Sci-fi's grand old man, Forrest J Ackerman, dies

LOS ANGELES – Forrest J Ackerman, the sometime actor, literary agent, magazine editor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term "sci-fi," has died. He was 92.

Ackerman died Thursday of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, said Kevin Burns, head of Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of Ackerman's estate.

Although only marginally known to readers of mainstream literature, Ackerman was legendary in science-fiction circles as the founding editor of the pulp magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. He was also the owner of a huge private collection of science-fiction movie and literary memorabilia that for years filled every nook and cranny of a hillside mansion overlooking Los Angeles.

"He became the Pied Piper, the spiritual leader, of everything science fiction, fantasy and horror," Burns said Friday.

Every Saturday morning that he was home, Ackerman would open up the house to anyone who wanted to view his treasures. He sold some pieces and gave others away when he moved to a smaller house in 2002, but he continued to let people visit him every Saturday for as long as his health permitted.

"My wife used to say, 'How can you let strangers into our home?' But what's the point of having a collection like this if you can't let people enjoy it?" an exuberant Ackerman told The Associated Press as he conducted a spirited tour of the mansion on his 85th birthday.

His collection once included more than 50,000 books, thousands of science-fiction magazines and such items as Bela Lugosi's cape from the 1931 film "Dracula."

His greatest achievement, however, was likely discovering Bradbury, author of the literary classics "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles." Ackerman had placed a flyer in a Los Angeles bookstore for a science-fiction club he was founding and a teenage Bradbury showed up.

Later, Ackerman gave Bradbury the money to start his own science-fiction magazine, Futuria Fantasia, and paid the author's way to New York for an authors meeting that Bradbury said helped launch his career.

"I hadn't published yet, and I met a lot of these people who encouraged me and helped me get my career started, and that was all because of Forry Ackerman," the author told the AP in 2005.

Later, as a literary agent, Ackerman represented Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and numerous other science-fiction writers.

He said the term "sci-fi" came to him in 1954 when he was listening to a car radio and heard an announcer mention the word "hi-fi."

"My dear wife said, 'Forget it, Forry, it will never catch on,'" he recalled.

Soon he was using it in Famous Monsters of Filmland, the magazine he helped found in 1958 and edited for 25 years.

Ackerman himself appeared in numerous films over the years, usually in bit parts. His credits include "Queen of Blood," "Dracula vs. Frankenstein," "Amazon Women on the Moon," "Vampirella," "Transylvania Twist," "The Howling" and the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video. More recently, he appeared in 2007's "The Dead Undead" and 2006's "The Boneyard Collection."

Ackerman returned briefly to Famous Monsters of Filmland in the 1990s, but he quickly fell out with the publisher over creative differences. He sued and was awarded a judgment of more than $375,000.

Forrest James Ackerman was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 24, 1916. He fell in love with science-fiction, he once said, when he was 9 years old and saw a magazine called Amazing Stories. He would hold onto that publication for the rest of his life.

Ackerman, who had no children, was preceded in death by his wife, Wendayne.

I just realized today that a good Xanga friend has dropped me and blocked me, probably over my post on the grave error of voting for Obama. I have to stand by the teachings of the Church, and feel sorrow over the loss of someone I admire. Just War and Katrina are debatable subjects, and I've referred to Bush as an idiot on my blog. But The Freedom of Choice Act is not debatable, and the effect abortion has on Western civilization is undeniable. God condemns it, and even if there are some in the hierarchy who have done great harm through their aiding and abetting child molesters, we know that on this count they are speaking for God. They are not lone voices, but a unison of bishops have decried the policies that this man, whom I am praying for, will promote to enlarge the number of abortions in this country. Abortions which, I might add, are targeted at minorities more than anyone else.

Overturning Tables, Pro-Obama Catholics and Common Ground

By Gunnar Gundersen
11/14/2008
Catholic Online



A former law student of Professor Doug Kmiec gives his strong reaction to the results of the recent Presidential election in the United States.

LOS ANGELES, Ca. (Catholic Online) - On this website Professor Kmiec has expressed a desire to comply with Church teaching. In fact, he made various arguments on this site regarding why his approach of voting for a candidate who wanted to enshrine abortion as a fundamental right, pay for abortions, force insurance companies to pay for abortions and fund the creation and killing of millions of babies with embryonic stem cell research was in keeping with Catholic teaching. An effort that unfortunately was proven to be successful.

However, recently on slate.com, when speaking to a general audience, he revealed his true colors. When discussing his proposal of supporting a constitutional amendment that would recognize that human life begins at conception, but requiring that no government could pass legislation based on this fact without a super-majority he stated: "This is not the ideal Catholic position, but it's closer, and the Catholic Church has less standing to complain about a grant of freedom that could then be fairly influenced by the moral instruction associated with a woman's religious choice." (emphasis added). 

With all due respect to Professor Kmiec, Holy Mother Church does not complain nor is Her teaching on the necessity for the legal protection of life a complaint. She teaches us how to live according to the will of Christ, our Lord. When her pastors tell us that “[t]he common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice” or that “[a] person who supports permissive abortion laws, however, rejects the truth that innocent human life may never be destroyed. This profound moral failure runs deeper and is more corrupting of the individual, and of the society, than any error in applying just war criteria to particular cases,” end of story.

Should there be any doubt, Pope Pius XII, Defender of Civilization, the visible head of God’s Church on earth could not have been any clearer: “[a] social teaching or a social reconstruction program which denies or prescinds from [the] internal essential relation to God of everything that regards men, is on a false course; and while it builds up with one hand, it prepares with the other the materials which sooner or later will undermine and destroy the whole fabric [of society].”

The 2008 Democratic Party platform states that “[t]he Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose a safe and legal abortion [to murder her child], regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken and undermine that right.”

In 2007 Obama stated: "On this fundamental issue [continuing to allow the murder of innocent babies], I will not yield and Planned Parenthood will not yield." Now, this past week, Obama’s transition team is already planning on rescinding the executive orders put in place by Bush to prevent American taxpayer funding of abortions worldwide and the domestic creation and destruction of millions of embryos specifically for the purpose of embryonic stem cell research.

The social teaching of the Democratic Party and President Elect Obama which allows, protects and pays for the right to kill an unwanted innocent person by definition “prescinds from [the] internal essential relation to God of everything that regards men.” Their social teaching and program cannot be considered a good under any legitimate interpretation of Catholic teaching.

Our bishops warned us of the moral peril of voting for Senator Obama and we, as a group, refused to listen at our own spiritual peril. As St. Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Ephesians still reminds us: “It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop even as we would upon the Lord Himself.” When our bishops told us that the common good cannot be achieved by voting for a politician who wants to pay for the killing of innocent babies or protect baby killing as a right, what was the response of pro-Obama Catholics like Professor Kmiec? Argumentation. Is this how we would treat our Lord? The endorsement of Obama, a man who supports the death of innocent babies, a man who like Pontius Pilate thought that the truth of when human rights begin is above his “pay grade,” and then referring to his election as a “miracle” is inviting us to praise the election of a man who practices things unworthy of God, the author and protector of life.

Against those who would wish to take us away from the teachings of our bishops and the Catholic Church regarding the importance of protecting human life from conception to natural death, St. Ignatius further warns us: “For some are in the habit of carrying about the name [of Jesus Christ] in wicked guile, while yet they practice things unworthy of God, whom you must flee as you would wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly, against whom you must be on your guard, inasmuch as they are men who can scarcely be cured.”

Now at this point, I know some will complain and argue that we must find common ground with those like Obama who tell mothers they have a right to kill babies, that I am being divisive. Indeed, some argue that the Christian approach is to sit at the table with pro-Obama/pro-choice Catholics and try to find common ground on the “life issue.” However, the Gospel reading from last Sunday reminds us what Christ would do to a table where those who act contrary to the faith sit:

“Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” John 2:13-16.

We must reject the invitation to sit at the same table with those who are willing to compromise our faith, who are willing to support and encourage politicians who want to support legally and financially the murder of innocent babies. We must reject the views of Catholics who ask us to accept this situation as the permanent status quo. However, Professor Kmiec in an October 17, 2008 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times invited us to make such a compromise:

“Sometimes the law must simply leave space for the exercise of individual judgment, because our religious or scientific differences of opinion are for the moment too profound to be bridged collectively. When these differences are great and persistent, as they unfortunately have been on abortion, the common political ideal may consist only of that space.”

As Cardinal George so forcefully reminded us this week, “common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good.”

Indeed, our bodies are God’s temple, the bodies of unborn children are God’s temple and “[d]o you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.” 1 Cor. 16-17. Would God find common ground with those who pay for and support the destruction of his temples? I think not. What He wants is the conversion of pro-choice politicians!

Let us not fall into complacency, let us not take the invitation of our fellow Catholics to give up on seeking legal protections for the unborn. We must remember the Catholic understanding of government: "But if you do evil, be afraid, for it [government] does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer." Romans 13:4. It is the job of government to actively stop evildoing, which includes abortion. Therefore, we as a self-governing people have an obligation to speak up! We must stand up to their false teaching; we must not give them a platform to lead our fellow Catholics astray. Catholic parishes, schools and media are for one thing, building up the faith, not for giving voice to those, whether intentionally or not are trying to lead us away from our faith.

It is my sincere prayer that we can all be united, not in Obama, but in Jesus Christ the author of life! May Christ have mercy on all of our souls, especially those most in need of His mercy and may God give us the strength to never waiver in defending the unborn and to refuse to allow misguided Catholics from spreading distortions and untruths through parishes, media and schools dedicated to spreading His Gospel, no matter how well regarded or good a friend.

****

Gunnar Gundersen graduated number one in the Class of 2007 from Pepperdine University School of Law, where he studied Constitutional Law under Professor Douglas W. Kmiec. He is also a former law clerk of Judge O'Scannlain of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.