The Bradbury Chronicles (53 page)
Read The Bradbury Chronicles Online
Authors: Sam Weller
Page 58: “Lester Moberg's death certificate ⦔: State of Illinois Death Certificate, Lake County Coroner's Inquest,
Waukegan News-Sun,
Oct. 24, 1932, and
The Independent Recorder,
Oct. 27, 1932
Page 58: “But Ray Bradbury was ⦔: Interviews with RB, Skip Bradbury, Ray's cousin Vivian, and Lester Moberg's daughter Carol Moberg Treklis.
Page 59: “There was also no record ⦔: From an author interview with Fred Dahlinger Jr., director of Collections and Research at the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI. Dahlinger had no record of “Mr. Electrico.” He did find entries in his collection for a “Mlle. Electra” (1911â1914) and a “Miss Electricia” (1926 and 1946). Bradbury researchers have commonly mistaken the popular 1930s traveling outfit “The Sam B. Dill Circus” for RB's mythic “Dill Brothers Combined Shows.” The circus trade magazine
White Tops,
however, in its Jan.âFeb. 1955 issue, stated the Sam B. Dill Circus was in Crawfordsville, IN, on Labor Day. RB said emphatically that it was not the Sam B. Dill Circus. In Waukegan on that Labor Day weekend coincidentally were two other circuses: the popular Hagenbeck-Wallace and the Downie Brothers circuses. The
Waukegan News-Sun
did mention a lakefront carnival but not by name. The Dill Brothers Combined Shows and Mr. Electrico, to this day, remain a mystery.
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CHAPTER 6
Page 62: “Little did we know ⦔: RB, “The Inspired Chicken Motel,”
I Sing the Body Electric!
Page 63: “We both wanted to be magicians ⦔: Author interview, John Huff.
Page 66: “Opened to much fanfare ⦔: Gleisten,
Chicago's 1933â34 World's Fair: A Century of Progress
.
Page 68: “The kids found out ⦔: Author interview with Lydia V. McColloch.
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CHAPTER 7
Page 72: “⦠He was horny”: Author interview with Vivian Gneuwich.
Page 72: “In those days ⦔: RB article “George, Marlene and Me” from
Life
magazine, July 1991.
Page 76: “Eventually, though, Burns ⦔: Ibid.
Page 77: “When I think back on how I must've looked ⦔: Congdon interviews.
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CHAPTER 8
Page 81: “Ray was a suffering ⦔: Author interview with Bonnie Wolf.
Page 83: “The boy persevered ⦔: RB, “Death's Voice,”
Anthology of Student Verse for 1937
.
Page 85: “⦠he acted in 106 films ⦔: Author interview with Forrest J Ackerman.
Page 85: “Ray was a rather ⦔: Ibid.
Page 86: “On November 22 ⦔: Letter from Burroughs to RB, from RB's private collection.
Page 87: “⦠A Truck Driver After Midnight ⦔: RB,
Anthology of Student Verse for 1938
.
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CHAPTER 9
Page 89: “⦠He was aggressive ⦔: Author interview with Bob Gorman.
Page 90: “⦠He saw the film ⦔: Author interview with Forrest J Ackerman.
Page 90: “We had a mutual interest in dinosaurs”: Author interview with Ray Harryhausen.
Page 90: “and all the Merian Cooper pictures”: Merian C. Cooper was the codirector and coproducer (along with Ernest B. Schoedsack) of
King Kong
.
Page 91: “The future to me ⦔: Author interview with Ray Harryhausen.
Page 92: “Filled with sorrow ⦔: Sometime soon after, Ray's aunt Neva brought her cremated remains back to Waukegan, where she was to rest next to her husband, Ray's grandfather, Samuel Hinkston Bradbury. Both are buried at Union Cemetery on Waukegan's west side.
Page 92: “⦠he caught a double matinee ⦔: RB's 1939 calendar, from his private collection.
Page 95: “⦠stylishly dressed in the fashions of the 25th century ⦔: Pohl,
The Way the Future Was
.
Page 95: “I just kind of thought ⦔: Author interview with Forrest J Ackerman.
Page 95: “⦠recalled fans mobbing writers ⦔: Author interview with Julius Schwartz.
Page 96: “⦠Asimov noted in ⦔: Asimov,
Asimov on Science Fiction
.
Page 96: “The number of young people ⦔: Author interview with David A. Kyle.
Page 96: “⦠so typical of us all ⦔: Ibid.
Page 96: “It was a dollar ⦔: Author interview with Forrest J Ackerman.
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CHAPTER 10
Page 98: “Robert Heinlein was ⦔: From http://heinleinsociety.org; a biography by William H. Patterson Jr.
Page 99: “⦠led by a promising brunette ⦔: Katz,
The Film Encyclopedia
.
Page 100: “He asked very earnestly ⦔: Author interview with Laraine Day.
Page 101: “I, like many other ⦔: RB letter to Arkham House publishers August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, Nov. 23, 1939.
Page 102: “still so brash ⦔: Williamson,
Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction
.
Page 104: “If I were to give advice ⦔: Cunningham, 1961 UCLA Oral History Program transcript.
Page 104: “Schwartz sold âPendulum' ⦔: Schwartz and Thomsen,
Man of Two Worlds,
and Schwartz's story sales for RB, from RB's private collection.
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CHAPTER 11
Page 105: “Two hundred and thirty miles ⦔: Van der Vat,
Pearl Harbor.
Page 106: “⦠with the headline proclaiming: war declared by u.s....”:
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express,
Dec. 8, 1941.
Page 106: “Skip desperately wanted ⦔: Author interview with Skip Bradbury.
Page 106: “âGabriel's Horn' and âThe Piper' fetched sixty dollars ⦔: While “Gabriel's Horn” and “The Piper” both sold in the last quarter of 1941, the stories were not published until the first quarter of 1943.
Page 107: “⦠though Leigh's was spelled ⦔: Clute, Nicholls, Peter, Stableford, and Grant,
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
.
Page 107: “⦠Leigh Brackett, as writer Jack ⦔: Williamson,
Wonder's Child: My Life in Science Fiction
.
Page 108: “In the early forties, Leigh lived ⦔: Leigh Brackett's beachside bungalow was not far from the house that Ray used as imaginative inspiration for the residence of his character Constance in the books
Death is a Lonely Business, A Graveyard for Lunatics,
and
Let's All Kill Constance
.
Page 108: “⦠Ray was âan ebullient kid' ⦔: Walker,
Speaking of Science Fiction: The Paul Walker Interviews
.
Page 108: “When Leigh showed Ray ⦔: Congdon/RB interviews, from RB's private collection.
Page 108: “⦠what Bradbury scholar Garyn Roberts ⦔: Wetzel,
Book
magazine, Sept.âOct. 2003
Page 109: “She cemented her name ⦔: Clute, Nicholls, Peter, Stableford, and Grant,
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
.
Page 110: “⦠Julie Schwartz sold âThe Candle' ⦔: Schwartz's story sales for RB, from RB's private collection.
Page 110: “On February 15, 1942 ⦔: Freedom of Information/Privacy Act No. 0966766-001.
Page 110: “On Monday morning ⦔: RB, “Drunk and in Charge of a Bicycle,” from
Zen in the Art of Writing
.
Page 110: “Soon after Ray registered with the draft board ⦔: Many published chronologies of Ray Bradbury's life list the family's move to Venice in 1941. But according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's file on Ray Bradbury, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, when he registered for the draft in February 1942, he still listed his address as 30541â2 West Twelfth Street.
Page 111: “The Bradburys' house in Venice ⦔: Author interview with Kevin Miller, owner of record of 670 Venice Boulevard, 2004.
Page 112: “I realized I had ⦔: RB, “Run Fast, Stand Still,”
Zen in the Art of Writing
.
Page 113: “It was September ⦔: RB, “The Lake,”
Dark Carnival
.
Page 113: “In a 1961 interview”: Cunningham, 1961 UCLA Oral History Program transcript.
Page 114: “Ray appeared on July 16 ⦔: Freedom of Information/Privacy Act No. 0966766-001.
Page 115: “The day after Ray's appearance ⦔: Schwartz's story sales for RB, from RB's private collection.
Page 115: “Did I learn a hard, fast, or even an easy lesson ⦔: RB, “Run Fast, Stand Still,”
Zen in the Art of Writing
.
Page 115: “⦠the first âclassic' Bradbury story ⦔: Nolan,
The Ray Bradbury Companion
.
Page 116: “⦠Ray sold twelve stories ⦔: Schwartz's story sales for RB, from RB's private collection.
Page 119: “⦠he sold twenty-two tales.”: Ibid.
Page 119: “Derleth, who was planning ⦔: RB to Derleth, May 17, 1944, from RB's private collection.
Page 119: “Initially, Derleth and ⦔: Ibid.
Page 119: “Corresponding with Derleth ⦔: RB to Derleth, July 5, 1944, from RB's private collection.
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CHAPTER 12
Page 122: “First, I want to thank you ⦔: RB to Derleth, Jan. 29, 1945, from RB's private collection.
Page 123: “The cover jacket might possibly illustrate ⦔: RB to Derleth, Mar. 8, 1945, from RB's private collection.
Page 123: “[M]any of my short stories ⦔: Cunningham, 1961 UCLA Oral History Program transcript.
Page 125: “⦠eating, almost exclusively, hamburgers ⦔: Ray often joked that when he died, he wanted his ashes placed in a can of Campbell's tomato soup that could be rocketed to Mars and buried in the soil of the Red Planet.
Page 126: “We got out in the jungle ⦔: Congdon/RB interviews, from RB's private collection.
Page 129: “Dear Mr. Elliott ⦔: Letter from Don Congdon, dated Aug. 27, 1945, from RB's private collection.
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CHAPTER 13
Page 133: “urge you strongly ⦔: Telegram from
American Mercury
editor Charles Angoff, Apr. 15, 1946, from RB's private collection.
Page 133: “Yet, interestingly ⦔: Eller and Touponce,
Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction
.
Page 134: “Other early weird tales, such as âThe Poems,' âThe Ducker,' âTrip to Cranamockett,' and âThe Watchers' ⦔: “The Poems,” “The Watchers,” and “The Ducker” had all previously appeared in the pages of
Weird Tales
. “Trip to Cranamockett” was unpublished and would remain that way until it finally appeared as “West of October” in 1988's
The Toynbee Convector
. It would resurface again as part of the narrative fabric of 2001's loosely connected novel of vampire family stories,
From the Dust Returned
.
Page 136: “They put together an entire October issue ⦔: RB, afterword,
From the Dust Returned
.
Page 137: “I was dazzled ⦔: Author interview with Maggie Bradbury.
Page 137: “His energy was enchanting ⦔: Ibid.
Page 138: “I think it's something ⦔: Ibid.
Page 138: “Once I figured ⦔: Ibid.
Page 139: “Marguerite Susan McClure ⦔: Ibid.
Page 140: “He couldn't keep his hands ⦔: Ibid.
Page 141: “Earlier that month ⦔: RB to Derleth, June 2, 1946, from RB's private collection.
Page 142: “I was kept constantly inebriated ⦔: RB to Derleth, Oct. 30, 1946, from RB's private collection.