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Memoirs of a Superfluous Fan, 1944

Page 23

follower of chapter doings, his genial, rotund figure was welcome at all times. He was always willing to talk to any of us, especially to wee youngsters like myself. Shortly after the beach party of 1939 he became afflicted with an obscure bone ailment which incapacitated him for many years. In 1941 just after the Devention, Ackerman, Morojo, Erle Korshak, and myself, visited him at the County Farm, and then I saw him again on the campus of Los Angeles City College sometime in 1942, quite well again. his formerly perfectly globular bald-pate, a feature which was his chief attraction at times, now had some unsightly lunar undulations. Alas! this enviable cranium never recovoured [sic] from the affliction.

The meeting night of June 7, 1938, witnessed an interesting lecture by Olsen on hydrophonics, the art of growing plants in chemical solutions. Bob at the time was an agent for a local company promoting this sort of thing. The club, in a grandiose burst of enthusiasm, proposed an attendance of 50 persons, but succeeded at a very late hour in getting only 25. One of the guests at that time was A. Ross Kuntz, who made in and out appearances along with his friend Melvin Kolmatz, until just last year (1943). And then the following meeting witnessed a blow that seemed to presage the beginning of the end... but eventually turned out to be merely the darkest hour before the dawn. The minutes for the meeting of August 17, 1938, open as follows:

"One of the most discouraging, down-hearted, disgusting, disgusting, dreary, disconcerting, disabling meetings in the history of the local chapter. Only 12 members were present at this sad assemblage; the meeting at which one of our most popular members died: beloved by all, the enlightener of many dreary hours, of service and assistance to the cause of scientifiction many times, missed and mourned by all members of the local chapter; yea, of all the scientifictional field, we take this moment to bow our heads in silent memory of our former beloved member IMAGINATION! (Sniffle, sniffle)"

The object here, one might guess, was to make the feeling of disaster communicable to all. What did happen? Apparently, since the death of grandpere Ackerman earlier in the year, the Ackerman fortune had not run so well, and thus in August 1938, at the age of only 22, Forrest J. Ackerman had to give up scientifiction as a full-time occupation and go to work on the swing shift for either the government or Standard Oil as a typist. This was, to the best of my knowledge, Forrie's first real job, and it hit him as hard as it hit the rest of us. Since he was the mainstay on the editing and stencilling end of IMAGINATION!, a fact which unntil then had been begrudgingly admitted only as necessary, it became suddenly obvious that the magazine would have to do some rapid telescoping.

After rapid, though sometimes vapid, discussion, the club showed more good sense than on any similar occasion since, and decided to suspend the magazine, rather than make a slow and agonising descent from one of fandom's top periodicals to the ignominious status of a hanger-on. However, plans had been in the offing for some months to make the anniversary edition a giant of its time, replete with top-notch articles by some of the shining lights of the time, both professional and amateur, plus a full-page of lithographed pictures of the chapter's members. In addition, there was a large accumulation of manuscripts scheduled for future issues, including submissions for a contest on the topic: the future of scientifiction. (These make interesting reading, especially Jack Speer and his "After 1939, What?") When the news of Ackerman's having to work hit the club, everything had to be instantly frozen until it could be ascertained just how much spare-time Forrie was going to have available. The situation came

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follower of chapter doings, his genial, rotund figure was welcome at all times. He was always willing to talk to any of us, especially to wee youngsters like myself. Shortly after the beach party of 1939 he became afflicted with an obscure bone ailment which incapacitated him for many years. In 1941 just after the Devention, Ackerman, Morojo, Erle Korshak, and myself, visited him at the County Farm, and then I saw him again on the campus of Los Angeles City College sometime in 1942, quite well again. his formerly perfectly globular bald-pate, a feature which was his chief attraction at times, now had some unsightly lunar undulations. Alas! this enviable cranium never recovoured [sic] from the affliction. The meeting night of June 7, 1938, witnessed an interesting lecture by Olsen on hydrophonics, the art of growing plants in chemical solutions. Bob at the time was an agent for a local company promoting this sort of thing. The club, in a grandiose burst of enthusiasm, proposed an attendance of 50 persons, but succeeded at a very late hour in getting only 25. One of the guests at that time was A. Ross Kuntz, who made in and out appearances along with his friend Melvin Kolmatz, until just last year (1943). And then the following meeting witnessed a blow that seemed to presage the beginning of the end... but eventually turned out to be merely the darkest hour before the dawn. The minutes for the meeting of August 17, 1938, open as follows: "One of the most discouraging, down-hearted, disgusting, disgusting, dreary, disconcerting, disabling meetings in the history of the local chapter. Only 12 members were present at this sad assemblage; the meeting at which one of our most popular members died: beloved by all, the enlightener of many dreary hours, of service and assistance to the cause of scientifiction many times, missed and mourned by all members of the local chapter; yea, of all the scientifictional field, we take this moment to bow our heads in silent memory of our former beloved member IMAGINATION! (Sniffle, sniffle)" The object here, one might guess, was to make the feeling of disaster communicable to all. What did happen? Apparently, since the death of grandpere Ackerman earlier in the year, the Ackerman fortune had not run so well, and thus in August 1938, at the age of only 22, Forrest J. Ackerman had to give up scientifiction as a full-time occupation and go to work on the swing shift for either the government or Standard Oil as a typist. This was, to the best of my knowledge, Forrie's first real job, and it hit him as hard as it hit the rest of us. Since he was the mainstay on the editing and stencilling end of IMAGINATION!, a fact which unntil then had been begrudgingly admitted only as necessary, it became suddenly obvious that the magazine would have to do some rapid telescoping. After rapid, though sometimes vapid, discussion, the club showed more good sense than on any similar occasion since, and decided to suspend the magazine, rather than make a slow and agonising descent from one of fandom's top periodicals to the ignominious status of a hanger-on. However, plans had been in the offing for some months to make the anniversary edition a giant of its time, replete with top-notch articles by some of the shining lights of the time, both professional and amateur, plus a full-page of lithographed pictures of the chapter's members. In addition, there was a large accumulation of manuscripts scheduled for future issues, including submissions for a contest on the topic: the future of scientifiction. (These make interesting reading, especially Jack Speer and his "After 1939, What?") When the news of Ackerman's having to work hit the club, everything had to be instantly frozen until it could be ascertained just how much spare-time Forrie was going to have available. The situation came