CAPTAIN FLASHBACK A fanzine composed for the 420th distribution of the Turbo-Charged Party-Animal Amateur Press Award Lore of Yore: Association, from the joint membership of Andy George C. Willick and the Misty Origins th Hooper and Carrie Root, residing at 11032 30 Of the Faan Awards Ave. NE Seattle, WA 98125. E-mail Andy at [email protected], and you may reach Carrie at The Fan Activity Achievement Awards are 27 [email protected]. This is a Drag Bunt Press years old this year. Or 46 years old. Or possibly Production, completed on 6/9/2021. 60 years old; it all depends on what you consider to be the actual birth date of the CAPTAIN FLASHBACK is devoted to old fanzines, honor. The current series was initiated by Arnie garage bands, monster movie hosts, and other fascinating phenomena of the 20th Century. All and Joyce Katz at the first Las Vegas Corflu in material by Andy Hooper unless indicated. 1995 and awards have been issued at every subsequent Corflu. But Arnie acknowledged Contents of Issue #31: that he was trying to resume the series of Page 1: Award Lore of Yore: awards that were created by Moshe Feder, The Fan Achievement Awards of 1962 Linda Bushyager and other fanzine fans in Page 2: A Key to Interlineations in Issue #30 Page 9: Comments on Turbo-Apa #419 1975. These were presented at different Page 16: of the Month: conventions for six years, 1975 to 1980, , the Cool Ghoul before a variety of issues delayed and Page 19: Fanmail from some Flounder Dept. ultimately cancelled the 1981 awards. 15 Letters to CAPTAIN FLASHBACK years would pass before someone would again Page 22: I Remember Entropy Department: volunteer all the work involved in collecting Editorial by George C. Willick, nominations, mailing a final ballot, then tallying First published in PARSECTION #5, April 1961 and publicizing the results. Although the 2021 Corflu, the con sponsoring 2021 Fan Activity Achievement Awards: the awards, is delayed until November, the Best Genzine: PORTABLE STORAGE awards for 2021 were announced in March at edited by Bill Breiding a well-attended ceremony held online. Jerry Best Perzine: THIS HERE, Kaufman was a fine Master of Ceremonies. Nic edited by Nic Farey Farey administered the awards with ferocious enthusiasm and gathered ballots from 47 Best Fan Artist: Ulrika O’Brien interested parties – an encouraging total given Best Fan Writer: Claire Brialey that the convention now only rarely has more fans than that in attendance. The winners of Harry Warner Jr. Award: Mark Plummer this year’s awards are listed in a handy box to Best Special Publication: OUTWORLDS 71, the left, under this issue’s Table of Contents. Bill Bowers, Jeanne Bowman, Pat Virzi, et al And recently Australian fanzine researcher Kim Best Fanzine Cover: Huett has confirmed that at least one fan tried BEAM #15 by Sara Felix to create an award with a remarkably similar Best Website: Fanac. Org, title, focused on fans and fanzines, in the Joe Siclari, Edie Stern, Mark Olson, Andy Porter spring of 1961! This effort did not result in any such awards being given in 1961 or 1962; but [Continued on Page 2] ------Issue #31, June 2021 ------

1 ------A Key to Interlineations published in May in CAPTAIN FLASHBACK #30: Page 3: “What kind of a dish was she? The sixty-cent special - cheap, flashy, strictly poison under the gravy.” Det. Sgt. Walter Brown (Charles McGraw) describes Marie Windsor in The Narrow Margin (1952). Page 4: “I told you to go away, Martins.” & Page 5: “This isn’t Santa Fe, I’m not a Sherriff and you’re not a cowboy.” Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) plays hard-to-get with novelist Holly Martins, The Third Man (1949) Page 6: “The 50 cents was a better bid than the first we had at the auction.” & Page 7: “It was for 14 cents, a live frog and two marbles.” Horror host Dr. Bela Zarbo describes bids received for an evening in his company at a 1971 charity auction. Page 8: “The Fanzine of the Between Meal Snack.” Interlineation published by John Purcell in ENNUI #1, July 1982. Page 9: “Are you sure this discussion of TAFF isn’t taking place in Swedish?” Janice Eisen queries Richard Bergeron in her August 1988 FAPA fanzine ELECTRIC CITY EXPRESS. Page 10: “The Fanzine for All Ages and Sizes.” Interlineation, John Purcell, ENNUI #2, August 1982. Page 11: “We are a fully operational Death Star.” Attributed to New York Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman, 2018. Page 12: “The Fanzine with a Song in its Heart.” Interlineation, John Purcell, ENNUI #3, November 1982. Page 13: “Who Needs Need Needs Nothing” Interlineation published by Dick Eney, PHENOTYPE, November 1982. Page 14: “I made a speech denouncing dumb formula fantasy trilogies and read from a recent terrible example…” & Page 15: “…whereupon everybody ran out to the huckster room and bought copies.” Bob Silverberg in his FAPA fanzine SNICKERSNEE, August 1988 Page 16: “And crawling on the planet’s face, some insects called the human race.” Lines from closing narration by Criminologist Charles Gray, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). ------Award Lore of Yore: official history of the Worldcon or the Hugo [Continued from page one]: Awards. Huett had to look in contemporary sources to find references to Willick and his I think editor George C. Willick eventually plans. This meant reading the fanzines of the accomplished his larger goal, which was to moment, frequent news fanzines like Larry see more recognition of fans and their work at and Noreen Shaw’s AXE and Walter Breen’s the annual World SF Convention, and FANAC, club-sponsored genzines like CRY OF specifically as part of the Hugo Awards. When THE NAMELESS and SHANGRI L’AFFAIRES and the Best Fan Artist and Best Fan Writer Willick’s own title, PARSECTION. categories were added in 1967, half of Willick’s proposed awards became part of the This provides a particularly fannish official program. This was probably more perspective on events before and between the desirable than a wider slate of separate but 1961 and 1962 World Conventions in Seattle equal awards presented before or abaft of the and Chicago. Huett amply documents Hugo Award for Best Fanzine, which was fandom’s reaction to Willick’s ideas, which essentially what Willick’s Fan Achievement seemed to range from guarded ambivalence Awards were intended to be. to bemused skepticism. (There were exceptions; John Trimble claimed that there In Sometime Before the Beginning, Kim Huett were not enough words in English or summarizes his search for details on George Esperanto to express his enthusiasm for the Willick’s 1961-1962 campaign, a search awards.) inspired by his discovery of a copy of Willick’s Fan Achievement Award nominating ballot, Degler Country sent to as many as 1,000 fans in 1961. Fans Willick seemed to be torn by conflicting in 2021 seemed to have no knowledge of the impulses. He wanted to gather ideas (and 1961 ballot. The awards were never votes) from as many fans as possible, but presented, and they are not mentioned in any prone to unilateral announcements and was

2 suspected of manufacturing support for his the award? With no further details given, it plan. Because he appeared to operate in sounds like an answer offered by someone relative isolation in Southern Indiana and already responsible for casting the Hugo depended on correspondence for regular Awards and possessing no desire to add more contact with fandom, his demand to be heard work to his to-do list. in the debate over fan/pro egoboo struck While the award’s design was a clear no, some as eccentric. F. M. Busby even referred many people were intrigued by the idea of to him as “bucking for a starring role in the more awards for work by fans. So, Willick Second Coming of Degler,” a reference to the cheerfully abandoned the proposed design for notorious liar and small-time grifter Claude the award, and announced the recipients Degler, whose fanciful “Cosmic Circle” did so would receive a testimonial plaque instead. much to vex and amuse fans of the 1940s. He also announced that the Fan Achievement Willick reinforced this impression by Awards would also be known as the “Forrys,” announcing a Committee to supervise the in homage to the legendary Forrest J awards including Ben Jason, Len Moffatt and Ackerman. Predictably, Ackerman was willing Roy Tackett, who all quickly denied they had to give his blessing to this idea. Willick offered Willick anything beyond informal announced a slate of five awards to be advice. received at the 1962 Worldcon in a January, Willick intended for the physical award to be a 1962 press release, and a nominating ballot cast sculpture based on a Dave Prosser was distributed with issue #20 of AXE. drawing adapted from an Ed Emshwiller cover People continued to discuss the value of the for Infinity . The image of a proposed awards and Willick’s conduct in nude woman with outstretched arms and a promoting them as the weeks ticked by and dagger clutched in each hand struck fans as the 1962 convention grew closer. But the quizzical at best, and many objected to the promised final ballot never appeared. And idea of handing out a piece of nude art in a when Chicon III took place, there was no sign room populated by a number of under-age of George Willick or his Fan Achievement fans and Gertrude Carr. (My favorite comment Awards. came from Sid Coleman, who thought all it needed was a clock in its belly.) Willick addressed the reasons for this in personal (but not private) correspondence, Ben Jason seemed to close the debate by blaming the expense involved in attending opining that the finished product would cost Chicon III and commissioning the award $1,800 to $2,000, simply out of the question plaques plus the need to answer criticism of in 1961. Did Jason’s estimate refer to one the awards. Once Willick was no longer in award, five or six awards, or merely the expense of preparing the tooling used to cast [Continued on page 4] ------You are my work of art, Homer. ------

3 ------Simple though love is ------Award Lore of Yore: [Continued from page 3]: charge, other fans formed the committee that conduct a poll on the best work of 1964 he would have needed to make the Fan through their fanzine FOCAL POINT. 33 FOCAL Achievement awards a reality. Charles Wells, POINT readers picked YANDRO as Best publisher of fanzines including CADENZA, HEX Fanzine and THE DISCON PROCEEDINGS tied and THE QUATT WUNKERY for FAPA, took up with something called “THE GREAT RAYBURN the Awards, but abandoned the idea of DOGDIDDLE” as Best Single Issue. Walt Willis presenting them at the World Convention. The was chosen Best Fan Writer again, but Steve 1963 Fan Achievement Awards were Stiles broke ATom’s grip on Best Fan Artist. conducted as a poll, with a single round of 1966 saw a similar absence of activity, and voting, and results announced in June. McInerny announced an intention to conduct Fading in the Polls another poll, but folded FOCAL POINT before a Balloting was complicated by Wells’ failure to ballot was distributed. The following year, the include a voting deadline, and a broken hip Hugo Awards expanded to include citations for suffered by distributor Harry Warner Jr. (That’s Best Fan Writer and Best Fan Artist, and the how old Harry Warner Jr. was – he managed to demand for a specific set of awards to break a hip in 1963.) But 47 fans still recognize fanzine activity was temporarily registered their preferences, a total satisfied. It would return in the 1970s, with remarkably close to the number of ballots the growing conviction that fanzine fandom received in 2021! Richard Bergeron’s represented a special sub-culture distinct WARHOON was voted best fanzine and A from the thousands that attended the World SENSE OF FAPA best single issue. Arthur Convention. “ATom” Thomson was voted both Best Fan This sequence of awards chosen by popular Artist and Best Cartoonist, while his close vote, both real and only proposed, seems like friend Walt Willis received Best Column, Best it has to be acknowledged as part of the Fan Writer and Fan Face #1 for receiving the evolutionary ancestry of the modern FAAn most votes overall, Awards. All of them shared an emphasis on Richard Eney won an award in 1963 for fanzines and their creators that continues to editing A SENSE OF FAPA and became the motivate modern voters and administrators. primary organizer for the Fan Achievement There were many polls of fannish favorites Award Poll in 1964. He had far better luck in which preceded these, and LOCUS – which did spreading the ballot throughout fandom and so much to stimulate interest in awards for doubled the number of voters participating, “faanish” fanzines by dominating the Hugo with 93 ballots registered. The Coulson’s Award – conducted its 51st Annual Poll earlier YANDRO was Best Fanzine and Bowers and this spring. (The FANAC and SKYRACK polls Mallardi’s DOUBLE:BILL #7 was Best Single were contemporary with the Willick/Wells/ Issue. Arthur Thomson won again as Best Fan Eney Fan Achievement Awards, which is one Artist, and Walt Willis was both Best Fan reason why many felt the awards redundant.) Writer and Fan Face Number One. But for all that fans tend to sneer at each new A committee including Terry Carr, Bill Donaho, award when it arises, we must actually love Bruce Pelz, Wally Weber and Charles Wells them, judging by our persistent willingness to agreed to take on the job of running the poll in vote for them. 1965. But the spring and summer of 1965 Where George Went passed without any ballots. Wally Weber was Huett details all of this very succinctly in apparently the chair of the committee; in any Sometime Before the Beginning and shares a event, it was he who gratefully accepted an series of quotes from the fanzines he used to offer from Mike McInerny and rich brown to

4 trace the story. He even shares the more interesting parts of the 1965 FOCAL POINT Poll, where it was fun to see the young Ross Chamberlain, Arnie Katz and Hank Luttrell in the results for “Best New Fan.” I think he did a remarkable job of determining the provenance of that mysterious Fan Achievement Awards ballot with Roy Tackett’s return address. The one element which left me feeling curious was the fate of George Willick, who disappeared in the middle of his determined effort to present the awards at the 1962 World Convention. A letter from Willick to F. M. Busby in October, 1961 had the return address of Avram Davidson’s apartment in New York City, and AXE repeated a rumor that he was taking a new job there. Huett theorizes that the demands of moving from Madison, Indiana to and taking a new job George C. Willick in the 1980s were enough to make the ardently fannish threatening, sufficient to move a Chicago Willick gafiate. judge to order Berry confined to a mental Huett is reluctant to draw much attention to institution for evaluation in 1960. an act which brought Willick further notoriety, Berry was released after only about three but I think it likely explained his failure to weeks and apparently avoided further court attend Chicon III. appearances. But he did not abandon his Willick’s fanzine PARSECTION had announced obsession with Earl Kemp. In the spring of itself with a series of articles and editorials on 1962, he sent George Willick a lengthy the decline of the traditional SF pulps, asking manuscript entitled “A Trip to Hell,” which what was likely to replace them. He received presented Berry’s view of his exchanges with contributions from Horace Gold, Don Wollheim Kemp, and among other things, alleged that and Gordon R. Dickson. He published short Kemp and Harlan Ellison had robbed him at fiction by Kate Wilhelm and Harlan Ellison. gunpoint on the streets of Chicago on Labor Roger Ebert, then an undergraduate at the Day, 1958. (Both men were in Los Angeles at University of Illinois, contributed fanzine the 1958 Worldcon at the time.) reviews. Joe Hensley, a future pro who was It is hard to imagine what George Willick made also a resident of Madison, contributed a of this screed – perhaps he thought it was a column on the legacy of fellow Indiana native novel form of faan fiction – but he was Claude Degler, making F. M. Busby’s sufficiently fascinated that he accepted and comparison of Willick and Degler a trifle ironic. planned to publish it. Still, he thought it Willick had also accepted some material from prudent to share a copy with Earl Kemp prior comic artist and author D. Bruce Berry, to publication, to see what his reaction was. apparently unaware of the vendetta which Kemp’s reply came from the attorney that Berry had pursued against editor Earl Kemp, represented both him and the Chicon, his family, his friends and his casual [Continued on page 6] acquaintances. Berry’s letters to Kemp and others were rambling, distracted and ------Still it confused me ------

5 ------A small man can be as exhausted as a great man. ------Award Lore of Yore: [Continued from page 5] promising legal action in response to “A Trip to employed in some capacity at the Jefferson Hell,” and counselling Willick to have nothing Proving Ground, a large facility operated by to do with Berry. Willick returned the the U.S. Army Materials Command and manuscript to its author, but Berry promptly located just outside of town. sent it on to FADEAWAY editor Robert George grew up in Madison, and attended Jennings, who agreed to publish and release it Madison High School, graduating with the on the weekend of Chicon III. I don’t know if class of 1955. His yearbook entry featured the Willick was aware of Berry’s subsequent epigram “Music is the Poetry of the Air.” In his plans, but I don’t blame him for staying away freshman and sophomore years he was on the from the convention in any event. When the bowling team and ran track. As a junior and chair of the convention sends you a cease- senior, he was a member of the Science Club. and-desist letter, it has to dampen your enthusiasm for being there. But if his Willick’s family likely lacked the means to subsequent object was gafiation, New York send him to college, and he does not seem to City would be an odd place to look for it. By have been the kind of superlative student that the 1960s, fans were scattered in cities and earns scholarships. But he was able to find a college towns all over the country, but Los source of steady employment, as well as a Angeles and New York still had a greater certain amount of free technical training by concentration of fans than any other locations joining the United States Air Force. He was in North America – even Seattle! Did George inducted on February 29th, 1956 and would C. Willick really move to New York City, home serve until honorably discharged on February of publishers, Fanoclasts and Lunarians, in 28th, 1962. Most of his time in the service he order to escape from Fandom? was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado, a major training center that was the To answer this question, I felt I had to learn first site of the Air Force Academy. However, had happened to George Willick after the Willick seems to have been singularly lacking summer of 1962. in any ambition to be an Air Force officer; after Madison on the Ohio six years he had not advanced beyond the George Clifford Willick was born on May 1st, rank of Airman Second Class. 1937, the son of George Joseph Willick and So, as Willick was furiously publishing 9 issues Oleata Violet Martin Willick, of Madison, of PARSECTION between September, 1960 Indiana. The elder George was a woodworker and September, 1961, then forming a rump in a factory that manufactured wheel spokes, committee to present the Fan Achievement and a native of Madison, while Oleata was Awards, he was actually living hundreds of born in Oklahoma. The couple’s second son miles away from Indiana and serving in the James was born about six years later in 1943. U.S. Air Force, probably at Seymour Airbase in Madison is located on the Ohio River, at the North Carolina. Early issues of PARSECTION extreme southeastern corner of the state of were actually produced by Lynn Hickman, Indiana. The population of the city was just which required Willick to make several “800- under 12,000 in 2010. It may have been mile weekend trips” to Illinois. The Madison slightly larger at the end of the 19th Century, mailing address was Willick’s family home. when Madison’s workshops turned out tens of Willick made it clear he was not the typical thousands of saddle trees, the wooden frames teen-aged fanzine publisher in his editorial for that gave riding saddles their structure. The #2, which set the subscription rate at $1.00 factory that employed George J. Willick was a or 4 packs of Parliament cigarettes in vestige of that industry. Within a few years, a majority of Madison’s adult workers would be

6 exchange for 8 issues. Those who sent money before #3 was published would see 7 more issues for their buck, a better value than offered by many publishers. It’s in the Air, Man George was one of several fanzine fans to serve in the U.S. Air Force in the late 1950s & early 1960s, including Norm Metcalf, Tom Armistead and rich brown. He was also an enthusiastic observer of UFO investigations and claimed to have made his own sighting, which might be one reason he didn’t care to have letters of comment delivered to him at the airbase. He referred to observations made with fellow fan Len Rich while stationed in Denver which convinced him “there could be 100 big, bellowing balloons within a ten thousand feet maximum range and you would Elberta Jane Wayman Willick not see any!” as a high school freshman, 1959. It is interesting that Willick stopped publishing not have returned for what would have been PARSECTION right at the moment his her senior year. ambitions for the Fan Achievement Awards were becoming particularly grand. Having his (Tragically, the only page missing from the own fanzine to present his arguments and entire run of PARSECTION scanned and publicize the ballot would have been of posted at fanac.org is the front cover and significant value to Willick in 1962. Producing editorial for issue #4 from February 1961, the a fanzine was a hobby well-suited to the life of first issue after he and Elberta were married. If an enlisted man living on a base hundreds of anyone reading this can help us address this miles from home, friends and family. It omission, please write to me!) addressed the need for contact with people These circumstances are a little unusual, but outside of the service and gave them an there is no indication that the marriage was engrossing pastime that filled potentially accelerated by a pregnancy. The Willicks were lonely off-duty hours. a Catholic family and George and Peachie However, there are some needs that cannot would have a fruitful union indeed, with six be addressed by an issue of YANDRO or a healthy girls born between 1963 and 1980. letter from Harry Warner Jr. On January 13th, But their first daughter Clara was born in June, 1961, between issues 4 and 5 of 1963, a full year after George’s discharge PARSECTION, George got married to Elberta from the Air Force and Peachie’s theoretical Jane “Peachie” Wayman, at home in Madison, high school graduation. The timing of her birth Indiana. Peachie was several years younger does offer another reason why George missed than George – in fact, she would not turn 18 the 1962 Worldcon and quickly became too until October 1961 and was in the middle of preoccupied to have any further interest in the her Junior year at Madison High when they Fan Achievement Awards. After spending most were married. There are photos of her in the of 1961 and early 1962 apart, the second yearbooks from her 1st and 2nd years, but not half of 1962 must have been one long for 1961 or 1962, suggesting that she may honeymoon for George and Peachie. [Continued on page 8] ------There is a time for making speeches and a time for going to bed. ------

7

------I remember very clearly, when I was about 4, my Aunt Linda said, “I’m not babysitting him anymore. He’s bad.” ------Award Lore of Yore: [Continued from page 7] When he sent F. M. Busby that letter from resonance for fanzine fans. And it confirmed Avram Davidson’s apartment in New York, it that the friendship between George and Joe L. seems almost certain that he and Peachie Hensley had continued until the latter died of were traveling together. And the dream of leukemia in 2007. Hensley was a lawyer, a finding a job in New York, maybe even working prosecuting attorney, circuit judge and a in science fiction, was probably abandoned member of the Indiana General Assembly; he when they realized that Peachie was pregnant. also wrote more than 20 novels and 2 short They returned to Madison, where they lived for story collections in the mystery and science a time at the Willick family home on East fiction fields, many of them composed under a Street. George took a job with a Madison variety of pseudonyms. Just over ten years contracting firm, Reliance Electric, and would older than Willick, Hensley was clearly a work for them for 35 years. mentor in George’s efforts to enter the world of letters. Being Joe’s pal meant that George Life with Father was never completely disconnected from As Clara, Charlotte, Catherine, Cynthia and the science fiction or its fandom. One can only twins Connie and Carrie joined the Willick wonder if some whisper of the Fan Activity family, George retained his love for what his Achievement Awards of the 1970s ever obituary referred to as “sci-fi,” and it seems reached him, or if he just had an that he passed his interest on to at least one unexplainable feeling that someone was of his children. Among the 11 grandchildren in walking over his grave? George’s family at the time of his death in 2014, two were named “Adric” and “Eowyn,” After he retired in the late 1990s, George and character names familiar from Dr. Who and Peachie travelled to visit their far-flung The Lord of the Rings. grandchildren and George became an avid photographer of their experiences. He loved So, while he seems to have disappeared jazz and ragtime. His last great passion was completely from the fanzine scene after his restoring the graves of veterans at cemeteries encounter with Earl Kemp’s lawyer, he in Madison and Jefferson County, then continued to read and watch science fiction, documenting their lives and service on the and would make a stab at professional Web at Findagrave.com. And his own page on publication at the end of the 1960s. His first that site includes his entire obituary, which sale was a titled “Ersatz’s Rule,” enabled me to research the details I needed which appeared in the October, 1969 issue of to write this story. Galaxy Science Fiction. He made three more short fiction sales in 1970, all to editor Eller I don’t know exactly how to reconcile the Jakobsson for Galaxy or Worlds of If. The latter beloved great-grandfather of Willick’s obituary magazine presented “Fruit of the Vine” in its with the character who chortled at the idea of February, 1970 issue and “The Midnight Ride feuds and blithely insisted on the existence of of Merlanger McKay” a year later, in the UFOs in PARSECTION. Did he really find merit January/February 1971 issue. Galaxy in D. Bruce Berry’s rambling diatribe? Was he published “A Place of Strange,” in March really the person who anonymously accused 1970. Jakobsson would remain in charge of the Pittcon committee of dumping Hugo both magazines through 1974, but these were Ballots in order to deny FANAC the award? Buz the only stories he is known to have bought Busby suggested that he was, in a column in from Willick. CRY #159, and that’s a brutal charge to make in the absence of convincing knowledge. Willick’s obituary spoke of his love of restoring player pianos, certainly a hobby with some

8 Willick was certainly a joker; he acknowledged editorial from PARSECTION #5 on page 22 of being a hoaxer and having been hoaxed in a this issue to see what I mean. His vision was PARSECTION editorial and the “Lady with the not of a “separate but equal” slate of awards, Daggers” award design may have made some but a recognition of the excellence of work by fans suspect the Fan Achievement Awards fan artists and writers at the Hugo Ceremony. were meant as a gag, But I believe George Just how this turned into a knife-wielding nude was sincere, and deserves credit for trying to or a continuation of what Willick called balance the praise received by amateur and “useless” fanzine polls is still mysterious. professional work in fandom. Read his    ------There's nothing specifically wrong with Donald Sutherland's performance as Homer Simpson. It's just awful. ------Mailing Comments on Turbo-APA #419: ambitious carpenter-type that seems to prefer 100-foot Douglas Firs to people’s kitchens. [ Arranged in Reverse Collation order this time! Fight the Power!] Jim, you wrote that baseball is no longer shown on broadcast TV. Fox should be doing A TURBULENT APA-RITION, F. J. Bergmann: Saturday games now that we’re past Memorial The flash fictions were intriguing. The last of Day. If you don’t have cable, it’s a lot like the the three, “The Cost of Doing,” seemed to be fifties, with only one game a week broadcast the most fictional of the three, but all are by Mel Allen. I’ve seen a number of games on written in a voice that suggests a factual Youtube this season, so maybe your phone essay or editorial – “sneaky” is the word that could help. Ironically, I think have been comes to mind. Contemplating the sad dealing with purely optical symptoms of existence of the “protectosaurs,” then turning diabetes longer than you have, although I the page to see the painting of “The Electric seem to recall you always wore glasses. For a City” on the back cover was a serendipitous while, TV was radio with colored lights. juxtaposition. Baseball was and is by far the best American I don’t think I have ever met anyone who said sport to appreciate purely by listening to it. that they “loved” James’ Herriot’s books, but Pretty pictures of the natural bridge and other “hated” the 1970s TV series and abandoned scenes from your hike. We have learned to it after one episode. Have your peers generally expect extraordinarily little level ground on our endorsed this view? I still enjoy both, but I outings in Washington, and we seem to have a thought the TV writers and producers, even 45 very divergent definition of “trail” from some years ago, were not entirely comfortable with of our creek steward friends. Most recently, some of the prejudices expressed in Herriot’s the “trail” on the south branch of Thornton prose, and leaned more heavily on regional Creek had a number of places where stereotypes in an effort to make the story generous seeps had turned the entire hillside more broadly funny. into muck, with four or five huge fallen alders THE DOORS ARE OPEN, Jim & Ruth Nichols: lying across the path. Out friends were either We have different ants here. Some friends much more mobile than we are or had not recently mentioned seeing some ants in their been down the trail recently. kitchen and that was one of the first times I ADVENTURES OF DA BUNNY N’ BEAR, J.J. had heard such a complaint in 30 years living Brutsman & Tom Havighurst: Which part of here. Reading the description of your efforts to the Canadian honey dill sauce is Canadian, control them, I remembered the huge black the honey, the dill, the sauce or all three? ants that used to get into our house on Carrie makes a Thai-style peanut sauce that Spooner Street in University Heights. In my has the same delicious impact on chicken, mind’s eye, they were almost big enough to pork, shrimp, tofu or small pieces of foam put a saddle on and ride around the back rubber. Really, I think she could serve me a yard. The only ants of similar stature I have [Continued on page 10] observed in Washington State are an

9 ------Linda loves an argument and I like to engage… ------Mailing Comments on Turbo-APA #419: [Continued from Page 9] ADVENTURES OF DA BUNNY N’ BEAR, J.J. every car entering from the right will inevitably Brutsman & Tom Havighurst, continued: T-bone us, rather than turning into traffic. Hopefully that won’t happen to you. big dish of styrofoam packing peanuts, and if I had that peanut sauce to put on them, I’d THINGS THAT BEGIN WITH T, Jim Hudson and probably clean my plate. Diane Martin: When the OE begins to compose a fanzine three hours before the collation, I enjoyed the account of your gaming group whatever weight the deadline is meant to party. You didn’t mention what you played – carry boils away into vapor. Pretty impressive board games? RPGs? My nephew Elias took a fanzine for something composed in the trip to Fargo last weekend to attend a surprise traditional membership saver mode. party for someone he has been gaming with online for over ten years. I’ve been failing to Reading about you guys going back to an say this for many years now, but gaming is the outdoor theater performance was pretty 21st Century version of the Elks Club or the cathartic for me, too – such an exemplar of Eastern Star. what we value as “normal” life. I think we’re ready for a movie – now we face the challenge We went from having no one in the house for of finding one that we want to see. 14 months to a three-day weekend with visitors each day! We played four games of Martha Wells just won the Nebula for “The Machi Koro in a week, and Carrie won three of Murderbot Novel,” so we will see what that them. They were not close games, either. I portends for the Hugo Awards. I confess I have keep telling her she should enter the Machi yet to read any book in the series, but I have Koro Grand Prix circuit, the minute someone at least heard of them, which is a step up from invents it. many years. I admire your diligence in trying to read the nominated works. Your opinions A ZINE OF ONE’S OWN, Catie Pfeifer: You would make a fine piece for Turbo or any other wrote about your efforts to improve your contemporary fanzine. driving skills sufficiently to actually get a driver’s license, which felt awfully familiar to LETTER FROM THE FARM, Marilyn Holt: I me. When I lived in Madison as a young wonder if the process of marketing a book is person 35 years ago, it seemed remarkably now less dependent on personal appearances easy to exist without a car and the skill to since the advent of the pandemic in 2020? operate one. Because Madison is relatively No one can come to readings scheduled for flat, I bicycled pretty much anywhere 9 months closed bookstores. of the year, and the bus system served most I wish you the best of luck in finding someone places I would like to go. I didn’t know it, but I to do all the repairs you want to do to your was actually following in my Great-Grandfather house. All handymen and contractors in Ben’s tire tracks, as he had been a passionate Seattle now appear to be double- and triple- cyclist at the turn of the 20th Century and used booked for the balance of the summer. Right to pedal to job sites all over Dane County. (He now, the same fellow that Carrie has been was a mason contractor, so presumably the negotiating with for about a year proposes to bricks went separately by wagon.) come and install the new wall oven that has I finally got a driver’s license after moving to been sitting in the garage since last October. Seattle, but I can’t say I have ever become But he will have to construct a kind of bamboo comfortable driving. In fact, I internalized scaffold, that will hold the old oven in front of enough paranoia as a driver that I became a the aperture while he removes the rather restless passenger, convinced that connections to the power source and other

10 connecting hardware behind it. Then the same ditch in front, laughing maniacally at my scaffold will hold the new oven while he inability to escape. I also once dropped an attaches it to the former connectors. enormous stone through the glass window of our aluminum outer door, which was not SAM DRUCKER’S GENERAL STORE, Cliff Wind: greeted with amusement, but which still Your zine was melancholy and verged on impressed me with the noise it made. perfection. I mean, one might have found a cartoon or added an interlineation, but as far My mother had an old Seven-Up bottle with a as content goes, this is the kind of thing that perforated rubber stopper on the top, which keeps me coming back to read personal she used to sprinkle water on clothes while fanzines. Your memories will remain she ironed them. Getting to do the sprinkling heartbreaking reading 100 years in the future. was one of the peak pleasures of my life, but My favorite part was the proto crifanac that my mother had to supervise me closely to you and your friend invented by telling round keep me from soaking the shirts so much they robin stories during your walk to school. The had to go back on the clothesline. boots made for walking on the sun were I have weird fragmentary memories of dining impressive, but not surprising, as when one with my grandparents at the Elks, and at some has devised boots suitable for walking on hot sort of country club, as well as forays across lava, the sun is nearly in our grasp. the river to Windsor, Ontario. When I was five, My earliest memories come from the five we moved away to West Virginia, and entered years that we lived in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, a more modestly appointed world of where my grandfather was the Chief of Police academics and graduate school hippies, and and we lived in a little single-story house a few there were dramatically fewer dinners at blocks away from him and my grandmother. establishments specializing in prime rib beef. Most of those recollections are quite happy, But I have to admit that I felt more relaxed like the time the whole front yard was coated with hippies and endured their soybeans and with ice after a storm, and I rolled back and guerilla cookies. forth on the frozen slopes of the drainage [Continued on page 12]

------…but she knows I am a poet and will engage forever. ------

11 ------Homer then moved to New York where he worked with his brother Shakespeare. ------Mailing Comments on Turbo-APA #41 [Continued from Page 11]

THE HOUSE ON KRAMER CREEK, Carrie Root: Friends for, I ask? I don’t know what kind of This issue was a mix of nostalgia and people join volunteer and support groups in contemporary garden lore. I occasionally have Janesville, but in our experience, they are little pangs of regret that I am not a diarist, dominated by retired white people, many of but then I ask myself what value does thirty- whom have enjoyed an unprecedented five years – thirty-five! – of contribution to the windfall of income from investments during Turbo-Apa have, if not as a de facto journal? I the past four years, all taxed at a historically have always tended to cheat a bit by hiding a low rate. If there was ever a time to donate lot of my personal natter in comments to other some of that “security” to people and things people, but when you do that many that you care about, surely this is it. contributions, some contemporary observation I hope that we will soon be able to adopt a will inevitably creep in. Lately I’ve been “masks welcome” policy in most places, and reading a bunch of zines from late 1963. that businesses will allow their employees to Relatively few mention President Kennedy’s wear them and protect them from anyone who assassination in their editorials, but you can finds that offensive. I would hope that minds see real chill go through fandom. Fanzines that value their own freedom to not wear a from 2020 will be an interesting read for mask would be as sensitive to the rights of future generations. those who want to wear them, but I am a mad Anyway, it may be too late to keep a garden dreamer, of course. diary for the fifteen years you’ve been working I continue to be mildly awed by the saga of at it, but you could still realize one of your your yurt. If we could just identify which carrier fondest fantasies by making labels for the brought it over from Korea, we could probably various trees and perennials in the yard. And visit the freight container it is in on Harbor once you work out the physical materials Island here in Seattle. I presume it’s going on involved, we could pursue the even wilder a train or a truck next, since a yurt seems a dream of putting labels on mysterious trees in little heavy for air freight. I hope it arrives other people’s yards. There’s a legacy for you safely and soon! – I mean, anyone can have a bench dedicated to them, but the woman who alphabetizes the COMING TO GRIPS #41, Walter Freitag: It was forest will live forever. an actual delight to read the story of your “actual bees.” I hope the colony is going I find it quite wonderful that you could find a strong. We once had a migrating swarm roost great picture of the tree in front of your in a tree in our front yard, where they made a parents’ house on the Interwebs. That’s not sound that was like 1,000 violas vibrating the something that I think anyone ever predicted same note. We slipped away in our car, and as a consequence of the information when we came back from lunch, they had revolution. Or that I would find a photograph of moved on. my great-great-grandfather that a distant relative had scanned and posted online. Colony collapse has been of great concern in the Pacific states, and we are perpetually COAT AND BOOTS, Elizabeth Matson: The fearful that our various fruit trees will go most interesting part of your description of the unpollinated. But Carrie’s tree in the back is library’s reopening conditions was the attitude laden with little apples, and last week the of the Friends of the Library, who thought it motley hawthorn in the front was alive with appropriate to crowdsource kickballs and hum of hungry little native bees. No idea other recreational toys, rather than volunteering to pay for it themselves. What are

12 where their crib or their Girl Boss may be, but they come back every summer. SONOVA QUARK, Steven Vincent Johnson: MS Word wanted to autocorrect your title as “Sonia Quark.” Sounds intriguing, maybe a parody of Veronica Mars…. You wrote some reaction to the extended 60 Minutes interview with former Navy pilots and their observations of Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon. I have found it particularly interesting that while the various former and current Navy personnel scrupulously avoid endorsing the “extraterrestrial hypothesis,” they don’t expend any energy trying to refute contact that you wrote about in this issue it. I think the overwhelming conclusion made me realize that the pandemic was like a reached by all those who have observed these hurricane or a huge fire that somehow objects is that they are under control by an displaced everyone all at the same time. Even intelligence, organic or artificial. if the vast majority of us stayed right where we were, the inability to see the people that were A lot of this rests on the idea that the important to us, or even just habitual, was like maneuvers observed would be impossible for moving to a strange city overnight. any known aircraft to execute. That kind of blunt generalization has imperiled logical I wonder how much social unrest, political analysis of UFOs for 75 years. When Allied lunacy and murder hornets influenced your pilots observed “foo fighters” over Europe, one friend who does not intend to allow their son of the comments that was accepted without to return to school? I think about having a reservation was that the Nazis had absolutely young kid like my grandson right now, and I nothing capable of behaving in such a way. get panicky – seeing the ease with which But in fact, the Germans had rocket and jet- people at large believe things which are propelled aircraft by 1944, and used demonstrably untrue, I understand the munitions guided by an early form of impulse to personally tutor your child from the television. At least two foo fighters were later safety of a panic room or a Skinner box for 2. confirmed to be the bright discharge of a Then again, when I was six years old, I was a Messerschmidt Model 163 rocket fighter. savage. I roamed the woods around my house The images I have seen seem difficult to without supervision, befriended and clashed dismiss as a purely optical phenomenon. But I with other feral six-year-olds, and investigated still don’t see anything that really says quicksands, snake dens and haunted mineral “spaceship” to me. If we are to embrace baths. The carp, the newt and the box turtle theoretically improbable theories about these were my boon companions. Everyone needs objects, something from the future or an things like that of their own, and we just can’t alternate universe seems as good a bet as have them without possible exposure to mean something from another planet. It is always dogs, ornery moonshiners and viruses. I’m too encouraging when a new wave of investigation flip, but it’s my honest reaction. You write begins, but I remain skeptical that any about many more permutations in “The definitive answer will ever be found. Science of Risk,” but the point that most forms of safety carry risks of their own is worth AFTER WORDS #49, Lisa Freitag: The repeating. divergent attitudes toward returning to social [Continued on page 14] ------The Racing Homer is a flying breed. It is mostly used for flying purposes. ------

13 ------The two of us had to go into the studio and make that album ourselves. With Linda, of course. ------Mailing Comments on Turbo-APA #419: [Continued from Page 13] AN WISCONZINE, Greg Rihn: Not even Ross OCCAM’S WHISKERS, Georgie Schnobrich: Pavlac or Dick Schultz ever led off a fanzine The little verse at the beginning – the with an account of a virtual Sewage District transformation of the black skeletons in meeting. There is still new ground to be winter’s closet into dancing things with broken in fanzine content. feathers – was like reading one of your drawings. What fun it is to have you here! Your review of M. C. Escher: Journey to Infinity was entertaining, and as often happens with I have to admit that reading about your recent your reviews, I looked around online for program of bingeing early music performances examples of his early work. Pieces like “Still made me feel better about our own tendency Life and Street” and “Castrovalva” are just as toward entertainments produced in the 1940s intricate as his more geometric later works – I and 1950s. The other night, the film noir of found myself staring and following his lines as the week ended on TCM and the next movie intently as his more openly recursive designs. I was about a Roman woman who swims a lot can well imagine that he found American (Esther Williams, naturally) who somehow hippies inexplicable, but few artists have saves Rome from Hannibal Barca (Howard created works as perfectly tuned to the Keel) and his charming elephants. (Really, the aesthetic of a viewer stoned off their ass. painted elephants steal the picture.) I had to nod in agreement when you compared The 1955 film Jupiter’s Darling was lovely but D. West’s Crime Cat Crusader to the work of ridiculous; I wondered if it had arisen out of Gilbert Shelton. There is a demented leer on obscurity to the program schedule because it my face in several panels that seem like they sounds like the Netflix series Jupiter’s Legacy. were straight out of Wonder Warthog. I have to But the dancing elephants, the singing think that West would have rejected the Hannibal seemed like something from an comparison, while secretly finding it satisfying. adventure starring Asterix or possibly Scrooge McDuck. And the music arose magically from an unseen orchestra, pretty much a standard element of musical cinema. Some people who would gladly sit through a Cyd Charise triple feature would probably balk at 30 minutes of watching an orchestra – or even a jazz combo – simply play their instruments. I have different tastes – a recent airing of Monterey Pop completely hypnotized me – but I am still a fan of live performance, even recorded live

performances.

14 MADISON FOURSQUARE #55, Scott Custis & Jeanne Gomoll: Jeanne’s “Gifts of the Glacier” was a nice little piece, equally evocative of both Wisconsin and your dad, of course. Washington State is also just as heavily glaciated as Wisconsin, but the ice ran over brand-new mountains and lava flows laid down by Cascade volcanoes and left almost none of the beautiful black soil that Wisconsin got from ancient Canadian meadows. Our own yard is underlain with tens of thousands of egg-sized rocks, laid down before the house was bult in 1963. They keep the yard from turning into a pond in the incessant rain of winter, but it makes it challenging to plant or excavate anything. Braxton Wells was a pen name of the indefatigable Donald A. Wollheim, who was was completed in England by director Sidney then entering his second decade of publishing Hayers. It was retitled Burn, Witch, Burn! for and acquiring fanzines. Elsewhere in this American release. Both of these are far more issue I wrote about George Willick and his “realistic” (and scary) depictions of a woman’s fanzine PARSECTION, but did not mention one use of arcane powers to aid their husband, in fact, which was that Donald Wollheim had the face of his skepticism and more agreed to be listed as the fanzine’s malevolent forces arrayed against him. These, “Corresponding Editor.” Wollheim was I think most would agree, sound more like the notorious for compulsively acquiring different plot of the TV series Bewitched than I Married fanzines and combining them with the zines a Witch. But the latter title suggests the basic that he was actually publishing. I found it plot of Bewitched so neatly that people fascinating that he was still making some apparently can’t resist conflating them. gesture toward this in 1960, when he was pretty much a full-time pro. Some habits die Meanwhile, I would now like very much to see hard. The Ghost Goes West, Clair’s English fantasy. That too sounds like the perfect entertainment Jeanne, you said that René Clair’s film I for a solitary babysitter. Married a Witch was just your kind of picture and that you thought you must have seen it as I enjoyed the heartwarming account of your a teen while babysitting. I agree that it has loving response to each other’s vaccination some pretty memorable and distinctive experience. I was reminded of a now elements but is a far more slapstick picture disgraced Bill Cosby routine, which has the than either of the pre-1970 movies based on punchline “Why tell her?” The story came ’s novel . The first of second-hand from Sheldon Leonard, so I don’t these is Weird Woman, a 1944 “Inner feel as bad that I still find it funny. Sanctum” feature with Evelyn Ankers, Lon The photo of your “Bicycle Detected When Chaney Jr. and Anne Gwynne. This was also Illuminated” sign also suggested a single directed by a European expatriate, the panel cartoon to me – “Your Husband was Austrian Reginald Le Borg. Then in 1962, riding a tricycle after dark, Mrs. Reynolds, a , and situation our engineers could never have George Baxt collaborated on an adaptation of foreseen.” Conjure Wife titled Night of the Eagle, which ------They weren’t nice about Linda McCartney till she died. ------

15 ------He is almost barbarously simple, and to our eye, horribly ugly; but there is nevertheless something one likes about him. ------Horror Host of the Month: John Zacherle: The Many Loves of a Necrophile

There are few horror hosts of the first “Grimy James” on an original Western daytime generation as well-known or as revered as drama series titled Action in the Afternoon. John Zacherle (1918-2016). Zacherle had the Zacherle was willing to read or play anything good fortune of playing his characters in asked of him and was soon doing voiceover Philadelphia and New York, allowing him to work on several shows and making $90 a reach an audience several times larger than week. In the fall of 1957, WCAU bought the that enjoyed by hosts in smaller cities. While rights to air the “” movie his program was always seen on regional package and wanted to cast Zacherle as the television, Zacherle became a nationally show’s host. Looking at the writing and known figure, at least within the ghoulish preparation required for the show they precincts of the Monster Culture. Since this proposed, Zacherle agreed on the condition series is intended to introduce the casual that his pay was raised to $100 a week. reader to the figures most loved by monster fandom, Zacherle has to be on our list. Romance in a Coffin Zacherle pulled out the long black coat he had John Karsten Zacherle was born in worn -- just once -- as the undertaker on Action Philadelphia on September 26th, 1918. His in the Afternoon and began to build his image father was a bank clerk, and John was the from there. His character “Roland,” (it rhymes youngest of George and Anna Zacherle’s four with “so grand”) was not a vampire or a mad children. He grew up in Philadelphia’s scientist trying to bring corpses back to life – Germantown neighborhood, and attended he was merely a charming necrophile who saw public schools. George and Anna did not allow the beauty in all dead things and celebrated him to attend such low forms of entertainment them as they were. He was devoted to his as monster movies. He graduated from the unseen, unnamed and unliving wife, referred University of in 1940, with a to most frequently as “My Dearie.” In the degree in English Literature. He also managed opening, Roland descended a long circular the university’s marching band. His post- staircase, arriving in the crypt below with a graduate studies were interrupted by the look of glittery-eyed anticipation. attack on Pearl Harbor, and Zacherle enlisted in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of Major WCAU had John perform the show two nights a while serving in North Africa and Europe. week, first rather confusingly on Monday and Tuesday and later on Friday and Saturday, After the war, John returned to Philadelphia where the program found its natural audience and vacillated between writing and returning of teen-agers too young to be out after 11 pm. to Graduate School. He had become interested in acting and possibly writing for Several hosts claim the distinction of being the theater during the war - presumably, once the first to insert cut-away gags into the films he was a commissioned officer, he was they broadcast, but Zacherle was certainly one allowed to see whatever he wanted – and of the earliest practitioners of what has joined a repertory company known as “The become an art form of its own. His comic Stagecrafters” in 1946. He may have timing is all the more impressive when you maintained some kind of “day job” during this consider that the shows he did for WCAU in period, but steadily appeared in Philadelphia 1957 and 1958 were all broadcast live. stage productions for the next 8 years. In Cutaways were literally cuts away from the 1954, he was hired by Philadelphia TV Station movie, with the soundtrack still running to a WCAU and made his debut playing undertaker

16 shot of Roland doing something ridiculous with a skull or a stake or a tombstone. The show quickly found a large and enthusiastic audience largely composed of Philadelphia teen-agers. This naturally attracted the attention of Philadelphia’s nascent media mogul , and Clark and Zacherle began a long friendship in 1958. Clark dubbed Roland “The Cool Ghoul,” and Zacherle would even host some episodes of when Clark was recovering from an illness. Clark arranged for Zacherle to cut a single on the Cameo record label, titled “Dinner with Drac.” It consisted of Zacherle laughing and reciting a series of gory limericks over a rockabilly soundtrack arranged by . Remarkably, it reached the top ten on national pop music charts. The Restless Dead A classic portrait of Zacherle(y) Shock Theater aired on WCAU through the summer of 1958, when the station was sold he hosted, offering arch or nonsensical to new managers who intended to turn it into interjections to the dialogue in the soundtrack. a CBS network affiliate. With uncertainty The audience for Zacherley at Large about the show’s future on WCAU, Zacherle continued to grow through the spring of 1959. moved the show to WABC TV in New York City. WABC initially aired Shock Theater on (Both stations were receivable in both cities, Mondays and Fridays, but also switched to so fans followed the move without complaint.) Friday and Saturdays in April. Zacherley at Through the end of 1958, the program was Large only aired on WABC for about three still titled Shock Theater, and Zacherle was months, between March 27th and June 20th, still disquietingly ardent as Roland. 1960. In the fall of 1959, rival New York In March of 1959, WABC changed the station WOR offered Zacherle a deal he could program’s title to “Zacherley at Large,” The not resist: the new Zacherley Show would be spurious letter “y” at the end was probably taped in advance during business hours and mean to create a defensible copyright but has aired three times a week, with regional and left a legacy of frustrating searches. For the potentially national syndication. The show purpose of this profile, we’ll simply ignorey it. would actually run concurrently with Zacherley Zacherle’s corpse bride now received the at Large through June. name “Isobel,” and his seldom seen assistant To promote the new show, which first aired on Igor was replaced by an unfortunate named October 9th 1959, WOR’s marketing “Gasport,” who was trapped in a large sack department created a “Zacherley for attached to the wall. Zacherle would President” campaign, which the now fully occasionally converse with Gasport, replying cured ham embraced with great enthusiasm. to his guttural screams as if they were He made a number of personal campaign thoughtful insights. He had similarly one-sided appearances and a paperback “photo conversations with characters in the movies interview” book was published, as well as a [Continued on page 18] ------Education was important to his family; his father had taught himself Greek, hence the name chosen for Homer. ------

17 ------I was in Blood Brothers for a year in the West End, playing Linda, with Kiki Dee ------Horror Host of the Month: Chiller Theater triumphantly returned the John Zacherle, continued Nation’s Necrophile to the air. popular wall poster. Both are highly desirable This show only lasted a little over a year. collectibles today. In 1960, Zacherle made a Although the appeal of the “Shock Theater” deal with Ballantine Books to edit two movies was wearing thin after 6 or 7 years of collections of short horror fiction, a field in perpetual broadcasts, Zacherle remained which he had a long-held interest. The remarkably popular with his teen-age collections were titled Zacherley’s Vulture audience. (WCAU once held an open house at Stew and Zacherley’s Midnight Snacks. the Shock Theater set and over 800 people The fad, like most, was apparently fleeting. showed up.) After he parted ways with WPIX, The last episode of The Zacherley Show aired Zacherle was hired by WNJU in Newark, New on December 9th, 1960, after which the Jersey to host a show called Disc-O-Teen. This character did not have a home on TV for was an afternoon dance party program, which approximately four years. John Zacherle John hosted in full Zacherle regalia, with moved again to New York station WPIX, and creepy comic sketches that made use of the hosted a variety of programs, including a teenage dancers. It was on several times per collection of Three Stooges shorts and the week, in half-hour segments on weekdays and cartoon adventures of The Mighty Hercules. an hour-long show on Saturday. This appears Eventually, WPIX decided that they wanted to to have been Zacherle’s longest running TV capitalize on the continuing popularity of show since Action in the Afternoon, airing Zacherle/y in personal and radio from May or 1965 to November, 1967. appearances, and the night after his last This immersion in popular music suggested Stoogecast on January 31st, 1964, WPIX’s the next step in his career. In December 1968 Zacherle became the morning host for progressive rock station WNEW-FM. In 1969, he took over the 10 pm to 2 am slot; in 1971, he moved this show to station WLPJ, where he would remain for 10 years. On Valentine’s Day, 1970, Zacherle appeared onstage at the Filmore East to introduce the . His introduction can be heard on the album Dick’s Picks, Volume 4. Eternal Twilight Although Zacherle never had a continuing gig as a horror movie host again, John continued to appear as the character for nearly fifty years. He probably did more to build the modern monster culture after his active TV career ended, with countless personal appearances at film festivals and monster conventions. He made his last personal appearances in 2015, then aged 97. There was a long-running fan newsletter titled ZACHERLEY AT LARGE, published by Paul Russak out of Flemington, New Jersey. In 2001 The Zacherle Scrapbook, edited by John Zacherley tribute by artist Brian Michael Bendis Skerchock, provided a definitive overview of

18 the man and the phenomenon. Richard Movie Monsters Museum in Bristol, Scrivani’s memoir of 50 years as a Zacherle Connecticut. Zacherle was the nominal fan, Goodnight, Whatever You Are is also narrator of the picture, working with a puppet recommended. henchman called Gorgo. Horror fans gave the film a Rondo Award. Several companies have Zacherle had parts in a number of low-budget released kits in the Aurora style that portrayed horror pictures, sometimes playing himself. He Zacherle, and 12” action figures of him were had a particularly funny turn in the 1990 produced by Executive Replicas. Few hosts feature Frankenhooker, in which he played a have been portrayed in as many different meteorologist issuing a weather report for media as Zacherle – only Elvira and the latter- mad scientists. WCAU aired a single reunion day Svengoolie come close. (All three have show titled The Return of Roland in 1985, and been featured in comic books, for one he made a guest appearance with horror host example.) Stella on Philadelphia’s Saturday Night Dead in 1988. He also recorded another six singles John Zacherle died at his apartment on West after “Dinner with Drac,” and released five 86th Street in New York on October 27th, albums of mixed novelty songs and sound 2016. He never married and does not seem to effects on vinyl, and 5 compact discs, one of have ever been publicly attached to anyone, which was a re-issue. male or female. However, his niece Bonnie Zacherle (b. 1946) is an artist and illustrator, One project that was particularly heartfelt was responsible for creating the My Little Pony the 2010 documentary The Aurora Monsters: franchise. Horror – and Hasbro – claim us all The Model Craze That Gripped the World, in the end. made by Dennis Vincent and Courtland Hull, operators of The Witch’s Dungeon Classic      ------Mr. Homer is a positive, a real, a natural painter. ------Fanmail From Some Flounder Department: Benefits," and shoehorns in Antonioni, Chabrol, Letters to CAPTAIN FLASHBACK Eisenstein, and others. His comments on Clair are a little long for me to quote in full, but his last Jerry Kaufman sentence goes "[List of early Clair features] retain a [email protected] certain classic value, but Clair, once too good to be April 26th, 2021 called even the French Lubitsch, now seems more Before I get to the issue at hand, I'll mention that I like the French Mamoulian." From Sarris, this is an have another box of APA mailings to pass along for insult, as he thought Rouben Mamoulian made auctioning. The main contents are mailings of the mediocre genre movies (musicals, romances, Cascade/Rockies APA and Oasis. There are also a costumers, etc.). couple of FLAP and APPLE mailings. (I can't As for me, I've seen the films so long ago that I remember what the full name of FLAP is.) I'm not remember very little about them, except that I sure what the etiquette is for passing along Oasis enjoyed them. I had not connected the dots that mailings is, as the Official Organ says it was outline his attraction to fantasy. Did you see all the "private and invitational." ones you describe on TCM, or did you rent some of So now to Captain Flashdance. Thanks to my copy them from Scarecrow? I'd certainly like to see of The American Cinema, I can confirm I've some again, and then add some I haven't seen Paris Qui Dort, Sous Le Toit de Paris, Le previously viewed. Million, and The Ghost Goes West. A Nous la I enjoyed "Crime Cat Crusader," and I don't think I Liberte sounds very familiar, but maybe I've only saw its original appearance, though we have read about it. You may wonder how a book about issues of Sorensen's Snapshot. It seems likely we American Cinema has an entry on Clair. Andrew never got issue #1. You've identified people who Sarris included a section on directors who may are cari-cat-ured in the strip, and I'll add Ian have primarily been French, Italian, Russian, etc., Sorensen himself as the cabbie on page 2. but did some work in the US. It's called "Fringe

19 ------Well I like how people talk. I like language. You know, Linda Richman spoke in Yiddish. ------Fanmail From Some Flounder Department: this comic strip was just one product of that Letters to CAPTAIN FLASHBACK friendship. Jerry Kaufman, continued: We’ll see what you have to say about this issue’s That's got to be Lilian Edwards behind the bar Lindas linos.] on page 1 and 2, though the likeness isn't Steven Bryan Bieler very like. I'm saying it's Lilian because the bar 7667 SE 21st Ave. is named "Diamond Lil's" and on page 2, she Portland, OR 97202 finds "Victor's" cat ears cute. As we know, they were briefly an item. I think "Captain Frabler" May 9th, 2021 is unrecognizable as Gary Farber; only the I loved Crime Cast Crusader. Thank you for scrambled name connects them. (I wonder reprinting it. I’ve never met Ted White, but I have who "Mr. Lilliman," the D.A. to whom Frabler is met you, and you did seem vaguely evil, so it speaking, is meant to be.) I'm uncertain about wouldn’t surprise me that your pal Ted is, too. the figures at the bar, who you think are Rob Nor does it surprise me that only Victor Gonzalez Hansen, Avedon Carol, and D. himself. Sure, could put an end to your combined Hugo villainy, the possibly female figure has long dark hair as Victor, as I remember him, is more than like Avedon, and the figure she faces has a innocent enough to climb into a cat suit if that’s beard, But Rob was pretty skinny back then, the only way to stop your attempt to sap and unlike the drawing. impurify all of our precious bodily fluids. As for the third figure at the far left on page 1, When I was publishing fanzines, I desperately wanted D. West to notice me. And I just and the far right on page 2, that can't be D., desperately wanted him not to notice me, as I’m who always drew himself with combed back sure he would have eviscerated me. And said I longish hair and a ciggie dangling from his was fat. Don Keller felt the same way. If we lips. Could it be Martin Smith, or had he called ourselves D. Keller and D. Bieler, well, we passed away by 2002? were just whistling past the graveyard. I believe Interlineations, mailing comments, and Don that’s the correct expression. Excuse me if I’m Wollheim's amazing predictions all enjoyed. poisoning the well, begging the question or Linos that mention Homer are nearly always barring the door. from The Simpsons. Linos that mention Linda D. West was a frightening person who was are nearly always from Bob's Burgers. somehow involved with topic A, which detonated [APH: I left in the paragraph about the box of about 30 minutes after I joined fandom. (In the apas because I thought it possible some CF USA, we’d call that your new employee reader might like to have them before I orientation, or even worse, your onboarding.) D. contemplate “parting them out.” West was also the author of Fanzines in Theory and Practice, a book that sounds scary just Andrew Sarris’ opinion of René Clair is very sitting still. It reminds me of I.A. Horovitz’s Chess much in line with the erosion of his reputation Openings: Theory and Practice, a book I won at since the middle 1950s. We re-watched I a high school chess tournament. If only I had Married a Witch, and I couldn’t find a wasted had the wit to know that doorstop was telling me moment in that film. I stand by the conviction to heave it back on to the shelf and do that his work is worth watching. something else, like learn about girls. If I had I have to bow to all your interpretations of the ever read Fanzines in Theory and Practice, it figures in C.C.C. As usual, the introduction was probably would have paralyzed me. written at 4:30 in the morning of deadline day Crime Cast Crusader was a safe way to and I probably couldn’t even see all the faces you reacquaint myself with D. West, who, I am sorry found. Among the virtues which Victor Gonzalez to learn, has passed on. Too bad – we need this brought to his fan activity was a mysterious kind of reporting to keep fandom safe. I can’t ability to inspire enthusiasm in D. West, and

20 imagine Victor wearing the cat suit without D, going into the southwest USA to find nephews who West to zip him into it. willingly gave to the film’s researchers documents about Mme. Guy-Blaché to keep, as they simply Be good, thanks for the zines and keep didn’t care. The documentary was financed by practicing your Crime Cat Caterwaul. many Hollywood directors, male and female, who [APH: I had only a fleeting glimpse of D. West in had heard of her, and wanted to learn more, not the gloaming of the 1987 Worldcon, and otherwise even learning about her in film school. It details knew him entirely through correspondence. I’d her shooting techniques, which were revolutionary. have said he was challenging, like a thorny chess The film was narrated by Jodie Foster and is called problem, but not actually terrifying. I guess I sent Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché. him so many fanzines that I eventually provoked I am glad to see that many people are getting him into reply. He was always mildly acrimonious, vaccinated. We got our Astra-Zeneca shots in late but never wrathful or even contemptuous. March but seeing that government specialists are Fanzines in Theory and Practice was a prized now saying that such shots should be taken 16 souvenir of the 1987 Worldcon Fan Room, weeks apart, instead of the four to eight weeks as intensely vivid reading even though I generally recommended by the vaccine makers, our second had not read the fanzines which provoked West’s shots should come along in July. Can’t come soon reactions. I believe it had a focusing effect on my enough. I have also read that we will probably have ambitions toward fanzines and made me generally to get a third shot at some point, a booster shot to leery of excessive personal natter, convention travel keep up our immunity, especially to new variants. sagas and vast lists of books read and movies seen. My loc…with the Frightenstein show long gone, but Being caricatured by West was a nearly fondly remembered (I found nine Facebook pages psychoactive experience. Becoming a fat American on the topic), I cannot think of any campy horror lampooned in British fanzines is one of the few shows on local TV here. Guess the airtime is simply things which ever made me feel like I had arrived, too valuable. If I remember, I think some fans in far more than my inexplicable Hugo nominations.] Buffalo are connected with a similar horror project on a local TV station there, although that may be in Lloyd Penney the past, too. I can’t say that I know all the 1706-24 Eva Rd. costumers in Pittsburgh, but I do know of a Etobicoke, ON Montréal fan and costumer, Sylvie Laurin, who CANADA M9C 2B2 goes every year down to Pittsburgh to join old friends Dawn McKechnie and Ricky Dick to haunt May 9th, 2021 the Castle Blood neighborhood and scare the city. Thank you for the newest Captain Flashback, issue Crime Cat Crusader by D. West. LMAO! Good fun, 29, and Sunday morning is as good a time as any and perhaps ready for performance at a future to attempt some communication, especially after a Corflu? Well, some could play themselves… good cup and a bit of Ethiopian coffee. It helps… Well, there’s not much of the weekend left, and the Fanzines are always full of things I never knew, weather is finally getting warm enough for a and my education continues. To be honest, I had leisurely walk outside in spite of the pandemic. We never heard of René Clair, but Hollywood is full of have to get ready to get outside, so I will wind up. influences from somewhere else. For another Many thanks for this issue, and I will keep my eyes interesting take on the history of Hollywood film, open for more. and film from elsewhere, I would recommend looking up Alice Guy-Blaché. She was the very first [APH: Tracking down a Toronto Horror Host female film director in the still-green Hollywood, seems like a very reasonable challenge -- various and her excellent works were often ignored or American hosts certainly reached southern degraded, mostly because she was a woman. A Ontario, but I know I’ve read about shows that couple of years ago, an excellent documentary on broadcast from Toronto. That would be a fine the life of Alice Guy-Blaché was released, a history topic for a future chapter. Thanks for the great of her life, and a detective piece about finding her letter -- I’m glad to have “room” to run it all.] films, many of which were destroyed, and also finding her awards and descendants, which meant  ------Well, Linda sang it and it was a monster for her. ------

21 ------I was thinking about extending the Coconut Dancers project and shooting other traditional country customs. ------I Remember Entropy Department: Editorial by George C. Willick, PARSECTION #5, April, 1961 [APH - As described in “Award Lore of Yore,” this is apparently the place where George Willick’s scheme to create the Fan Achievement Awards began. It’s easy to see why his tone rubbed some readers the wrong way, but the image of the Worldcon Business Meeting as a den of braying drunks is inviting.] The Hugo Awards are fan wards. They were initiated by fans, they are decided by fans and they are sustained by fans. The Awards belong to fandom to do with as the majority sees fit. Being a fan, I am therefore entitled to my say on the subject. I do not believe that the present scope of the awards covers the field adequately. I think the Hugo Awards should be expanded to cover both the fan writer and the fan artist. There are presently five awards given to the professional field and only one given to the fan field. That single award is for the best fanzine. Everyone seems to agree that this award is proper and merited. I agree. But why is a Hugo presented to a fanzine to the exclusion of the writers and artists that made that fanzine win? There are only three qualities that make a fanzine win a Hugo. Editing, material and art. (Popularity will result from these and is therefore not qualified as a reason.) Now, take any combination of the three, and you can still have a Hugo winning fanzine. But the most expendable of the three is that of editing. Which is the very thing the award is given for. The fanzine wins the award, but the faned takes it home. Anybody can win a Hugo if he has excellent material and excellent art…he doesn’t have to be an editor. Every faned takes a monetary loss, sweats blood, and works like hell to publish his effort. None work harder than any other, generally speaking. And one of the reasons they put so much effort into their work is that they all, to a man, have the dream or the hope of one day walking out of a World Con with that rocketship. What does the writer or artist have to gain? Nothing. Egoboo for them is old hat after a few months. Writing takes time; art takes time and money with no form of return at all. The FANAC Egoboo Poll? Worthless both in scope and general circulation. It is also limited by rules of a few. If you’re a faned then you know the problem of trying to get good art and good material. And why not? The potential quality of fan writing and fan art is such as to merit an award in both categories. Why should there be opposition to this? IS THERE OPPOSITION TO THIS? The argument that there are awards for pro writing and pro artists and if a fan wants a Hugo he can turn pro is about as senseless as saying that Hollywood should do away with the Oscar awards for best supporting actor or actress. The big problem is to find some way to bring order to a Con business meeting and gain some sort of intelligent procedure. Witness Pittcon where someone finally decided that the design of the Hugo Award should be made standard. This was something that should have been done when the awards were initiated. But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s argue this out before it’s taken to a business meeting to be offered as an amendment. We can certainly find out all the arguments this way. And no one will be so drunk as to forget them as is the case at the business meetings.   ------Art on page 3 by Arthur Thomson; page 11 by Alexis Gilliland & Bill Rotsler; pages 13, 14 & 15 by Bill Rotsler. ------

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