Ackerman Archives

This is what callers to the Ackermansion heard: Forry Ackerman's phone message inviting them to his Saturday open house. The message changes at the end, when Forry was no longer able to entertain visits from everyone who wanted to see his collection.

Clark was Forry's nickname when he was less than five. His birth certificate has his middle name as James, and Forrest was then spelled with one "R". This was the image that was on Ian Johnston's computer home screen when he suddenly heard a voice blurt out in a childlike voice "Oh my gosh, no way" (apparently in response to a comment just made saying "Was Forry Ackerman really dead?")	This is the costume Forry wore to the First World Science-Fiction Convention in New York in 1939. He loaned Ray Bradbury (then an unpublished author) the money to attend, which jump-started Bradbury's remarkable science-fiction writing career. Bradbury went on to write classics such as THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, and FAHRENHEIT 451.
Forry wore this ring for decades, that Bela Lugosi wore when he played Dracula in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein." The ring was auctioned at the Ackerman estate sale where it fetched $40,000. Amazingly, over the next year it traveled 4000 miles to Nova Scotia where it appeared in a window display for exactly one day, just one block away from the home of the director of a film biography on Forrest J Ackerman (Michael MacDonald). Michael was astounded to see the ring had "come to visit him" after Forry passed away.	The crypt marker at Forest Lawn Glendale Memorial Park. Friends bring red carnations, as Forry had suggested. His wife, Wendayne, is remembered as "Beloved Wife of Mr. Science Fiction." She passed away 18 years before him.
Forry chose the words for his remembrance: "Sci-Fi was my High." He came up with the term "Sci-Fi." His wife had told him it would never catch on. The inspiration was "Hi-Fi" - "Hi-Fi" music (High Fidelity) was popular in those days before stereo was launched.	Forry went by many code-names, among them: 4E and 4SJ, as well as FJA. This sign outside the Ackermansion declared thqt he was 4SJ of Karloffornia. Boris Karloff may not be well known today to the younger generation, but he was immortalized by his performance as "Frankenstein" in 1933.
Ray Bradbury (left) and Forrest J Ackerman (right) are both having trouble keeping their eyes open at Forry's 90th birthday party. They've been up for days signing too many autographs. These two men were close friends for life, and at the tribute for Forry, Ray Bradbury credited Forry with agenting his first stories and getting him published for the first time.	John Goss, who has done art designs and web designing for Forry Ackerman's website, came up with this ghoulish portrait of Forry Ackerman, showing off the Bela Lugosi Dracula ring.
Forrest J Ackerman (left), Ray Harryhausen (center) and Paul Davids (right) in the Ackermansion in 1986, celebrating the launch of new Ackerman magazine, MONSTERLAND. The great special effects pioneer and maestro, Ray Harryhausen, passed away March 7, 2013, two months shy of reaching his 93rd birthday. Forry, Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury were all 92 years old when they departed.	Executive producer, Hollace Davids (right) speaks with Mrs. Diana Harryhausen in the living room of the Ackermansion (1986).
Young Casey Wong sculpted this head of his mentor Forry Ackerman. Casey met Forry when he was four years old when Casey's Dad took him to visit the Ackermansion. He decided Forry would always be his "Uncle Forry." Casey's career in makeup effects took off when he was still a teenager.	Forry's publicity photo at the height of his career. He ALWAYS wore those funny-looking thick glasses with the weird frame.
The final photographic portrait of Forry Ackerman, created by photographer Russell Maynor, a director who lives in Albuquerque. Very weird things, as if suggestive of Forry's ghost, began happening to Russell beginning when he first went to visit Forry's crypt.	This is the cover of the very first issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine from 1958. The publisher (James Warren) and Forry feared it might just end up a "one-off" and lived to see it pass 200 issues. Originally selling for thirty-five cents, you would be lucky to find a good-condition copy of this issue today for eight hundred dollars.
Forry, also known as "Dr. Acula," in his office in the Ackermansion. You think this was in a state of confusion? This was Forry's office AFTER he had cleaned it up.	Forry poses with various ghoulish heads in the first Ackermansion, which was located on Sherman Way in Los Angeles and was considerably smaller than the next Ackermansion on Glendower which had 17 rooms filled with memorabilia (18 if you count the downstairs bathroom, which was filled with horror props too.)
A typical Forry expression that all fans and friends remember. Relax, Forry, things were never THAT bad.	Paul Davids took this photo of Forry Ackerman in about 1977. Forry is in the living room of the Glendower Avenue Ackermansion.
This is very early Forrest J Ackerman publicity -- at a time when writers still sometimes put a period after the "J". Pre-Famous Monsters of Filmland.	This memorable FM cover refers to Ray Harryhausen as the man who saw "KING KONG" 90 times. Forry and Ray were friends, ever since Ray was a teenager who had just been wowed by seeing the original "KING KONG" at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood when it was initially released.
Forry had this booklet about his life printed for one of his birthday parties. It is a parody of the cover of the issue of Amazing Stories that Forry first discovered -- he said the magazine jumped off the news-stand and said "Take Me Home Little Boy, You Will Love Me." This was LONG before Forry passed away and other things began jumping off shelves and walls and mantles for those receiving apparent communiction from him, all documented in "The Life After Death Project 1 & 2"	Joe Moe holds up a copy of the world's shortest short story written by Forrest J Ackerman and published in honor of his 90th birthday in time to be passed out at the party so all the guests could read it. It didn't take long to read. It consisted of ONE LETTER OF THE ALPHABET. It was the letter "F". The title of the story is COSMIC REPORT CARD: EARTH. Forry gave the earth a failing grade, and that was the beginning and the end of the story!
Jo Paul Davids commissioned this painting from L. J Dopp after completing "The Life After Death Project." They were looking for poster and cover ideas, and this one (without the grim reaper and the beady-eyed demons and the african mask) became the basis for the back cover of the Special Collector's Edition 2-DVD Set.	Paul Davids took this photo of Wendayne Ackerman at the Ackermansion in 1986. Paul and his wife, Hollace, had been invited to the Ackerman home for dinner with the Ackermans and Ray and Diana Harryhausen, as well as Zsoka Pal, the widow of the great science-fiction producer, George Pal.
At the 2006 premiere showing of "The Sci-Fi Boys" at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood (where it double-billed with "Return to Skull Island" from the Peter Jackson "King Kong" DVD release), Forry clowns around with a Kong hand. Evidently, Kong is trying to strangle him, but Forry lived to tell the tale.	Paul Davids commissioned John Goss to create this portrait of Forry Ackerman as elderly spaceman. This was at a time when they were trying to come up with concepts for the cover of the DVD of "The Sci-Fi Boys." This idea was not selected, and the winner was a painting by Basel Gogos, the artist who created so many Famous Monsters of Filmland (FMOF) cover illustrations. In the final cover, Forry is among other sci-fi cinema luminaries (including Peter Jackson, Dennis Muren, Ray Harryhausen, Rick Baker and John Landis) reading a guide-book to Skull Island.