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I had to smile when I first saw McFarland's Forry: The Life of Forrest J. Ackerman. Forry Ackerman as vampire stretches his hand out toward the reader, in a cover which reminds one inexorably of an issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland, the science fiction and horror genre magazine that Forry edited for over 20 years.
But while Forry will be forever linked with Famous Monsters (or FM as its fans call it), he did so much more in his long life.
When Jefferson Davis became President of the Confederate States of America, one of his admirers said, "The man and the hour have met." The implication being that Davis was the best possible man for the job. This turned out to not be true, however, Davis had plenty of detractors then and now who thought he was totally the wrong person to lead the fledgling country through the Civil War.
The same can not be said for Forrest J. Ackerman. He was born in 1916, and thus, was in on everything from the beginning - the perfecting of silent movies with such films as Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the coming of sound and the classic horror films of the 1930s (Frankenstein, Dracula and The Invisible Man, the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction (Amazing Stories, published by Hugo Gernsback, the first science fiction fan club, founded by Forry himself, and the first fan conventions.
In the 1930s and 40s, from the 60s even up to the 70s and 80s, no one, least of all the movie makers concerned, thought that props, costumes and sets from movies were worth saving. With Forry Ackerman, it was very much the "man and the hour" meeting. Forry corresponded with many film makers, asking for props and posters and so on (beginning with Carl Laemmle.) Many of these film makers obliged, and Forry assembled quite a collection of material that otherwise would have been destroyed. (For many years his collection was on display at his houses, first the Ackermansion, and then, when financial exigencies provoked a move, the Ackerminimansion).
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Forry is perhaps most famous as being the editor of the seminal magazine, The Famous Monsters of Filmland, published by James Warren. The magazine debuted in 1958 and ran until 1983. (Its resurrection, by Ray Ferry, in 1993, would prove not to be a happy one for Forry.)
Forry's success with Famous Monsters of Filmland is actually ironic, as science fiction rather than horror was actually his first and main love. Indeed, Warren put out the magazine Spacemen which attempted to do for sci fi what FM did for horror, but it was not a success and folded after 8 issues.)
Forry is also well known as a friend of the "two Rays" - Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury, meeting each at the very start of their careers, and in Bradbury's case, helping him along. Forry also knew the other great sci fi luminary (well, in this case, SF luminary) as Isaac Asimov - they were both part of "First Fandom." |
In Forry: The Life of Forrest J. Ackerman, Deborah Painter shares stories from that life. In the best tradition of biographers, she starts with Forry's grandparents, and moves onward from there.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword: Marching to the Beast of a Different Drummer, by Joe Moe
Preface
1. Forry's Background, Family and Early Years
2. "I Couldn't Sleep with Marlene Dietrich!"
3. Sergeant Ack-Ack
4. The 1950s - Forry's Rise to Fame
5. The 1960s - Forrest J. Ackerman, Movie Actor
6. The 1970s - Colleges, Conventions and Creatures
7. The 1980s - the Best of Times, the Worst of Times
8. The 1990s - Pinnacles of Achievement
9. The 2000s - Documentarian and Octogenarian
Five Personal reminiscences: Martin Powell, Paul Knight, Rick Atkins, David Hawk and Jim Morrow
Chapter Notes
A Brief Bio-bibliography
Bibliography
Index
Painter was a friend of Forry's for 20 years, and her biography is full of warmth and affection. Unfortunately, it could have benefited from a bit of work by an editor. The biography moves along at a fast clip...so that many events are glossed over, and some events are gone into in too much detail.
For example, Forry was married to Wendayne (Wendy) Wahrman. Her real first name was Mathilde, but Forry nicknamed her "Wendayne," and "always referred to her thereafter as Wendy."
Why Wendayne? Where did that name come from? Inquiring minds want to know!
| Inserted right after that comment about Wednayne is a single sentence paragraph, quite out of the blue and apropos nothing that had gone before and nothing that went afterward:
"Forry took one alcoholic drink at the age of 30 and never drank again. He also never regretted that."
She then goes on to talk about fandom, and Forry's attempts to arrange conventions.
These type of things areprevalent throughout the book. |
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Having said that, these kinds of undeveloped non-sequiturs are a mere bagatelle. Forry led a fascinating life and Painter gives us a good view of it, the good and the bad. (Forry and his wife attended a convention in Italy - Wendy was mugged in the parking lot and subsequently died of her injuries).
In 1993 Ray Ferry brought Famous Monsters of Filmland back to life and invited Forry to be editor. Their relationship was not a happy one, culminating a few years later in Forry suing the new publisher for defamation of character. Painter covers this sorry time, which ended in Forry's moral, if not financial, victory.
She then ends the book by sharing reminisces from five of Forry's admirers and friends: Martin Powell, Paul Knight, Rick Atkins, David Hawk and Jim Morrow.
The book is also chock full of photographs, such as of Forry as a young man, with his wife, with members of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society; photos of friends and acquaintances like Robert Bloch, Basil Gogos, the interior of the Ackermansion, various conventions, and so on.
Anyone who has fond memories of the "Golden Age" of science fiction, and of sci fi movies (or of sf movies, if you're an Asimovian!) or the sci fi and horror film genre in genre, will enjoy reading these stories of the Ackermonster.
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