Welcome back to Dark Corners Streaming.
Often when we do livestreams people ask how we got into horror,
and a key moment for me was the discovery in the attic of a collection of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine,
which had belonged to a friend of my Mum’s.
The magazine was the brainchild of superfan, Mr Science Fiction, the Ackermonster himself, Forrest J Ackerman.
'And if we could seperate these, what heights the good in us might climb, and the bad will be sent into the primordial dust.'
Shot when Ackerman himself was 90, Michael MacDonald’s documentary Famous Monster,
which you can find on Youtube –
celebrates the life and work of the father of fandom.
‘He shook the hand of H. G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle’
For those who don’t know, Ackerman was perhaps the first of a type of fan that we instantly recognise today,
‘He was the original geek’
he coined the term sci-fi,
‘And there tattooed on the tip of my tongue was ‘sci-fi’’
introduced Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury,
‘And from that day forward we’ve been the best of friends’
and even invented cos-play when he attended the first world science fiction convention.
‘He dressed for the occasion’
He was also the first person who thought it might be worthwhile to collect memorabilia at a time when it was treated as trash.
‘You want Dracula’s cape – sure, take it, I don’t care. You take it.’
Eventually amassing a vast collection crammed into his home, dubbed the Ackermansion,
open on Saturdays for anyone who wanted to wander around.
‘Once upon a time there was just me collecting things.’
Forry had already been proclaimed science fiction’s biggest fan when, in 1958 he started a new venture.
‘Magazine producer Jim Warren felt the time was right for a one-time horror mag aimed at all those monster crazed kiddies out there.’
Famous Monsters of Filmland was an instant success,
‘Issue one sold 200,000 copies’
tapping into a previously unrealised market.
‘Nobody really cared about these pictures expect us kids, nobody wrote about them seriously,’
'It took everyone by surprise to see that there was a magazine.'
promoting horror, and it’s editor along the way.
‘The magazine was an extension of his personality, and thats why the magazine was so attractive because Forry was ag big kid.’
Although the film does touch on the untold story of his life.
‘Forry was forced to sell almost everything’
I’m not sure I would really call Famous Monster a documentary,
more a celebration, in the same way that Famous Monsters the magazine was a celebration of genre films,
old and new, not a critical analysis of them,
so in that sense, the film is very much of its subject.
‘The ultimate fan’
Whether or not this will play for people who aren’t already fans, I don’t know,
but for those who are it is an oddly personal shared trip down memory lane.
'I bought all of them. All of them.'
There are so many films I first encountered in these pages,
so many actors who are still touchstones,
and oh, those adverts at the back.
Famous Monsters had folded by the time I picked up a copy but I absolutely recognise the sentiments here.
‘That trashy magazine was feeding my brains’
It still feeds mine, and that is because of the childlike enthusiasm of Forry Ackerman himself.
‘I think Forry did inspire many people – he inspired me’
Something he expressed so effortlessly and unselfconsciously,
so that those of us talking about these movies today can only look on with envy.
I think Ray Bradbury says it best.
‘He has never given up being the boy of all time’
Famous Monster is short and light on detail, but filled with love.
Certainly worth watching.
Thanks for watching. Are you a Famous Monsters fan? Did it get you into horror? If not, what did?
Let us know in the comments below.