the Presses! many of the things he loved most – fin de With another day, Larry asks Pop Benson for siècle costumes and settings, newspapers another future paper, and the old man and reporters, and mysterious and fantastic complies, chuckling again at his naïve elements which defy logical explanation. ambition to know tomorrow’s events. Now Critics were quietly impressed by the clever abandoning his professional ambitions, Larry fantasy and American audiences gave the film simply wants to win enough money betting on reasonable profits. The movie was nominated horse races to marry and support Sylvia. His for two Oscars, for Robert Stoltz musical score picks the winner in race after race, armed with and Jack Whitney’s sound recording. It was a a certain knowledge of the finish. He builds up remarkable success for a director who once a huge bankroll of $60,000, but then he and thought sound redundant to movie Sylvia are robbed by a masked bandit as they storytelling. drive back toward town. They chase the When the movie was released in France, an robber but get pulled over for speeding by the audience that was less than a year removed watchful police. from the lengthy German occupation was Now looking deeper into the future starving for the escapism that René Clair’s newspaper, Stevens finds two disquieting films had provided in the past. It Happened stories. One predicts his own death in a hotel Tomorrow was a huge success in Clair’s home lobby later that night. And the other reports country, and this must have only increased his the death of Pops Benson – over two days sense of homesickness, especially for his ago, before he gave Larry the first paper, let beloved Paris. alone the second! The Parting Shot, Stab and Bludgeon Larry does everything he can to avoid the As the war entered its final months, Clair place where he is supposed to die, but passed the time by directing and co-producing eventually he spots the man who stole his a movie based on Agatha Christie’s best- $60,000. (Why he would still be hanging selling novel And Then There Were None. One around is never explained.) Larry chases him of Christie’s most macabre works, the story is furiously over rooftops, until they both fall now probably familiar to most readers, having through a vent leading to the lobby where been made, remade and satirized numerous Larry is supposed to die. Because the police times, in forms ranging from Murder by Death are apparently hanging out here too, a [Continued on page 10] ------You’re the only person I know who abuses yourself as much as I do. ------

9 ------One time in a bucket and I never hear the end of it. ------The Vagabond Auteur Continued from Page 9 most of them. Another Parisian native, cinematographer Lucien Andriot, was responsible for the film’s glowering atmosphere. The final product was perhaps more fascinating than frightening, but more people went to see And Then There Were None than saw all three of his earlier Hollywood features combined. Exhibited at the 1946 Film Festival in Locano, Switzerland, And Then There Were None won a Golden Leopard award as the best film in the program, and Clair was recognized with a prize for Best Direction. By that time, Clair had returned to France, and was working on his first post-war feature, Le Silence est d’or, known in the U.S. and Britain as Man About Town. Clair wrote the screenplay himself, taking some inspiration from Moliére’s play René Clair in the 1940s, The School for Wives. to Family Guy. The basic premise is that a The film’s lead was that human group of strangers are summoned to a remote personification of French nostalgia, Maurice island off the Devonshire coast. Instructions Chevalier. This was Chevalier’s first film in left by their unseen host reveal that all of the seven years; earlier, Clair had intended the guests are guilty of murder, either directly or part for Jules Muraire, known professionally as through negligence or omission. A doctor’s “Raimu,” but that actor died unexpectedly in drunkenness had caused a patient’s death; a 1946. The setting was a French silent film judge had knowingly let an innocent man studio circa 1906, now well established as hang. One by one the guests are killed by an René Clair’s favorite moment in history, what unseen assailant, until only three remain, one he called “The Heroic Period” of French of whom feigns death in order to trick the cinema. In France, the film was received with culprit into confession. satisfaction at seeing Clair back in his element, presenting little stories and slapstick The always dependable Dudley Nichols business undertaken by Parisian salt-of-the- adapted the screenplay from Christie’s novel. earth characters. In the US, audiences were After having proved that his instincts were baffled by the film’s bilingual dialogue and sound on three pictures with temperamental probably saw a version significantly truncated casts, Clair was able to summon an from its original 106-minute running time. impressive ensemble to appear in And Then There Were None: his cast included Walter Much of what was cut from the American Huston, C. Aubrey Smith, Judith Anderson, version were passages of silence, meant to Roland Young, Louis Hayward, June Duprez, recreate the storytelling style which Clair had Mischa Auer and Barry Fitzgerald. The film learned in his early film career. Recalling the lacked the whimsical tone that had ideas behind the film, He wrote: "I am characterized his previous two projects, but convinced that in a work for the cinema the Nichols’ script included some memorable dialogue should have no more importance touches of ghoulish humor and Clair made the than it has in a novel, and that it is always

10 more worthwhile to express oneself with him through the head. What a light-hearted images than with words." romp! Beautiful Devils, Beautiful Nights Clair’s last major production was the 1961 René always worked at a rather stately pace feature Tout l’or du le Monde (“All the Gold in by the standards of the directors employed by the World.”) Lead actor Andre Raimbourg, studios on either side of the Atlantic, and he known onscreen as “Bourvil,” had a turn would complete just six more features before similar to Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or his retirement in 1965. His later films were Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets, visually sumptuous, but often set in an playing the elderly farmer Dumont and all idealized or fantastic past and generally three of his sons! The story features another revolving around relative stories of love, of Clair’s nefarious billionaires; this one courtship and rivalry. Beauté des Diable intends to acquire all the land around the (“Beauty of the Devil,” 1950) was an village of Cabosse, in order to market the interesting variation on the Faustian bargain, waters of its spring, reputed to enhance starring Michel Simon and Gerard Philipe, who longevity. was Clair’s favorite lead actor in the 1950s. Not a lot of details are available on Clair’s last He was also the lead in Les Belles du Nuit feature project, a 1965 French-Romanian epic (“Beauties of the Night,” 1952), as the comedy titled Les fêtes galantes (“The Lace impoverished piano teacher Claude, whose Wars”). Set against an 18th Century fortress dreams are full of swaggering romantic siege, it follows a soldier dispatched by a conquests. One night, the dreams turn darker, princess to find her lover somewhere in the as the many husbands, fathers and brothers besieging army. There were no supernatural of his partners come looking for revenge. He elements to the story, but the antique fortress awakens and dreads falling asleep again. But and hundreds of uniformed extras were a growing attraction to his neighbor in the apparently available at a discount in Romania. waking world, played by Magali Venduill, Silent Flickers convinces Claude to let his dream girls fade One wonders if the general stability of Clair’s back into dream. personal life enhanced the impression that he The 1955 romantic comedy Les Grandes was a conservative, academic filmmaker. He Manoeuvres was the tale of Don Juan had just one marriage, to actress Bronja transplanted to a French cavalry regiment in Perlmutter; they met while Clair was working 1909, just before the annual summer on Entr’Acte with Francis Picabia. They were deployments. Gerard Philipe played Armand, married in 1926, and she appeared in his the roguish officer who agrees to seduce a feature Le voyage imaginaire the same year. woman selected for him by lot. Their son Jean-François was born in 1927. Bronja and René-Lucien were still together The 1957 melodrama Porte des Lilas (“Gate when he died at home in 1981. of Lilacs”, known in the U.S. as “Gates of Paris”) reads like a French version of William As movements like cinema verité and the Kennedy’s Ironweed and was nominated for French “New Wave” gained in popularity. René an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Clair’s reputation withered and he came to be film. Two impoverished characters are seen as a particularly old-fashioned director. delighted at first when a wanted murderer François Truffaut was particularly harsh, takes up residence in their squat. But when writing that “René Clair makes films for old one overhears the blackguard gloating over ladies who go to the cinema twice per year.” taking financial advantage of a young girl, he He was also criticized for his preference for turns against interloper and eventually shoots [Continued on page 12] ------It was at a wedding, Linda. ------

11

------Naturally. Who ever heard of tailfins on a stfyarn? ------The Vagabond Auteur Continued from Page 11 shooting his movies on soundstages, and Happened Tomorrow and the TV series Early seldom did location shoots, even in Paris. Edition, which aired on the CBS network Taken as a whole, his work seems to be very between 1996 and 2000. In that series, the little-known today, even though some of his protagonist Gary Hobson received a paper films remain quite famous. from the future every day and was perpetually scrambling to prevent terrible mayhem from On the other hand, he received an occurring. Remarkably, none of that show’s incandescent assessment in a 1957 issue of creators had ever seen or heard of It Cahiers du Cinema devoted to the current Happened Tomorrow, just as Charlie Chaplin state of French film: “A complete film author had somehow invented sets and sequences who, since the silent era, has brought to the which closely resembled shots in A nous la French cinema intelligence, refinement, liberté without ever seeing René Clair’s film. humor, an intellectual quality that is slightly Of course, It Happened Tomorrow was based dry but smiling and in good taste.... Whatever on parallel inventions by two contemporary may follow in his rich career, he has created a screenwriters and Edward Plunkett, the 18th cinematic world that is his own, full of rigor Baron Dunsany, so coincidence should come and not lacking in imagination, thanks to as no surprise to us. which he remains one of our greatest film- makers.” All of René Clair’s English-language features are occasionally broadcast or shown on It is somewhat incongruous for an American American cable networks, with The Flame of movie fan to see a creator of fantasies like I New Orleans probably being the most Married a Witch and Beauté des Diable obscure. Clair was also one of 7 directors and referred to as “one of our greatest film- 22 writers who collaborated on the 1943 RKO makers.” American monster and sci fi fans are feature Forever and a Day, a multi- more accustomed to the work of Roger generational saga revolving around an Corman and William Castle, with the American soldier (Kent Smith) who intends to occasional taste of Howard Hawks, James sell the ancestral family home in Britain. Ruth Whale or Stanley Kubrick. Finding the playful, Warrick, better-known for her 35-year run as slightly fey I Married a Witch immediately Phoebe Tyler-Wallingford on the American followed by the frantic and affectionate It soap opera All My Children, plays Kent’s Happened Tomorrow was a revelation. cousin, who tells him the house’s 140-year American and British film fans should be history to dissuade him from selling. grateful for Clair’s work in the English language, but his French films are also This too seems like a movie I might have memorable entertainment. I doubt you have imagined, something from the late Stu ever seen anything quite like A nous la liberté, Shiffman’s wonderful “Cinema Fantasia” unless you can find a musical comedy written articles. But as far as I can determine, all the by Franz Kafka and produced by Aldous films described here, as well as René Clair Huxley. himself, are all quite real. I invite the reader to confirm this fact personally – and hope you Certainly one of the most remarkable will find Clair’s work as unexpected and elements of the story to a modern viewer is entertaining as I did. the close resemblance between Clair’s film It ------And now it gives germs ------

12 Mailing Comments on Turbo-APA #417: premise of talking trees, or orcs derived from elves, etc. One thing I would note is that Cover (Catie Pfeifer): These were both very Deagol and Smeagol, Stoor Hobbits born good. I love the colors on the front, and the between TA 2400-2430, lived in the Gladden image on the back was intricate – I didn’t Fields, on the eastern side of the Misty actually attempt to color the back of the apa, Mountains; so even if Hobbits were but it would be fun to try on a copy without the miniaturized entwives, they were not safely staples through it – is there a digital version restricted to the Shire until the last few one might print for oneself? centuries of the Third Age. And I’m not sure AFTER WORDS #46, Lisa Freitag: When I why there would be both boy and girl entwives, received my two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, I unless this whole thing is a great deal more was impressed by the sheer number of people metaphorical that I assume. who were involved in vaccinating so many of Heck, I have fond memories of bowling at the us so quickly. On both occasions, I think I was Plaza, when there was still an alley on the there for less than 40 minutes, but more than second floor. I hope the hard effort they have 50 numbers were called on the deli ticker they made to stay afloat will be rewarded with a were using to space us out. You rather long, dive-bar life in the future. minimized the experience needed to put a vaccine in someone’s arm, but I bet they were Thanks for sharing your story of mass glad to have you. introduction to sushi in the company of Jon Singer. I can imagine the look in his eye as he AFTER WORDS #47, Lisa Freitag: I was really passed a plate of something particularly exotic happy that you were able to tell us that or piquant to you, waiting to see if it was a hit William had survived his covid infection in the or a miss. I’m sure it would have been even same mailing where you told us he was sick. more intense if you had been able to sit As you said, that was by far the most likely together at the bar. The presentation of many outcome, but we still would have worried. tiny courses seems ideal for a fannish dinner, I found your review of several works of where conversation is always as much the “Science Fiction Realism” interesting. My object as getting filled up. impression is that they represent some kind of APAs thrive when there are both members polarity reversal in the field – traditionally, SF who concentrate on comments and others writers have taken pains to illustrate all the who tend to write on original topics. changes that were consequences of a given Obsessives who do both usually burn discovery or advancement. Now, the fashion themselves out after 30 or 40 years. seems to be to list all of the things that would not actually change because aliens landed OCCAM’S WHISKERS, Georgie Schnobrich: We here or time travel was invented. They draw were delighted to get the large envelope with more inspiration from Ray Bradbury or Zenna the copy of your novel Notorious Silk Ribbon in Henderson than from Phil Dick or Octavia the mail! But since I was tardily reading The Butler. The point may be that some elements Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz of human nature are immutable and human for the virtual Books Without Borders preoccupations form their own sort of discussion group, Carrie nabbed it first. She’s alternate reality. But I have a lot more to read. been literally turning pages in front of me, so I look forward to my turn. MADISON FOURSQUARE #53, Scott Custis & Jeanne Gomoll: Jeanne, your theory on the I’m glad you enjoyed the untidy history of Erich fate of the entwives was fascinating and not J. Bollman. I thought there were a number of much more difficult to accept than the [Comments continue next page.]

------You change a man’s mind by showing him a good time. ------

13 ------Don’t stir me boy, nor try to spoon. ------More Mailing Comments on Turbo-Apa #417: Kangaroo. It was for me what Sesame Street would be for my younger sisters. OCCAM’S WHISKERS, Georgie Schnobrich, continued: places where it was ready to veer into THINGS THAT BEGIN WITH V. Jim Hudson & proto-steampunk, particularly during the Diane Martin: Actually, since I have signed on to platinum-refining period. the composting plan along with Carrie, I think I’m going to have to be satisfied with a virtual And I join the rest of the membership in hoping fire-belching pyramid. I am hopeful that I can be that your back surgery was successful and that used to grow something tasty, like blueberries or you will feel better soon. heirloom black tomatoes. AN WISCONZINE, Greg Rihn: Yes, yes, yes, there It would be interesting to revisit Enterprise in are millions of African-American horror fans out order, as you wrote of doing. Yes, in retrospect there, and they are finally beginning to see more the entire Zinti conspiracy seems like it was stories that are written by and about people who written in reaction to 9/11 – until checking, I did look a bit like they do. If the modern age of not recall that the series had its premiere on horror opened with George Romero’s Night of September 26th, 2011. My favorite episodes the Living Dead, then it’s worth noting the generally had something to do with the central part played by African-American actor continuity of the Original series. Duane Jones (1937-1988), who was so memorable as the tragic protagonist of the film. Not that you or anyone axed, but: Jeffery Dean Modern horror is a more integrated genre than Morgan, now known for roles as Negan on The the Universal Classics; and we should not Walking Dead and as The Comedian in the minimize the many pleasures of Blaxploitation feature film Watchmen, played a reptilian Zinti in horror – originals like Scream, Blacula, Scream an episode of Enterprise and said that it almost and the work of latter-day auteurs like Snoop made him give up acting. The reason was the Dogg. (His 2006 anthology Hood of Horror is a hideous latex prosthetic makeup he was forced neglected and guilty pleasure). to endure for every day of shooting, which had him in tears on the way home each night. At the same time, I think everybody enjoys old, Apparently, the current productions use lighter- whitey horror movies on a campy level – and weight components cased in foam, so actors who wouldn’t like putting on a fez and a pair of seldom have to sit for hours with a five-pound sunglasses and talking shit about Joan Crawford pile of latex over their head, breathing through a and Maya Angelou, like Dr. Sarcofiguy? I ‘m still pair of plastic straws jammed up their nostrils. surprised that there have not been more horror hosts of color, and I hope that will soon change. I wondered if reprinting that piece from PROPER BOSKONIAN would trip the switches of memory You’re absolutely right, the decision to abandon for you. Isn’t that a quaint idea, to publish an the carriage was probably the biggest mistake impressive club fanzine in order to demonstrate which Bollman made in his effort to break de la your fitness to present a World Convention? Fayette out of jail. At the very least, they should have used it to get some distance away so they KN, Kim & Lucy Nash: Good thoughts sent on could brief de la Fayette on the entire plan. Kathy’s resolve to “organize” her garden. I Leaving the escort at large was also a mistake – reflected briefly that it’s true, what the garden at the very least, they should have been made to needs is a union, so bossy hummingbirds and ride some further distance away from the moles can’t push the plants around anymore. fortress with the rescuers before they were The clock is running fast here, because the released. We must conclude that Bollman’s 18th morning glory seems to be coming on very, very Century tradecraft was deficient. early and threatens to cover the Earth by the end of May. I hope each of the cold snaps that I loved your piece on your personal history with my parents mention in our weekly phone calls ballet, and especially the opportunity to recall have set the mosquito population back as well… my own memories of watching Captain

14 Congrats on getting your second shots. My Very blue skies on your first nature walk of the immunity will supposedly be ready for harvest on year. One of the things that seems to be April 26th, the day before Carrie’s birthday, so changing about our climate is we get a span of I’m pushing to think of someplace to go. We’re two to three weeks of dry weather in the middle feeling just as cautious as anyone else, but I of spring, when we used to have solid rain from keep pointing out that we got the vaccine so we March to May. It makes for firmer footing on our would have freedom to go places and see walks but I wonder what impact it is having on people. With masks, of course. The one mask- flowers and fruit. Dandelions like it a lot. free activity that I cannot wait to return is AT LEAST WE HAVE WINDOWS, Jim & Ruth swimming; still no idea when our pool at Nichols: Jim, I enjoyed the many thematic Meadowbrook will reopen. possibilities of “So You Rented an Apartment in SONOVA QUARK, Steven Vincent Johnson: Dreamland” – I’m sure H.P. Lovecraft never Charm seems to be a primarily nocturnal hunter, considered that the dreaming streets of Ulthar which leads to a lot of mice being dispatched could be the answer to a real estate shortage in and relatively few birds. Housecats seem to the waking world. One good thing is you know have a specialty in either day or nighttime your landlord would allow cats. ambush, which determines what sort of little The conspicuous consumption argument has critters they hunt. We have been blessed with a been used against cemeteries and golf courses dedicated mouse and rat hunter who came to for as long as I have been alive, but I’ve always live next door about 6 or 7 years ago, and the enjoyed sneaking into them, and those long, pesty population plummeted on her watch. wasteful lawns pump out a lot of oxygen. If the One can only agree that you picked the wrong idea of having a big rock with your name on it or pandemic to stop sniffing glue. It is always good a bench overlooking the parking lot doesn’t to read of progress in your emotional repair work speak to you, I’m sure that wish will be and to see your sense of humor unbowed. respected. How about a Jim Nichols memorial capo or commemorative microphone stand? ADVENTURES OF DA BUNNY N’ BEAR, J.J. Brutsman & Tom Havighurst: I liked your THE HOUSE ON KRAMER CREEK, Carrie Root: interlineations. Fun to see someone else in the Your picture of me was funny – I looked like an APA make a stab at my primary art form. exhausted old Sandinista with my face covered and the rest of me swaddled in anti-blackberry Plaza burgers were the ideal accompaniment to attire. I keep wondering why can’t raspberries a big schooner of Point and a Johnny Cash song spread as effectively as blackberry? We might on the jukebox. They were dive burgers for a dive put up with those terrible thickets if they were bar. My favorite burger in Madison was Dotty studded with raspberries in June. Dumplings, back when they were on Monroe and then Regent, and a meal cost less than a pair of I wonder if George R. R. Martin deserves the shoes. All these cookies you share have the credit for your now much more extensive same effect on me – I want to go up to the Mar-T knowledge of Tudor-period England? Seeing that diner for Dale Cooper’s favorite cherry pie…. Game of Thrones was based in large part on events in the War of the Roses, it is easy to The mixed memory of your grandmother’s fired conclude that is why series like The Spanish chicken and visiting the family graves was quite Princess were made. I don’t know if that wonderful. This is one reason why I have mixed explains why Seattle’s Little Free Libraries have feelings about getting composted; but I figure contained so many volumes related to bluff some of my ancestors in Madison will need a Kings and lost Princes, but anything that isn’t by replacement marker soon, and there are some John Grisham or Tom Clancy stands out. I look examples of the descendant who buys the new forward returning to some of the LFL’s we visited marker putting their name on it, too. So I might last summer to see what they have now. get a new stone for my great-great-grandfather Harry and sign my name at the bottom. ------Don’t sugar me ‘cause us is throon. ------

15

------News is what happens. ------Fanmail From Some Flounder Department: My loc…we are now recovered from COVID-19, Letters to CAPTAIN FLASHBACK and we each have our first Astra-Zeneca shots in us. We still mask up, use our sanitizer, and Lloyd Penney self-distance. You are right, we are our own 1706-24 Eva Road curators, but as I heard on television this Etobicoke ON morning, and in several places, there is a fine CANADA M9C 2C2 line between collecting and hoarding, and [email protected] many of us tread that line carefully. Collecting is hoarding, but putting everything on shelves, th April 9 , 2021 in some semblance of order. (I wasn’t the only Dear Andy and Carrie: one to respond, was I?) Thank you kindly for issue 28 of Captain Read and enjoyed EGO 9, but no real Flashback, on horror hosts and more. I think comments on it, except to say that it certainly there’s been horror-style programming, often comes from a different era. I think I may be in a humorous vein, in lots of places. I will try done for the nonce. We have been kept busy my best to comment on that as soon as I delivering orders of various fabrics from one of finish this paragraph… the better-known costumers in southern And come in with the new one. Being in Ontario, and our prize is a mountain of fabrics Toronto, I sure do remember the Hilarious for Yvonne to place in order (back to the House of Frightenstein that came out of collecting/hoarding conundrum…FABRIC: The CHCH-TV, Channel 11 in nearby Hamilton, Gathering, She who dies with the most fabric many years ago, and it has had a revival of WINS!, etc.), and we are praying that our remembrance by many. Billy Van and a host of apartment has a little bit of TARDiS in it, and crazies put this together, and I think we some space will magically open up discussed this in a previous loc. Now, when it somewhere close to the sewing machine. comes to Pittsburgh…Ricky Dick has been Thank you for this issue, and I will keep involved in costuming and masquerades for checking with Mr. Burns for the next one. some time, I believe, but he is Gravely Yours, Lloyd Penney. Macabre, and operates Castle Blood in Pittsburgh. His lovely lady, Dawn McKechnie, [APH – I should have anticipated that at some is originally from here, and she competed in point you would be personally acquainted with many of the masquerades held here, and we one or more modern horror hosts, since they miss her terribly! Ricky and Dawn have come have such an interest in costuming. Only a to the Toronto area, especially when there handful of readers have said that they never watched a horror broadcast at any point in their were a couple of Costumecons up here. lives and almost everyone can recall at least one I see we are losing more friends to COVID-19. such character from some point in their TV About two weeks ago, we lost Montreal watching history. I think there are something in fannish mainstay Sylvain St-Pierre, and his excess of 600 horror hosts documented on the “E- mother Eva, to this virus. Tomorrow, we will be Gor” online index, but I keep discovering more joining a special Zoomcast from the Montreal that are not listed there, many that have been on SF&F Association, to remember Sylvain, and the air – or Web – in the past 15 years. examine what impact on Montreal and Yesterday was the late John Bangsund’s Canadian fandom his loss will have. We birthday, another fan whom we lost to COVID- should have about 6 million doses for COVID- 19 in 2020. But I think Sylvain St. Pierre may 19 arriving in Canada within the next couple of have been the most active fan to die of the weeks; I wish Sylvain had had one of these in disease to date. All sympathies to his many him. friends in Montreal fandom.]

16 enough that I can just manage an hour Jerry Kaufman working. (I still have not tried to drive our new [email protected] Prius.) But I'm starting to work on the ivy and February 9th, 2021 blackberries that grow along our street on the north side, behind, under, and over the Thanks for sending us the pixels for Cap'n guardrail. So I am a one-person Friend of Flashback. I'm glad you got around to Bill Littlebrook. Cardille and the other Pittsburgh area hosts. One thing you didn't mention about Cardille - I am glad that Lloyd wrote you a good letter of and this may not have turned up in your comment, I was amused by the story of "Clod" research - was that he created a mythical by Bill Myers and enjoyed the small drawings Pittsburgh subway system, with reports on its by our various friends. Especially like Ulrika's construction and operations. Suzle told me sketch on page 16, Stu's pirate hare on 18. about this; it seems one of the engineer fans [APH – I got rather ridiculously busy after in WPSFA created fake credentials showing he suggesting the idea of a pre-Vanguard literary was an engineer for the system. He used salon, but it still seems like a fun idea. I’m not these to get private of at least one real sure if I am likely to be able to fit another book system in another city. (She’s also mentioned in on a monthly basis. that a couple of WPSFA members got to be And I’m sorry I actually forgot that story about extras in Night of the Living Dead.) Bill Cardille’s imaginary subway system under For a while, one of the Seattle channels (not Pittsburgh, and no one mentioned it in the one of the commercial stations, though) ran B references I read. But I’m glad you took the time to share it, as I really did want a few more pictures hosted by a fellow who billed himself examples of his humor, beyond Bill Cardille as a "Professor." I caught his program a Tuxedos. I also encountered the mysterious couple of times when I was randomly flipping “Professor” and his broadcast on occasion, but through the 50-59 tranche. He didn't restrict the sound quality was always terrible and I himself to sf and horror but showed all sorts. found it a challenge to tell what he was saying.] As I never saw a schedule for his show, I probably missed a few cultic pleasures. In Steve Bieler more sent years, I've noticed that he [email protected] sometimes conducts classes through North March 24th, 2021 Seattle College's Continuing Education Program - you pay $79 or so to see ten [APH – Steve replied to my email header, which schlock classics. characterized Bill Meyers’ “Clod” as “racy” and “sleazy”:] If you and Carrie do start a Zoom book club as The two words I would use are “sad” and you describe, let me know. Perhaps it's time to “repressed”! I also think on some godforsaken resurrect Babble-17? job I worked with Clod Hall’s offspring. Like I have a favorite gin, but it's mainly out of father like son. Pass the tanning butter and the enthusiasm for the tour we took of the belly dancer. distillery in Plymouth, not from having [APH – Please, Monsieur, a gentleman refers to sampled enough varieties to develop a the art as “le danse du ventre.” It is quite a trick favorite in the usual way. Saves a lot of reconciling the character portrayed by Bill trouble that way. Meyers with the revered journalist and industry sage that you’ll find in his online memorials and Somewhere in this issue you mention the testimonials. But just as Lloyd knows all the Friends of Kramer Creek. I've decided to stay costumers in Pittsburgh, I should have known close to home instead of coming to another you’d be one step removed from Claude Hall.] work session. I get pretty worn out by the walk, ------Time is only an illusion. ------

17 ------The Horror Host of the Month will Return in May! ------I REMEMBER ENTROPY DEPARTMENT the dead and tell me how hopelessly wet CAPTAIN FLASHBACK is. “Crime Cat Crusader” Ian Sorenson published this comic strip in the first by D. West issue of his fanzine SNAPSHOT in February, 2002. Originally published in SNAPSHOT #1 (Victor Gonzalez published it first, in his fanzine SQUIB #5 in March of 2009. But Victor used a February, 2002 mauve-gray paper that made it hard to scan his edited by Ian Sorenson version.) Sorenson published seven issues of this entertaining personal fanzine between February 2002 (This comic strip was created in late 2001 and early and April 2006. Issues were composed for initial hand 2002 by the late Don West (1945-2015), known distribution at conventions, usually Novacon or universally in fandom as D. West, at the instigation Eastercon, and often featured reports on Corflu, that of Seattle fan impresario Victor Gonzalez. D. West most fanzine-happy of cons. had an unparalleled facility for portraying fans in Fans caricatured in “Crime Cat Crusader” include his art, in immediately recognizable personal Gary Farber, Victor Gonzalez, Andy Hooper and Ted caricatures and savagely satirical archetypes. He had White, with Avedon Carol, Rob Hansen and D. a uniquely bitter attitude toward fandom but was also himself, at the bar, naturally. disarmingly sweet in sharing his art with fumbling fan editors, whom he was ever willing to offer Meanwhile, I have half a page that needs filling, and correction and guidance. He was also probably the thought I might share something from one of the funniest fan artist of the past fifty years, as well as 1940s fanzines that I have been auctioning in the past one of the most intelligent writers on the subject of week. See if you can guess who lies behind that zinc- fandom and fanzines. Although he passed away 6 plated pseudonym before the end. years ago, I’m still slightly worried he will rise from ------“Oil for the Lamps of Futuria: Now we do have such a thing as synthetic oils Deadline for Civilization” and vegetable oils. But for many uses they By Braxton Wells simply cannot take the place of the natural heavy oil. The Nazis found that out; they’ve still During the past year we have been deluged with got to have the real McCoy for the results, a regular epidemic of science fiction ad writing. I though they’ve been squeezing juice out of mean those ads that keep turning up in all the everything including peanuts and babies. And big magazines and daily newspapers showing they are just about at their oil line’s end today. what things are going to be like after the war. So we go on and fight our way through to victory, You know, the super-airplanes, the helicopter in And we find we’ve got maybe 10 years of oil left every pre-fabricated garage, the 100 m.p.h. for all these super super projects the rest of this teardrop flivver, the stuff we fans have been century and a thousand after it. Then what? reading about for fifteen years. Well, it all Back to the horse and buggy? sounds very swell. But we’ve been thinking. But of course that’s not the real answer. The real And what we’ve been thinking about is this: answer is that humanity now has maybe fifteen where are we going to get the oil for all these years at most to get the problem of atomic things? You see, various officials have told us, power and transmutation of elements licked, in the people, that this is going to be a long war harness, and producing. We can no longer take and a tough one. And consulting our own crystal our time – we’ve got a new deadline. It’s solve ball, we are inclined to agree with the that problem or,,,or else. gentlemen. Now it so happens that the total oil reserve of the U.S. is good for something like only 25 years more at the present rate of (An editorial by Donald A. Wollheim under the expenditure. And our rate of burning oil is rising pseudonym “Braxton Wells,” THE PHANTAGRAPH plenty – new weapons of war, better and faster Volume 11, Number 2, October 1944): airplanes – all that means more and more gas being consumed in shorter and shorter times.

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