Ray's legacy will surely include plays - he has written numerous, and he loves the theatre. Here are some photos of last evening's production from the Fremont Centre Theatre.

Thanks, for being Spauldingerous in your photos. The fellow next to The Empire Strikes Man (to the right, holding the white program) is Herb Yellin, of Lord John Press who prints many of Ray's works in limited editions.

Who created the 'Dandelion Wine' wine?

About Forry Ackerman! Now what kind of place is he living in? And what ever happen ultimately with the Ackermansion?

What was your take on the play?

One final question? You were this attire to Bar Mitzvahs? And do you feel like you are a better person for it?

__________
All answers must be submitted by the end of the day, and will become the property of the Ray Bradbury Board

Thanks for sharing the photographs---and how was the show? I'm a bit envious of all of you, who are able to attend these events! (PS---I like your shirt!)

I no like this new photo display thigamajig.

Some youngsta' at Harper likes the gadgetry and thinks this is cool? I think it's slow and the pictures are small, even in the enlargment cycle. And you have to set the time you can look at a photo. How many more add-on gadgets do we need here?

Anyway, hear Ray might have went tonight. Surely next Friday!!
Thanks, Douglaster for the visions!

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Originally posted by Nard Kordell:
Who created the 'Dandelion Wine' wine?

I disremember.

quote:

About Forry Ackerman! Now what kind of place is he living in? And what ever happen ultimately with the Ackermansion?

See here and here.

quote:

What was your take on the play?

The playwright was terrific, and the actors wonderful! Many there called it his best production ever. Two-thirds new stuff (including a delightful story about a fake mummy) and one third Dandelion Wine, it was great!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doug Spaulding,

quote:

Originally posted by theoctobercountry:
I like your shirt!

Thanks - so did Ray!

quote:

Originally posted by Nard Kordell:
I no like this new photo display thigamajig.

Some youngsta' at Harper likes the gadgetry and thinks this is cool?

Neither do I.

Youngsta' is a good word.

quote:

Originally posted by Nard Kordell:
About Forry Ackerman! Now what kind of place is he living in? And what ever happen ultimately with the Ackermansion?

Nobody rescues collection depicting sci-fi era
SignOnSanDiego.com
September 20, 2002

HOLLYWOOD – For Hollywood and history, it was horrifying. Vultures descended on the estate sale, bickering over prices and carting severed monster heads and space aliens out the landmark mansion's door.

Forrest J. Ackerman, the 85-year-old author and sci-fi king, graciously sat on a fold-out chair and watched his lifelong dream destroyed. Somehow, he managed a smile as strangers grabbed up his late wife's $1 Jell-O molds along with the priceless treasures he'd amassed since he was 10 years old.

For 51 years, almost every Saturday morning and for free, the enthusiastic funster tookwhomever showed up on a lively, chill-filled "touch everything" tour of the "Ackermansion," jampacked with a 300,000-piece movie memorabilia collection once dubbed the "Fort Knox of Science Fiction."

Mostly it was regular folks from around the globe, but A-list celebs, including Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price and Steven Spielberg – the latter who with George Lucas credits Ackerman with inspiring their filmmaking – also ogled at the Martian machine from "The War of the Worlds" and the pteranodon that tried to spirit away Fay Wray in the 1933 "King Kong."

Though he was repeatedly ripped off – some moron even hijacked half of the 18-foot sub from "Atlantis, the Lost Continent" – Ackerman until lately let strangers trek through his bathrooms, bedrooms and kitchen because he wanted to share the gifts and purchases he poured every penny into. But here's the real horror story: For decades, Forry, as he was nicknamed, futilely tried to get Hollywood studios, moguls and the city of L.A. to give his wondrous wares a permanent home.

And now it's too late. Ackerman had to sell the dilapidating 18-room mansion, move into a small nearby bungalow and liquidate the largest collection of its kind in order to pay $200,000 in legal bills incurred during a court battle with former business partner Ray Ferry over the pen name Dr. Acula. Ackerman won but Ferry declared bankruptcy.

"How much is this?" the vultures buzzed as they snatched Forry's beloved fantasy paintings and posters off the walls.

"$25," Ackerman replied.

"Will you take $23?"

Author Ray Bradbury didn't go to the weekend estate sale; he says he would've cried. Ackerman, who was the longtime editor of the pulp magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, gave Bradbury his first writing break in 1937.

"It's a disaster. This shouldn't have happened," said Bradbury, who claims that over the years he tried to get everyone from the late Mayor Tom Bradley to Spielberg to help with a museum. "Hollywood has never done anything about itself. They're greedy, selfish and they're stupid!"

Ackerman, who coined the term "sci-fi" in the '50s and created the Vampirella comic, is still recovering from pneumonia and brain surgery to remove a blood clot, but he sat in that fold-out chair all day, autographing every bargain-basement item for free. Once, he seemed on the verge of tears when he turned over a gargoyle figurine to write his name and saw an old message from the fan who gave it to him – "To Forry" next to a heart.

But then, he bravely grinned and addressed the next customer in line. "Can I come and visit your collection sometime with all that great art?" he kindly asked the man buying a sci-fi trove.

Who knows why Hollywood, rapturous for remakes but pathetic at preserving its past, never came through. A rep for Spielberg said he remembered being offered all or part of the collection but that the director "may not have been interested at that time" or that when asked, "it was so casual, in the middle of a movie, that it never got further than that." A spokesman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said a curator from its library, which has extensive archives on Ackerman, visited his home, but that an "official" proposal was never made and the collection was too diverse for the academy.

Whatever. It's scary.

So instead, there was the ghastly garage sale. Soon, there'll be three auctions, where Forry's 50,000 spine-tingling book collection and other high-end relics go on the block. He did manage to keep about 50 of his most prized mementos, which now surround him in his modest rental.

Before going to the estate sale, the lanky gent put aside his walking cane and hammed it up in a cape that Lugosi donned in a 1932 stage production of "Dracula." (Theatrics come easy – he's had scores of cameos, and laughs that as a teetotaler, he drank apple juice at a bar in "Beverly Hills Cop III"). Next to the dining table, he showed off the teeth and top hat worn by Lon Chaney in the 1927 film "London After Midnight."

"Don't touch it! That will blow us all to Adam!" he jokingly shouted when a reporter neared a mounted electricity switch from the 1935 "Bride of Frankenstein."

Forry has no heirs. "These things are his children," said Ann Robinson, a friend who starred in the 1953 "War of the Worlds."

And, no surprise, this big-hearted creature still wants to share his brood with everyone. Next month, with his live-in nurse at his side and by appointment only, Forry plans to begin giving tours of his new digs. He devilishly smiled; once again he'll joyously spook "victims" with long-lost Hollywood lore.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doug Spaulding,

quote:

Originally posted by Nard Kordell:

...Anyway, hear Ray might have went tonight. Surely next Friday!!...

Nard! "Might have went"?!?!

For shame!

(One of my pet peeves actually, is the inexplicable abuse (at least amongst folks old enough to have been taught better) of the past perfect tense!)

Braling II
You rascal. Taught English in High School, eh?
Hahha! You are right. It sounded funny then...but I'm doing a lot of that lately. Never 'learnt' to diagram sentences. It was akin to mathematics! (at least I put it in quotes!)

Thank you Rabbi Spaulding for the photos. Well maybe not all of the photos.

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Originally posted by Nard Kordell:
Never 'learnt' to diagram sentences.

You West-Coasters! Back in skool in NW Floridy we learned how to talk real good!

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Originally posted by jkt:
Thank you Rabbi Spaulding for the photos.

Shalom.

I'm not really Jewish - I don't have a beard!

Dougsterabbi Spauldinger:
Just too darn sad to think to long about all the goings on during the sale at the Ackermansion.
I don't understand how things got so shredded, whereas old Mayor Tom Bradley was supposed to (wasn't he?) have some dealings with guiding all the 'inventories' into a safe habitat, etc.

I think about how SO MUCH stuff is now being generated in the media industry, SO MANY books, SO MANY movie memorabilia-in-the-making events, that its downright enormously PLENTIFUL. Not so important anymore, the old stuff? Someone certainly has to consider it important. Not enough of 'em out there? Well, like the treasures of Bagdad, it's now mostly all scattered to and fro and hither come yonder.
Like the dust of all of us someday...in one way of looking at it...

I am so glad that I took the time to request an appointment to visit with 4E in the Acker-mini-mansion. Shortly after the events discribed above, he relocated into the smaller digs and was most gracious to me when I came upon him on a Saturday visit. I had him autograph a copy Of the book he authored on Metropolis which I purchased from him that day. It is one of my treasures now, and I have watched the film something like 5 times on the excellent DVD from Kino Video (4E will tell you that he has seen the film over a hundred times!) I also own a copy of Hurray For Horrywood in which 4E takses the visitor on the afore mentioned tour of the original Ackermansion. AH, what a damn shame that no one in Horrywood could see to get a few measly bucks together to save that collection. Shame on all who had the power and didn't use it.