Hosted by Ray Bradbury
Saturday, November 22nd from 1 p.m. -5 p.m.
BOOKFELLOWS MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION BOOKSHOP
238 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California 91203
818.545.0206

On November 22nd Ray Bradbury is hosting a birthday party for his dear friend Forrest J Ackerman. As most of you have heard, Forry is quite ill and will not be able to attend the event. We will be videotaping this function so that Forry will have a DVD with all of his friends wishing him happy birthday to watch on his birthday, the 24th.

We'd like to have people wish Forry the very best and let him know how much he is loved. All of Forry's long time friends have been invited. People can give testimony/tributes to Forry. A microphone for those inclined to tell a Forry story, or tell us (and him) what he means to them.

We’ll have a full sheet cake with an image of 4E and a monster collage on it. The event is quasi-private. Instead of a come-one come-all event the word has gone out to friends of Forry first. We’ll possibly be doing a video conference if Forry is up to it. He may be able to briefly greet us. Hopefully, we’ll be able to wish him happy birthday in real-time.

If people, here, wish to post a tribute to Forry I will print it out and make sure it gets to Forry. If you’d prefer to make your letter private please email UncleEinar@earthlink.net. I will print that out and make sure it gets to Forry. You can still put a stamp on a birthday card and mail it directly to him:
Forrest J Ackerman
4511 Russell Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027

This is not a formal signing event but a celebration of the Ackermonster, hosted by Ray Bradbury. Although, Mr. B may be inclined to sign an item or two that is purchased from the bookshop.

We will have a DVD for sale at the bookshoppe Saturday of the Three Legends event from last February.

We didn't record the event with that in mind, but had so many requests (thru the shoppe) that we have made an edit available.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:
We will have a DVD for sale at the bookshoppe Saturday of the Three Legends event from last February.

We didn't record the event with that in mind, but had so many requests (thru the shoppe) that we have made an edit available.

I hope to goodness that you edited me out. Otherwise you've spoiled a great DVD.

quote:

Originally posted by jkt:
I hope to goodness that you edited me out.

Not only do you figure prominently on the DVD, you also rate a special credit (thanks to)!

In fact we loved your line "two minutes" so much, we made that the opening line!

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:

quote:

Originally posted by jkt:
I hope to goodness that you edited me out.

Not only do you figure prominently on the DVD, you also rate a special credit (thanks to)!

In fact we loved your line "two minutes" so much, we made that the opening line!

I'll now have to buy them all and burn them.

quote:

Originally posted by jkt:
I'll now have to buy them all and burn them.

Sold!

If anyone who is coming to the party tomorrow has a Mac notebook they can bring, please know that we are trying to do an iChat conference between 4E and the party. The person who was going to be bringing the notebook has had to bail out.

I know very little about video conferencing, but perhaps even a Windows unit could connect to 4E's Mac via iChat. I have an HD camcorder with a DV connector if that might work.

Any suggestions?

For those of you old enough to remember the TV show My Three Sons, Chip (Stanley Livingston) came into the bookshop and signed the birthday card for 4E today.

quote:

Originally posted by jkt:
For those of you old enough to remember the TV show My Three Sons, Chip (Stanley Livingston) came into the bookshop and signed the birthday card for 4E today.

Chip!? Impressive!

Forry has a mac? Yay! I'm a mac head, myself.

quote:

Originally posted by fanboy:
Forry has a mac? Yay! I'm a mac head, myself.

That makes three of us. And then there's Nard.

My son is also a Mac guy and has suggested that I dump my Dell and get a Mac.

I called Ray after seeing the TCM production of Robert Osborne's program interviewing Ray prior to the four movies Ray chose (haven't seen them all yet as I DVRed them). I told Ray that he looked pretty good for a guy his age and his comment was "Your're lying."

Then he went on to tell me about the release dates on his new books and I mentioned that I AM trying to keep up with them all. And he mentioned that he will be there in honor of Forest's birthday today.

When I mentioned Richard Bach (the guy that was instrumental in my meeting Ray some 41 years ago) he wanted me to let him know if I heard anything new about him. Unfortunately, as opposed to Ray, Richard is rather a recluse.

quote:

Originally posted by biplane1:
My son is also a Mac guy and has suggested that I dump my Dell and get a Mac.

Your son sounds a very clever lad.

Just returned from the party where I shot over an hour of footage to make 4E a DVD. The tributes were many and wonderful. Ray B opened with a moving tribute to his dearest friend. Following that was speech-making by such friends as Angus Scrimm, Doug Dunning, Joe Lansdale, George Clayton Johnson, Paul Davids, Dennis Etchison, and many more.

We then made an old-fashioned phone call to 4E, and the entire gathering sang Happy Birthday to him. He was touched, and verbally thanked us before hanging up.

The cake was marvellous - one image was of 4E and the other was a montage of Universal monsters. We saved the Universal montage for 4E, and after the party, I hand-delivered the cake to him, along with a huge birthday card signed by many, and two letters which came in from old friends and were read at the party: one from Bill Nolan, and one from Ray Harryhausen.

I shall return here within a day or two to post links at which photos and video can be viewed.

I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, as he's still quite ill, but 4E has beat the pneumonia and the renal infection, and besides the congestive heart failure (which there's really nothing one can do about), his only complaint right now is a bed sore, which brings some pain, unfortunately. Overall, however, 4E is getting better in spite of himself!