12.07.08
Forrest J Ackerman
Forrest J Ackerman
November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008
I still remember the moment I first spotted Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine at a corner drugstore in Indianapolis, catercorner from the Glendale Shopping Mall. As a lonely horror and sci-fi movie nerd in the Midwest, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The writing was pretty dopey, even to my 10-year-old tastes, but all the amazing photos were pure mana. I rarely missed an issue for years after, and I started collecting back issues thanks to the prodigious stocks at the old Comic Carnival shop in Broad Ripple.
Like legions of others, Forry and his mag had a huge impact on me. Through it I started to learn about these great (and not-so-great) films, those who made them, and the whole history of what were then still largely dismissed genres. The info about special effects — still mostly mechanical then — led me to learn about movie technology. Many times I’d see an article or just a single tantalizing still about some obscure film, and off I’d go to the library to comb through the film books in the stacks trying to find out more about it. I can’t imagine how many hundreds of hours I must’ve spent in those stacks.
And it was because of this that I learned of the existence of the film branch of the public library in Indianapolis. In those pre-home video days they had an unimaginable treasure: hundreds of old films on Super 8, Regular 8, and 16mm. All you needed was a library card. My mom had a friend who owned a Super 8 projector, and got her to lend it — I borrowed it so much, she wound up just giving it to me. (And it was a really nice sound projector, too — thanks Katie! I kept it for many years, then gave it to a filmmaker.)
I first saw The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, The Lost World, Vampyr, and dozens of other films on the wall of my bedroom, that projector clattering next to me. The library lent them for a week at a time, so I could run whole movies or selected reels over and over. Eventually I started having movie parties, usually on my birthday, subjecting my friends to four solid hours of movies at a time — two hours of shorts, an intermission, then a silent feature. Soon, after brow-beating my parents into buying me a cheap Super 8 camera, I started making my own movies (now all lost forever).
So in truth, it’s largely thanks to Forry that my love for cheesey horror and sci-fi flicks grew into something resembling scholarship about film in general, that I’ve continued to do film programming through the years, started collecting films, and today, as a pot-bellied guy entering middle age, actually get to project 35mm movies at my local cinematheque. His love for the art, his love for his fellow nerds, his playful spirit, and the fact that he managed to forge a life completely devoted to the thing he loved — even when most in the world thought it was worthless trash — were enormous and formative influences for me.
Thanks, Forry.
Famous Monsters of Filmland celebrated its 50th anniversary last month. Forrest J Ackerman (no period after the “J”, please) died quietly at 11:58pm on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2008 at the age of 92.
Forrest J Ackerman interview video: A Life as a Fan (2007)
Excerpt from an interview transcribed for a Sept. 2007 “revival” of Thrilling Wonder Stories.
Watch more streaming video from the same interview.
Links
Obits: L.A. Times, NY Times, Time magazine, and The Guardian (UK)
AICN: “Forrest J Ackerman is gone… Dr. Acula has returned to the grave… & the Ackermonster is at peace…” — A remarkable euglogy by Harry Knowles which includes Ackerman’s own “In Contemplation of My Inevitable Demise,” written on Mother’s Day, 2003.
Some books edited and compiled by Forry — James A. Rock & Company, publishers (Rockville, MD)
Forrest J Ackerman MySpace page
Famous Monsters of Filmland cover gallery — all issues, 1958-present.
Famous Monsters of Filmland — official Web site (now owned by Phil Kim)
Filmland Classics — offers Famous Monsters reprints and other related collectibles
