R.I.P.: Forrest J. Ackerman

Just a short note in passing to commemorate the death of Forrest J. Ackerman on Thursday. He was 92 years old. He was the founder of Famous Monsters of Filmland, a magazine dedicated to cinematic horror, fantasy and science fiction. He is credited with introducing the term "sci-fi" to the language. He was also famous for his home in California, the "Ackermansion", which contained over 50,000 volumes and unique items of memorabilia, such as Bela Legosi's Dracula cape and the ring Boris Karloff wore as the Mummy. He was the friend and inspiration to many famous writers and movie personalities in his specialized area, and was the power behind the infamous "Zimmerman treatment"; a proposed outline for a The Lord of the Rings movie that was so bad Tolkien demanded that if they were to make it they would have to give him complete power of veto on any future developments or an enormous wad of cash.

During a very formative part of our lives (mid-70's to early 80's), Famous Monsters was one of our regular reads and a great source of b&w photos of great monsters collected into one place. Before the internet it was one of our few sources of info on the movie genres we so loved. So thanks, Forrest J. Ackerman. I know you didn't believe in any sort of afterlife, but I hope you were pleasantly surprised when Prince Sirki came a-calling.