Monday, December 8, 2008

Forrest J. Ackerman: a week of tribute cont..

Forry Fun Facts:

Forry's first encounter with science fiction was Amazing Stories magazine in October 1926 (whether this was the Sept, Oct or Nov. issue I don't know, any insight anyone?)

Forry's first Horror film experience was One Glorious Day in 1922 which he attended with his maternal grandparents.

Forry was likely that last remaining person to recall having seen London after Midnight, which he saw opening night 1929 (Chaney's top hat and teeth were among 4E's prized possessions).

Forry was named an honourary lesbian by the Daughters of Bilitis.

Forry wrote several lesbian stories under the pen name"Laurajean Ermayne"

Forry was the first sci-fi geek to wear a costume to a Science Fiction convention.

Forry qouteth "I was the only one out of 185 fans who wore a futuristic costume.. And in that costume I went out to the World's Fair. They had a platform there and a microphone and they were inviting people from around the world to speak in their native language, in Russian, in Spanish or whatever. So I got enough nerve in this costume to go up to the microphone and speak in Esperanto and I said that I was a visitor from the future where we all spoke Esperanto."

Forry's favourite film was Fritz Lang's Metropolis which he watched in excess of 100 times.

Forry attended a screening of Metropolis at a World Science Fiction convention with Fritz Lang himself.

Forry has said he believes that Phantom of the Opera is the best Horror film of all time.

Forry is on record as being "miserably disapointed" with the now cult classic film Forbidden Plannet at the time of his initial viewing.

Forry 's wife didn't think the term sci-fi would catch on.

Harlon Ellison loathed the term sci-fi and likened it to the sound of two crickets screwing.

At 14 Forry created The Boys' Science Fiction Club in 1930,

Forry helped found the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society and the National Fantasy Fan Federation.

Forry attended all but two World Science Fiction Conventions.

Forry was the recipient of Vincent Price's final autograph.

Forry was agent to over 200 writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Forry was Ed Woods agent.

Forry himself is accredited with over 50 publications including short stories and anthologies.

Forry is responsible for coming up with the name Vampirella and writing her back story.

Forry's Dracula cape is from the stage play.

Forry's Dracula ring is from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Forry claims the title of most film appearances with the least total screen time

Forry has attended parties at the Playboy mansion.

Forry got the idea for a one shot monster mag after returning from the 1957 World Science Fiction Convention with a copy of Cinema '57.

Forry initially wanted to name FM Wonderama.

Famous Monsters only initially debuted in two test markets, New York and Philidelphia.

The first issue of FM had 200,000 copies printed (damn, why are they so hard to find and $$$ now!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uncle Forry was a great pioneer for the global language, Esperanto.

Dankon al vi Onklo Forry, pere de http://www.lernu.net

Gary D Macabre said...

I did think about learning to speak Swahili for a while, but it never panned out.