quote:

Originally posted by darkdiscoveries:
He says quite a bit about it and makes it clear Rod let him down and broke his promise not to touch his stories.

That's exactly what Ray told me when I asked him about it. He said that after the first one, Rod called him (after he realized that he had unknowingly lifted an idea) and apologized. Ray forgave. Rod said that he would have his lawyers get in touch with Ray, which Ray said was unnecessary, but Rod insisted. The lawyers never called. "If only he hadn't promised that", Ray said...

If you read biographies of Serling he was always saying things verbally he had no intention of following through on. If Ray doesn't intend to do something, he says so IMMEDIATELY--he will say no and sometimes offer a reason. Apparently polar opposites in this respect, which made Ray feel with some justification that Rod was untrustworthy.

(The similarities between "Where is Everybody?" and "The Silent Towns" are actually less than between others of Ray's stories and other stories in the genre both on and off the TZ.)

I saw some of the Bradbury-Serling correspondence when I was in the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies last August. I don't have permission to publish anything that I saw, but I will summarise by saying that there are definitely two sides to this story, with apparently less than perfect behaviour on both sides.

The entertainment business is pretty sketchy, I have a couple of friends that are in it, lots of broken promises, no-shows, feuds, all kinds of erratic behaviour. I thought the visual art business was volatile, but I'm really glad I didn't want to be an actor when i grew up.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
I saw some of the Bradbury-Serling correspondence when I was in the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies last August. I don't have permission to publish anything that I saw, but I will summarise by saying that there are definitely two sides to this story, with apparently less than perfect behaviour on both sides.

See that's what I've always believed.

quote:

Originally posted by fanboy:
The entertainment business is pretty sketchy, I have a couple of friends that are in it, lots of broken promises, no-shows, feuds, all kinds of erratic behaviour. I thought the visual art business was volatile, but I'm really glad I didn't want to be an actor when i grew up.

Ray gave his reasons for not choosing acting as a profession with words of this sort: "You are told when you can work and you have to work with a lot of people you don't like." For not directing, he would have no patience (I mean, NONE) with an actor's moods and whims. The entertainment business has a bigger concentration of mental defectives than an insane asylum.

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
Ray gave his reasons for not choosing acting as a profession with words of this sort: "You are told when you can work and you have to work with a lot of people you don't like."

He also had this to say on the matter of why he didn't become an actor: "Because I couldn't remember the goddamn lines!"

After licking his wounds trying to be an actor early on with Laraine Day and other friends in Hollywood, Ray gave up on acting and only played one dramatic role on stage in his adulthood: He played the Grandfather in a production of DANDELION WINE. He had one line, and he blanked out and blew it. That was the end of it for him.

Since then, he's never looked back. However, he definitely realizes that he has become a master performer (in front of ANY audience) and that his whole life is one glorious piece of theatre. He doesn't need to hide behind any other roles in order to entertain, edify and mesmerize people.

Terry Pace
pillaroffire@bellsouth.net

"God, here and there, makes madness a calling." -- Ray Bradbury

Ray also played the role of a pawnbroker in the pre-release film version of THE WONDERFUL ICE CREAM SUIT. At a theatrical showing here in Chicago of the film several years ago attended by Ray and director Stuart Gordon, Gordon said Ray's scene was cut because it was considered unnecessary and slowed the film down, and Ray said he completely agreed with that decision.

Ray also did some acting (of a sort) in some of the prologues of early Ray Bradbury Theater episodes. And he acted a bit in a BBC Omnibus documentary about his work (one of the first pages I ever put on my website covered this [ link here] ...and I see I never did quite get round to finishing the review...)

Exactly, but in both of those cases (and in David L. Wolper's RAY BRADBURY: STORY OF A WRITER), he was playing himself (or alter egos of himself from his own work). He has no problem with that. In fact, he's even gotten better at it over the years.

For instance, he originally recorded the narration for the SOMETHING WICKED film, but in the end he agreed with his fellow filmmakers that it didn't sound very convincing. Just a couple of years later, he started doing the intros for the BRADBURY THEATRE and became much more self-confident. By 1993 he was providing the narration for THE HALLOWEEN TREE -- and hitting all the right notes.

That BBC OMNIBUS documentary is really quite good (and better in many ways than the MASTERS OF FANTASY piece). I have an old VHS of the OMNIBUS that Ray gave me, and I'm in the process of converting it to disc. It's fascinating!

Terry Pace
pillaroffire@bellsouth.net


"God, here and there, makes madness a calling." -- Ray Bradbury

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
And he acted a bit in...

And in Corwin (1996), and Rich and Famous (1981), and the voice of adult Ralph in Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby Is a Friend of Mine (1982).

quote:

Originally posted by WritingReptile:
See:<br /> http://www.raybradbury.com/ubb...um4/HTML/000045.html <br /><br />for more conversation, debate, and controversy over Ray's involvement with TZ

Ah, the archival version! For the current version, see here. https://raybradburyboard.com/ev...901/m/8931076901/p/1 Feel free to bump up by adding!

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
If you read biographies of Serling he was always saying things verbally he had no intention of following through on. If Ray doesn't intend to do something, he says so IMMEDIATELY--he will say no and sometimes offer a reason. Apparently polar opposites in this respect, which made Ray feel with some justification that Rod was untrustworthy.

(The similarities between "Where is Everybody?" and "The Silent Towns" are actually less than between others of Ray's stories and other stories in the genre both on and off the TZ.)

I'm sure that's true. Always two sides to every story. Interesting to see Beaumont's opinion on it too (this was from letters he wrote Ronald Clyne, etc.) Most thought highly of Serling, but sometimes people make bad decisions in the heat of things. In this case, it sounds like Ray felt slighted by Rod after he seemingly helped him out getting TZ some writers.

- James
www.darkdiscoveries.com

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
...Anyone know how the unforgettably named Bonk Johnson's work is going?

I've been in touch with "Bonk", and unfortunately her book has been delayed. We just have to watch this space for further developments.