quote:

Phil was in Hollywood?
Man! I miss too much lying in this box in the cellar!

Taking a mini-Bradbury tour. Eating a Ray's favorite burger joint and the diner owned by Joe Montagne, who was in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit.

jkt sounds like a member of the paparazzi who spotted me in various places.

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Originally posted by philnic:
jkt sounds like a member of the paparazzi who spotted me in various places.

Ray was mentioned on NPR this morning. They were talking about the downturn in building projects one of which was in Long Beach, CA. The specific block targeted was the home that housed Ray's longtime haunt, Acres of Books. That is where Ray’s mention came in as one of the influential people who tried to save the bookshop. Then again the owner received $2,800,000 for the building that will soon house a museum, art gallery and artist lofts; greatly scaled down from the original plan.

Barnes and Noble has a nice bargain book on their shelves: Halloween Horrors. It is $12.98 and is dedicated to Ray plus has a poem, a short story and a Halloween memory by Ray. Originally published as October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween.

Halloween-Horrors-HC.jpg (57 Kb, 8 downloads)

I had posted this years ago on here, but I now have a photo or two. The photos are of the actual Downie Brothers Circus which maybe, just maybe, Ray misremembered as Dill Brothers. It was Ray's recollection that he went to the Dill Brothers Combined Shows in Waukegan on Labor Day weekend in 1932, specifically, on a Saturday. However, the Downie Brothers Circus was in Waukegan on September 3, 1932: a Saturday! He recalled that, the day after he saw the Saturday performance, he spoke with the sideshow performers on their day off. This recollection fits with information that the circus had that Sunday off and probably remained in town.

Kewl, keep on the trail!

Great photos, Doug. (The second one is undoubtedly a horseless carriage!)

I did some research around this, too, when I was in Waukegan last year. As Ray tells the story, it was not only Dill Bros, it was Labor Day weekend, and it was just after his Uncle Lester's funeral. But when people have researched it, they cannot get the dates to tie up, nor find Dill Bros.

I didn't find anything illuminating about the circus/carnival, but I have the full story of Lester Moberg's death, which I need to write up one of these days.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
I did some research around this, too, when I was in Waukegan last year. As Ray tells the story, it was not only Dill Bros, it was Labor Day weekend, and it was just after his Uncle Lester's funeral. But when people have researched it, they cannot get the dates to tie up, nor find Dill Bros.

I know - I couldn't either. But when you substitute Downie for Dill, everything falls into place, including the dates. I wonder if it's actually Downie's he attended.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:
...everything falls into place, including the dates...

Not quite everything, because Uncle Lester was not buried at that time. However, my theory is that he went to A carnival around Labor Day (probably Downie's), and that there was another carnival of some kind around the time of Lester's funeral. Over time, the two have become conflated into a single memory.

What is weird, though, is that other members of Ray's family confirmed Ray's chronology of events (Sam Weller writes about this in The Bradbury Chronicles). Either Ray is right [seems unlikely to me, because death certificates and newspaper accounts directly contradict him] or his whole family shared his mis-recollection of events [also seems unlikely... except Ray is a convincing storyteller, so maybe they were all convinced by the plausibility of his narrative...]

Some of Ray's other biographical anecdotes are also at odds with the facts: Moon-landing day, when a British tabloid had a headline about him; the real-life Lonely One never being caught or identified. And others that I can't think of right now.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
Not quite everything, because Uncle Lester was not buried at that time.

Oh, I didn't realise - I thought Uncle Lester was funeralised on the day Ray went down the lakeside to visit with Electrico. Perhaps his recollections are slightly off with regards to the dates.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:
...I thought Uncle Lester was funeralised on the day Ray went down the lakeside to visit with Electrico...

That's the way Ray tells it, but the dates don't match. I don't have the details to hand - I have some key documents as photocopies, but I'd have to go rummaging for them.

I like that the British say "to hand".

Aw, I was hoping you'd pick up on "rummaging" (which is a good word)...

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
Not quite everything, because Uncle Lester was not buried at that time.

Um, he wasn't buried because he was still alive. He died about a month later--strange that Ray went on to write, first a short story, then a whole novel, about a carnival arriving in October! And yet, still remembered his uncle's death and funeral occurring around Labor Day (first weekend of September for those not in the U. S.) when he in fact died in October.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
However, my theory is that he went to A carnival around Labor Day (probably Downie's), and that there was another carnival of some kind around the time of Lester's funeral. Over time, the two have become conflated into a single memory.

Phil, it's weird either way--a carnival arriving in October, or Ray imagining one if there wasn't. Maybe he was wanting any excuse to escape Uncle Lester's wake, and so ran to his memory of how happy he was around the carnival--although the carnival was gone.

What else is weird, is that not only has Uncle Lester's grave remained unmarked, but those of Ray's grandfather, sister, and brother! I'd have been all over marking those, first thing, the instant I had money! Of course, there's no guaranteeing that, had Lester had a marker, it wouldn't have given just the year and not the day.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
Some of Ray's other biographical anecdotes are also at odds with the facts: Moon-landing day....

He got moon-landing day wrong? Well, he had company! For years my dad told people we moved to our current house on moon landing day, and that it was July 4, 1969. We could never convince him it was July 20 and he even printed it in an autobiographical booklet! The move was quite definitely moon landing day, not July 4, because the only furniture in the house was tables and chairs left by the previous owners. Our furniture hadn't arrived, so no couch--so we plugged in the TV and watched the moon landing sitting on the bare floor!