|
Holy man of Hollyweird >> Forrest J. Ackerman, the world's greatest fanboy by RUPERT BOTTENBERG
Of course, when the film-buff bug first bit, young Forry Ackerman hardly knew what he'd caught. "In October, 1926," he says, "little nine-year-old me was standing in front of a newsstand, and a magazine called Amazing Stories jumped off the newsstand, grabbed hold of me--magazines spoke in those days, and that one said, 'Take me home, little boy, you will love me!' "Three years later, my mother was quite concerned. She said, 'Son, do you realize how many of these magazines you have? I just counted them, you have 27. Imagine, by the time you're a grown man, you'll have 100!' Well, mother made it to 94, here in my 18-room home with 50,000 books alone." That home doubles as the Ackermansion, open to guided tours... and you'll need one to navigate the mess. Originally owned by a movie star named Jon Hall ("He played kind of a poor man's Tarzan called 'Ramar of the Jungle,'" says Ackerman), the unassuming abode is packed to the ceilings with the kind of glorious junk most moms pitch out while you're at summer camp. Here's what happens when they don't: "I've got complete files of Amazing Stories, going back to April 1926, as well as files of 200 other science fiction and fantasy magazines from around the world... 125,000 still photographs from the last 100 years, of Dracula, Frankenstein, King Kong and Close Encounters and all the fantastic movies... a number of the dinosaur models from the original 1933 King Kong and Bela Lugosi's Dracula cape that I saw him wearing on the stage in 1932 and his Dracula ring... I have life masks of Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Charles Laughton..." Ah, yes, the grand old icons, the heroes of horror. They don't make 'em like they used to. "I guess the last one left would be Christopher Lee," sighs Ackerman. The same goes for the great spook-shows, seemingly buried for good. "It's a very rare occasion when I see something that's going to last, like The Exorcist. We don't seem to be getting many new classics. I don't know what in the world is happening. Universal Studios is waking up to their heritage, that they were once known as the 'horror studio.' In a couple of months, we're going to see the new Mummy. But I understand that in February they're gonna present Frankenstein once again, and this time the monster will be a computer-generated image!" The future of fantastic fun may look rather bleak, but that doesn't worry Forry. At the Ackermansion, at least, there's always something good playing. "You know, I have 2,100 video cassettes, many of them eight hours apiece. I'm forever mining the past for things I know I'll really like." Forrest Ackerman is the Fan Guest of Honour at ConCept Boréale, Friday, October 2 to Sunday, October 4 at Days Inn Downtown (1005 Guy), $30 for the weekend, day passes at the door. Signing session Friday at 6pm
|
As publisher of the venerated Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine (since February, '58!) and host/proprietor of the Ackermansion sci-fi/monster movie museum in Hollywood, Forrest J. Ackerman has transcended the status of mere collector or historian. He's the spark that keeps the old B&W creep-a-thons alive, a staple of fantasy conventions worldwide, as recognizable a figure among fans as the fiends he worships. He's taken fandom beyond a hobby, a career, a pathology even, and refined it to a spiritually fulfilling art form.