Since Steve has already given us the germane facts about Forrest J. Ackerman in his wonderful obituary on Forry, I just want to write a few personal observations about the FJA I knew as my editor.
But first, I’d like to quote something Ray Bradbury told me shortly after Vincent Price passed away. When I mentioned Mr. Price’s passing to Bradbury, about 15 years ago in San Francisco, I remember Mr. Bradbury seemed to sense my rather melancholy tone, and immediately tried to cheer me up by saying, “Vincent had a wonderful life, though, didn’t he?” Well, of course he did! Certainly the same can be said for Forry, and although I didn’t think of it at the time, something Vincent Price says as Prince Prospero in The Masque of the Red Death seems rather appropriate to quote now, especially since Forry was a confirmed Atheist. Prospero, seeing that his lover, Juliana has been killed by a falcon says, “I beg you do not mourn for Juliana… we should celebrate. She has just married a friend of mine.”
Likewise Forry is now meeting many of his friends… namely Charon, Prince Sirki, or the Death personified so beautifully in Poe’s story. But Forry had a long and a wonderful life, which he should be celebrated for, and not mourned – since one thing both Forry and horror films teach us is that death must come to all men, and is simply a natural part of life.
In fact, Forry was always giving tributes in the pages of Famous Monsters to the dear departed of filmland, but it wasn’t until Boris Karloff passed away — on February 2, 1969 — that I felt the sorrow of somebody dying, that registered as a real loss. Of course I didn’t know Mr. Karloff, except from his movies, but at that young age, I still somehow felt he was a close friend of mine.
Likewise, I suspect most readers of Famous Monsters felt that Forry was a distant Uncle or a dear friend of theirs. I certainly didn’t know Forry when I bought my first issue of Famous Monsters, in 1967, but his thoughts came though to me in each new issue of FM. It would be many years before I would actually meet and work with Forry, as an editor. The first time was when I contributed articles to his short-lived Monsterland magazine, and later when I sent Forry most of the star tributes he used, along with my long interview with Vincent Price that formed the centerpiece to his Famous Monsters tribute issue to Price that appeared shortly after Price passed away.
I last saw Forry about ten years ago, when I visited him at his modest apartment, after he had given up his “Ackermansion” on Glendower Ave. high in the haunted hills of Hollywood. Ironically, on that visit to Los Angeles, I went on a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s fabulous Ennis-Brown House, used so memorably as the exterior location in William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill and in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Driving up Glendower drive, I passed Forry’s old house at 2495 Glendower and was saddened to see it being totally disemboweled by a construction crew! But sad as that sight was, at the time Forry was still with us. Now that Prince Sirki has finally called him to his domain, “let us not mourn him, but raise our glasses in a toast to Forrest J. Ackerman and his glorious legacy.”
As Forry simply put on his calling cards, he was the authority par excellence on: “Science Fiction – Filmonsters & Esperanto” I’ll miss calling him at (213) Moon Fan.
RIP