The Legacy Project

Greetings!

It's been a while since we've updated -- lots of interesting developments going on behind the scenes. But for those of you in the Los Angeles area, I wanted to let you know that Tom's Alma Mater UCLA and the Outfest Legacy Project will be screening Teenagers from Outer Space, Toast to Our Brother, and Island Sunrise on Sunday, May 17th, 7:00 PM, at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Hammer Museum.

It should be a real treat!


The Outfest Legacy Project was selected a few months ago as the most appropriate group with whom to entrust the restoration of The Noble Experiment, Tom Graeff's first feature film. Hopefully we'll be able to see a clean print in the next year or so!

Outfest does some really great restoration work, and have a regular screening series at UCLA, where their archive is housed. If you can't make this screening, definitely check out their other movies on their calendar.

A few farewells ...

This post has been a long time coming, but has been tremendously difficult to write. 2008 has seen some great losses, from Paul Newman to Heath Ledger, but some of the most far-reaching and inspirational names are ones you may not be familiar with.

Forrest Ackerman in April, 1951.

The first of these is Mr. Forrest J Ackerman, who passed away on December 4th at the age of 92. Forry (4SJ, FJA, Mr. Science Fiction), was the favorite uncle of a league of sky-gazers and monster kids, nerds and dreamers like John Landis and Stephen Spielberg whose appetite for fantastic tales was sated only by a weekly copy of Famous Monsters of Filmland from the local dime store.

Reprint of Issue #1, Famous Monsters of Filmland

Famous Monsters, first published in 1957, was only one of Forry's huge number of contributions to the world of the weird. The man who coined the term 'sci-fi' also contributed prose and fiction to dozens of magazines and journals, represented a generation of genre writers (including Ray Bradbury, L. Ron Hubbard, and Isaac Asimov to name a few) via his Hollywood literary agency, owned an 18-room collection of horror and science fiction memorabilia, and was a respected participant in every aspect of the entertainment industry.

Advertisement for Ackerman's "Out of This World" Science Fiction Agency

Forry was the man who made space ships cool and used Dracula's coffin as a coffee table. He created Vampirella, and wrote lesbian fiction in the 50's, allied with Los Angeles gay rights group Daughters of Bilitis. A lover of puns and schoolboy jokes, Forry adored Al Jolson and all the men, women, and children -- those honorary nieces and nephews -- who visited his homemade palace of cinematic treasures, from Ed Wood props to a replica of Metropolis' golden robotrix.

Forry with friends Ray Harryhausen and Ray Bradbury, 2005.

Though Forry never had any biological children, generations of his disciples became both friends and family, and he left this earth as he lived, surrounded by love, affection, and youthful wonder.

Beverly Garland in Roger Corman's Not of This Earth (1956).

Actress Beverly Garland, who starred in a half dozen Roger Corman films including Not of This Earth, also passed away this week, aged 82. Most well-known for her role in the television series My Three Sons, Ms. Garland started her acting career in the 1940's playing bit parts in film noir before moving up to star in low-budget sci-fi flicks in the 50's and 60's. Not a typical scream queen, Beverly was described as a kind, down-to-earth girl, and fun to work with. She had a killer screen presence and played strong heroines, whether chasing aliens or alligators.


Later in her career Beverly was a regular on dozens of television shows, and she operated the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in North Hollywood through her death. Always friendly to fans and filmmakers, Beverly will be remembered as a gracious dynamo who lit up the screen with her charm and charisma.

Dr. Norman Watson circa 2006.

Lastly, but certainly not least, is Dr. Norman Watson, onetime chancellor of Orange Coast College and founder of KOCE, Orange County's long-running public television station. Watson began his career as a professor at OCC, where he was the faculty advisor for Tom Graeff's second film, The Orange Coast College Story. Watson enlisted his friend of Vincent Price to narrate the film.

In 1972, while still chancellor of OCC (as well as the Coast Community College District), Watson helped to found KOCE in order to broadcast educational content to local students. 35 years later KOCE has become the 6th most-watched PBS station in the country, broadcasting 24 hours a day on TV and the Internet. Dr. Watson died on February 29th at the age of 92.

Space Sugar. Next: Space Lobster (with Space Butter?)

Wired this week announced that scientists have discovered that "a sugar molecule linked to the origin of life was discovered in a potentially habitable region of our galaxy." Sugar? Sweet!

"The molecule, called glycolaldehyde, was spotted in a large star-forming area of space around 26,000 light-years from Earth in the less-chaotic outer regions of the Milky Way. This suggests the sugar could be common across the universe, which is good news for extraterrestrial-life seekers."

While this discovery is unlikely to make a dent in the "is there or isn't there?" debate, it's nonetheless fascinating to hear about. Besides which, the only thing more improbable than humans finding a way to travel far enough, long enough, to find another planet swarming with life (or Creatues from the Id), is that we're the only living matter in a massive universe full of floating intergalactic chemicals.

We're not alone. As Derek said, "we were put on places far, far apart."

Ro-man seen here getting a little space sugar of his own.

The Day I Held The Noble Experiment

for the first time was one of the greatest moments of my life. The metal canister, all rusted with age, the smell of vinegar ... and a decades-old, peeling label with a simple name scrawled on the side: GRAEFF.

In tiny scrawling caps beneath, I read Ronald and His Magic Pill, and I knew I had finally found the holy grail. Tom Graeff's first feature film was sitting in my hands. If only Richard Valley was still around to see it.

A still I cleaned up. Though magentaed, the color is mostly salvagable!

My friend Mike picked up the canister and hoisted it up on the table. A former projectionist for USC, he was used to lugging heavy films around, though never before with such excitement. He bubbled with energy as we (gently) pulled out the first reel and started to inspect our treasure, buried in a basement of filmic wonders for 50 years.

The story began in summer of 2007, when I first got in touch with Austin McKinney and Lee Strosnider through a friend. I was in Connecticut, and had to will myself to pick up the phone -- I'm terribly shy with phones, though not many know this. I was shaking when I said hello, shaking when I asked them if they would be willing to be interviewed, and shaking when I lamented that The Noble Experiment had been lost to time.

"No," Lee said. "There's a copy in our basement."

I stopped shaking.

Lee explained that he and Austin had kept copies of all the films they'd ever worked on, including TNE and Tom's short film, Toast to Our Brother. He also assured me that their film was intact and in pristine condition. (Note: If anyone has a copy of Redneck Miller or non-MST Skydivers, Lee and Austin would really appreciate a copy!)

We talked for a long time that first day, and when I hung up the phone I was elated, reeling, and strangely wary. It had seemed too easy. Richard had known about Lee and Austin, hadn't he thought to ask? If TNE was that easy to locate, how could it have been considered "lost" in the first place?

Especially in '07, when so much information was swirling about Tom Graeff between Jim Tushinski's project and my own, I couldn't believe I had the luck of finding it, something my 14 year-old self could never have dreamed of when I emailed Bryan Pearson for the first time. My (then) 21 year-old self could barely believe it either -- I'd struggled on this project for so long, and against so many obstacles, but God was undoubtedly on my side that day.

Two months later when I received the film, I was almost in tears. The four of us looked at the first scene -- crisp, clear, though heavily magentaed -- then returned the film to its canister to make sure it remained in good condition while I had it examined professionally. Because of its format, there are only a handful of places the original copy could be digitized or even screened in its native format, Fox Studios, American Cinematheque, and The UCLA Film & Television Archives, who have expressed great interest in restoring and screening the film next year.

Cleaned up vs. Original. Restoration will be a long task.

I never meant to hold onto this secret for so long, but with restoration imminent, I thought it was the right time to let people know. Many, many films, especially those by cult filmmakers, are considered lost, and with early stock disintegrating it's more important than ever to make an effort to find these films before it's too late.

Next up, London After Midnight? Here's to hoping.

Later that evening, I sat on the couch in my crummy apartment and popped on Teenagers. It was just the two hulking octagons and me. I stared at them and smiled.

The Noble Experiment DOES exist.
And I found it.

This discovery was made during the filming of documentary The Boy from Out of This World. Read more about Tom Graeff and The Noble experiment at Tom Graeff dot org!

Get better, Forry!

TOMGRAEFF.ORG would like to join the monsterkid and sci-fi communities in wishing Forrest J Ackerman, grandfather of much ghoulish nerdery, a speedy recovery. Here's to your 92nd, 4e!