From the 2008 sucks dept: Forrest J. Ackerman - RIP (1 Viewer)

[Tony J Case]

Forrest J Ackerman is slipping away. . . .

Ok, the guy is 91, so he's had a good run, but the impact on geek culture this man has had has been HUGE! Peter Jackson, Stephen King, and Tim Burton (just to name a scant, scant few), plus promoting and archiving rubber monsters and B-movies everywhere. It's a sad, sad day, my geek brethren.

 

[Ruz-El]

Very sad. I hope if something does happen, his collection is maintained. :frowning:

 

[RobertR]

I'm very lucky to have been able to visit Mr. Ackerman at his mansion with the full collection. It was a wonderful experience.

 

[Don Solosan]

Forry had a huge influence on my life, and I'm happy to say I got to visit the Ackermansion a couple of times and told him so (he just smiled and nodded...).

 

[Johnny Angell]

Robert & Don, I envy your opportunity to meet Forrest. I also think you should take this opportunity to tell the rest of us how you got the opportunity and how it went in more detail.

BTW, when I clicked on that link for the AICN article, it had an ad for a Creature From the Black Lagoon collectible that Forrest might like, except for the fact he's probably got some of the real stuff. It does look like Sideshow Collectibles puts out good stuff.

The article gives an address to mail Forrest a card, which I am doing.

 

[Don Solosan]

Johnny,

I grew up as a "monster kid," meaning I watched Sir Graves Ghastly-hosted movies on local Detroit TV in the 1960s, built Aurora monster models, cooked up my own Creepy Crawlers in the basement and so on. When Boris Karloff died in 1969, I cut out the newspaper article and started keeping a monster movie scrapbook. Halloween was my favorite holiday.

At some point I noticed Famous Monsters magazine on display at our local drug store, but my mom wouldn't let me buy it until after I turned 11 (it was issue #60 from December of 1969, with Dorian Gray on the cover, if you're interested). After that, I bought every issue for about six years and devoured them for information on my favorite films and filmmakers. For a while I wanted to be an animator like Ray Harryhausen, and experimented with still cameras. My friends didn't really care about the details, so the magazine filled a void: there were other people out there who were as deeply interested in this stuff as I was. And it was Forrest Ackerman who connected me to them. Uncle Forry. The Ackermonster. He was like the cool, supportive grandfather/uncle I never had.

Eventually I outgrew the magazine, but not my love of movies. Flash forward 20 years.

I was living in Los Angeles. Every year the L.A. Weekly newspaper publishes a "Best of L.A." issue, and one year they had a listing that caught my eye. It said that Forrest Ackerman gave free tours of his movie memorabilia collection at his house in the Hollywood Hills. All you had to do was call. So I did, and one Saturday morning I drove over to the Los Feliz area, up into the hills, and to his house, the Ackermansion. A small group of people showed up. Forry came to the door and let us in.

It's obvious that Forry was an obsessive collector. I'm fascinated by them, but I never could be one. I'm a minimalist; being surrounded by all that stuff would drive me crazy. But it doesn't mean I can't admire someone who does it, and does it well. Forry did it very well. His collection was huge, but for the most part it was very well displayed. And the house was big enough to give him room to work. There were paintings lining the stairs that I recognized as covers from the magazine. There were shelves and shelves and shelves of books. There were props and models from King Kong. A full-sized Cylon from Battlestar Galactica in the living room. By that time I was attending the World Science Fiction convention and was a member of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, so I recognized his Hugo and Saturn awards by the fireplace. He told a story about Bela Lugosi's cape, and showed us Dracula's ring. There were tentacles, and skulls, and bugs galore. Not only in the house, but beneath it! He called the crawlspace "Grislyland" and it was full of treasures as well. The whole time he's telling stories about his life. At some point I went into overload; I simply could not process it all.

I do remember trying, at some point, to tell him about the effect he had on my life. I must have sounded like thousands of other fans who had said the same things. As I mentioned above, he just smiled.

A year or two later, I went back with a couple of friends who were also "monster kids." One of my prized photographs is from that visit: standing in Forry's living room, he has his arms thrown around us, with a big smile on his face.

I've managed to run into him a number of times over the years, mostly at WorldCons. I followed his battle with Ray Ferry online and rejoiced at his courtroom victory. Once I was sitting in a theater waiting for Jurassic Park 2 The Lost World to start and heard a familiar voice behind me. It was Forry, with a bunch of friends. I doubt he remembered me, but he was always gracious.

The world without him will be a poorer place.

Thank you, Forry, for everything.

 

[RickER]

Don, that was a fantastic story. Wish i could have met him too!
The worst part of living in the middle of the country, you never get to see some of the cool movie stuff.
Heck, i want to see Vasquez Rocks before i die! LOL

Who is Ray Ferry, anyway?

 

[RobertR]

Johnny,

A friend of mine at work with whom I share a lifelong fascination with the SF genre suggested to me one day that we visit Mr. Ackerman. It was an easy drive from Long Beach, where I was living at the time. Forry greeted everyone with friendly enthusiasm, making us all feel very welcome. I loved every second of it...from the enormous pulp magazine collection to the movie props. And what props! Bela Lugosi's Dracula cape, stop motion figures from the original King Kong, the Martian machines from War of the Worlds, the robot from Metropolis, and on and on. Just wonderful. Forry regaled us with anecdotes about his experiences in his younger days with people such as Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov. He also did a reading from a script. His enduring love for the genre after so many decades was infectious. What a wonderful gentleman.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I'm quoting myself so I can say, ask a good question, get two great answers. Thank you so much.

I lived in San Diego for all my life until about '92 and never knew he was so accessible. If I had realized that, I would have been there. He sounds like my kind of guy, a little boy who never grew up.

 

[Don Solosan]

"Heck, i want to see Vasquez Rocks before i die! LOL"

Actually, I've driven past the area where Vasquez Rocks are, but I've never seen them either. I'd like to.

"Who is Ray Ferry, anyway?"

Here's the full story:

Famous Monsters of Filmland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The short version is that Ferry entered into a business agreement with Forry to print new issues of Famous Monsters and then tried to screw him over. Forry won the case and a cash settlement. Ferry filed for bankruptcy protection, so Forry won't get paid.

I thought Forry gave up his collection and stopped meeting with fans, but according to Wikipedia this isn't true. It says he moved into a smaller house, still in the Hollywood Hills, with part of his collection, and continued his tradition of sharing this wealth with fans.

 

[Tony J Case]

A bump for the thread - apparently Uncle Forry passed away.

Forrest J Ackerman is gone

Still, 92 is one hell of a run. I hope to get close to that age myself.

 

[Henry Gale]

Perhaps the header could be updated

LOS ANGELES - Forrest J Ackerman, the sometime actor, literary agent, magazine editor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term "sci-fi," has died. He was 92.

 

[Steve Christou]

Yeah sad news, and he was old, I wish I could live as long. Like others here I grew up reading Famous Monsters of Filmland and still have loads of them in a box somewhere.

R.I.P Uncle Forry. :frowning:

 

[EricSchulz]

A very sad day indeed...my first experience with FM was finding isssue #56 (Land of the Giants) at Books Inc. while I was a kid in Niles, IL. I, too, read it for YEARS, collecting back issues and being a horror "nut". I highly recommend tracking down the recent issue of "Rue Morgue" magazine which did an extensive section on Forry and FM's 50th Annivesary, right down to the Basil Gogos-style cover of Forry!

 

[RobertR]

RIP, Forry. You gave me some wonderful memories.

 

[Don Solosan]

Goodbye, Uncle.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Rest in peace, Uncle Forry. :frowning: