From: Mike Glosson
Location: San Diego, CA
Date: 12/05/2008
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/12/forrest-j-acker.html
I was out on a walk, called in to let the wife know I would be longer than planned, and she had just gotten the news.
Off to buy some Root Beer in a few minutes
From: Greg Bear
Date: 12/05/2008
We've been expecting this for some weeks now; Forry will be with us in so many ways, it's difficult to imagine him gone.
From: Mike Glosson
Location: San Diego, CA
Date: 12/05/2008
I've been working the wires and been to the store since my first post on this. We are having a small gathering here at my house tonite, and I've been in touch with a lot of Forrey Fans across the nation this afternoon.
He may even get mourned in Malaysia tonite.
The man was a veritble fixture at various events.
We've been wonder who all will be at the actual funeral...
From: Bill Goodwin
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Date: 12/06/2008
Root beer is a good idea. Root beer and an old ish of Famous Monsters.
Spoke with Bradbury this afternoon, who knows this drill and is forging through with his usual sanguinity.
To the inhabitants (too many) of scienti-heaven: Forry's coming! BEWARE OF THE CONCUSSION!
From: Mike Glosson
Location: San Diego, CA
Date: 12/07/2008
Greg:
Wow! Thanks for posting that rememberance of Forrest J Ackerman on your main page. I acutally choked up reading it aloud to my wife just now.
The LA Times did a better Obit for him yesterday, which can be found here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-ackerman6-2008dec06,0,3646064.story?page=1
Mike & Storm in San Diego
From: David Clark
Location: San Diego, California
Date: 12/10/2008
I thought it both fitting and ironic that Sunday's LA Times Calendar section was mostly devoted to "Sci-Fi" films being released or in development. The term sci-fi was plastered all over the headers. This in the town where Forry lived his life, coined the term, and the city that did not want his one-of-a-kind collection and allowed it to be scattered to the winds.
I seem to recall that the Ackermansion we used to visit in the sixties was on Sherborne Drive (Sp?)
From: Greg Bear
Date: 12/11/2008
Quite right! Sherbourne Drive is the name I was looking for. The actual address was 915 S. Sherbourne, which, looking it up on Google Earth, seems to be an apartment complex now. Glendower was the location of the second Ackermansion, which I never visited.
From: Bill Goodwin
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Date: 12/17/2008
"The greater world grieves and draws together in a time of tragedy: the loss of a Kennedy, a Martin Luther King. So we in the special world of Fantasy share our sorrow and try to comfort one another with words as we think of the deeds of our departed Hero and mourn his passing. We can no longer say, "O king, live forever." Instead, will you join me in your heart and beam this thought into the great beyond: O King, love--forever!"
The words are Mr. Ackerman's themselves, in memorial to Boris Karloff. Famous Monsters has been on my mind of course, and when I finally dug out a random issue last night (#56) they were the first thing I saw upon opening it. Naturally I was struck by how well they applied to their author, himself.
Further along one finds another note, mailed in by a 17-year-old enthusiast:
"I write this letter sadly but not with a tragic sadness; I feel we should all grok Mr. Karloff as a great man who lived happily and died with much accomplished. Few people could ask for more.
Greg Bear
San Diego, Calif."
!!!
From: Greg Bear
Date: 12/17/2008
In that same issue, the young Bear also has a second note signed G.Reginald Urso. And somewhere out there, a cartoon of the Frankenstein's monster with a tear in his eye... like a similar cartoon of Mickey Mouse, after Disney died.
From: Bill Goodwin
Location: Los Angeles
Date: 12/18/2008
Hah! How could I have missed it!
I had letters published back to back in the L.A. Times once, as Bill Goodwin and Wilma Ginwood.
Perhaps they were fooled. I'm sure GReg Urso didn't slip past a mind like Ackerman's though--even if easily eluding mine.
Will B Good in
Los Angeles
From: Greg Bear
Date: 12/29/2008
I sent in two letters, and Forry coined the pseudonym for me! If you have that issue available, a scan for the web page might be fun. (Send it c/o webmaster Terran.) I can't find mine at the moment.
From: Bill Goodwin
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Date: 06/22/2009
I spent some Father's Day time with Ray Bradbury this afternoon, which was good for both of us I think (my own dad passed away when I was three). He told me about his last visit to Forrest Ackerman--how he held Forry's hands and "thanked him for my life." Tragic and yet not so, as we so seldom get the chance to make all our various ammends and/or goodbyes in this world with the grace and celebration they deserve...anyway, I thought I'd scoot down here to December '08 and mention it.
Ray was talking about Robert Wise at one point, and asked me to hand him a VHS tape of Citizen Kane so he could point out Wise's editing credit (which I hadn't known about). As I passed him the box I saw it was signed to him by Orson Welles. The things that appear out of the "clutter" in that den continue to amaze...Ray's got quite a collection of his own and I hope someone does better justice to it one day than was done to Ackerman's. Spotting a Mugniani print from The Halloween Tree, I mentioned that Greg Bear had done a great painting of Mr. Moundshroud's kite. "It's fantastic!" Ray burst out, with obvious joy. (On an infinitely more prozaic level, I drew him an "Applause" sign earlier in the week--to replace one that had been lost--and the very next day found him holding it up in a NY Times piece...what fun!)
Ray's short-term memory is chancey and "peripheral apparati" well-worn, but his spirit simply refuses to be inconvienced by it. I treasure every moment I've spent with this dear, dear man.
From: Greg Bear
Date: 06/22/2009
Good people keep Ray's memory in fine shape. Our visit was a delight, and we'll post pictures soon on the blog.
From: Bill Goodwin
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Date: 06/22/2009
Looking forward to that! And of course when I speak of memory I only mean minor things, the sort I misplace myself, at half Ray's age.
Incidentally, I have not forgotten the above-mentioned Famous Monsters scan...it's just that I'm an unbelievable Luddite: only recently got a scanner and haven't mastered (okay, unpacked) it yet. When I do, I may pester you with several things!
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