Beyond an insider's glimpse into the netherworld of cult-movie fandom, Life Is But A Scream! is a searing story of passion, jealousy and ego that could easily have stepped from the pages of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is the story of what happened when a former fan grew to adulthood and re-embraced a beloved icon of his childhood only to discover the stinging truth of the adage: "You can't go home again." LIFE IS BUT A SCREAM! is like hopping aboard a runaway hearse on a mad ride through the blood-stained dungeons of Horrorwood. But if you're a fan of FM, this isn't just our story...it's YOUR story, too. Over 400 terrorific pages. Profusely illustrated with many never-before-published photos and documents from FM's private archive and the public records
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Having worked for some 20 years as a professional photographer before applying his energies to FM, Ferry has a unique appreciation of and respect for the craftsmanship of the horror classics. Since reviving the magazine from the realm of the literary "undead" in 1993, Ferry has devoted his efforts to introducing the era of the classic fright films to a new generation who have been weaned on a diet of blood and gore in modern films. An outspoken voice concerning graphic violence in film and its desensitizing effect on young minds, Ferry's retro-horror approach has resulted in reestablishing Famous Monsters of Filmland, as the leading publication of its kind. By merging the magazine's original 1960s flavor with a 1990s edge, he has bridged the gap of several generations and created an entertaining and educational forum, with both adult and child readers sharing the innocent fun of the Halloween spirit all year long.
Ferry has worked with many diverse talents in the fantasy film genre with whom he shares a love of the classics including author Ray Bradbury, Academy Award Winning Animator Ray Harryhausen (both of whom were among the most influential personalities of his youth); legendary comics Phyllis Diller (MAD MONSTER PARTY), Mel Brooks (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN) and Gary Owens; renowned performers Gloria Stuart (THE OLD DARK HOUSE), Adam West (TV's Batman), Frank Gorshin (Batman TV's Riddler), Cassandra Peterson (TV's ELVIRA), Al Lewis (THE MUNSTERS), and world renowned mentalist and occult authority The Amazing Kreskin, among others.
Ferry believes the old horror films will never be equaled. His credo is "there's no ghoul like an old ghoul."
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
It was a little after 5:00 P.M. on Friday, May 28, 1993. I stood in the dark backstage in the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Virginia waiting to stroll out onto the stage to kick off the festivities unveiling the first new issue of Famous Monsters magazine in 11 years and I hadn't the faintest idea of what I was going to say to the assembly. There were about eight hundred fans packed inside the ballroom growing impatient, waiting for the evening's festivities to begin. They had all gathered that Memorial Day weekend at my "invitation" to be part of a monster "happening"--the 35th Anniversary Famous Monsters of Filmland World Convention. Many of them had spent thousands of dollars of their hard-earned money and made extraordinary sacrifices for many months to afford the chance to be there. Now, after 15 months of planning and preparation, the moment of truth had arrived. The show was ready to start and I had no idea of what I was going to say to them.
I nervously looked out from behind the curtain and it was obvious everyone was getting a bit impatient. There, in the front row, sat many of my childhood idols--Ray Harryhausen, John Agar, Richard Matheson-- and many of my contemporaries-- John Landis, Joe Dante, Jim Danforth--people whose respect I had worked feverishly to obtain and who now sat there in the uncomfortably warm ballroom starring at an empty stage. I hadn't slept in over 48 hours and I was still in the same clothes I had on for 2 days. I wished it were Sunday and all over. Finally my name was announced over the loud speaker and--with deep apprehension--I took the longest walk of my life up those four small stairs and out into the spotlight.
The audience gave me a polite round of applause which is what I expected since first, they knew nothing about me other than seeing my name as the event producer, and second, they hadn't seen anything so far that they should be applauding about. I lifted the microphone to my mouth and said the first thing that popped into my head: "For most of us here Famous Monsters is something that we could never get away from. We read it in the '60s and then six or seven years later most of us dropped FM when we discovered something more interesting than monsters--girls. Now 35 years later we want to go back to monsters because they're a lot easier to understand." The audience laughed and gave me an enthusiastic hand. I thought maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all, so I continued: "We're going to issue little bottles of dye with this new issue of FM so those of you who want the issue to be really authentic can yellow the pages faster," and again they replied with joy and enthusiasm. The most dangerous thing that can happen to someone like me is to have a mike in my hand and feel like I'm on a roll. I thought, Okay--they came here for a show--let's give `em a show.
I asked for the house lights to be brought up and turned to my idols in the front row. "Can we have all our celebrity guests up here on stage for this unveiling?" I remember watching Ray Harryhausen start looking around him evidently trying to identify just which "celebrities" I was talking about. I waved to him and reluctantly he got up and came toward the stage. One by one the others took the cue and followed him. As they came on stage, I announced them: "John Landis...Joe Dante... Richard Matheson...Gloria Stuart...Bobbie Bresee...Noel Neill..." The applause was getting louder and louder and I began to yell to be heard over the din. "Frank Kelly Freas, who did the FM convention poster and is also the cover artist for the new FM!...the Tall Man, Angus Scrimm...Robert Bloch..." As the noise became nearly deafening, I noticed a spry, stout figure dressed in white tennis shorts, a white windbreaker and sneakers who had come seemingly from nowhere stroll onto the stage. "Ray Bradbury!," I yelled. The audience seemed in a frenzy. Flashbulbs were popping everywhere. As I looked across the stage at all these legends gathered together at one time, the full impact of what I had started finally hit me. My throat was tightening. Finally I managed to blurt out the last of my roster of guests. "And finally . . . The Ackermonster!" Out came Forry, beaming from ear to ear, gliding slowly toward the center stage like some Roman gladiator basking in the glory of a Coliseum triumph.
As the applause rose in volume to sound like the white noise static one hears from a radio that is not properly tuned to a station, I looked out to the audience and saw my delirious peers--30, 40 and 50-year-old fans--young kids--readers from the first issues--all with beaming smiles on their faces, many with tears in their eyes. At that precise moment everyone who had ever held an affection for FM, every fan who was ever moved by Karloff or Lugosi or Chaney or Price, every fan of the phenomenon of the 1960s monster mania was represented in that room. I stood, almost invisibly, to the far side of the stage as the moment permeated my soul.
How I happened to find myself in the center of that hurricane seemed at once unnatural--and yet predestined to be...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
When Forry Met Ferry,
By Vampire Truth (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Life Is But A Scream! The True Story of the Rebirth of Famous Monsters of Filmland (Paperback)
In the interests of full disclosure: I've met Ackerman, thrice professionally and once at a party, and never really hit it off with the man, who I found aloof and self-absorbed. I'm not a friend of his nor even an acquaintance. So why am I writing this? Because I find the whole Famous Monsters feud a fascinating object lesson in the dangers of trying to redress personal grievances using the courts.
For that reason, I've read Ferry's book "Life is But a Scream" cover to cover, dispassionately, as someone who doesn't have a dog in this fight. First off, I would say that it is massively entertaining, especially if you take it with a grain of salt as the highly partisan account of a very bitter lawsuit which it claims not to be. The fact that Ferry created such a lengthy memoir, at a time when he seemed to have lost all right, title and interest in Famous Monsters and it looked like Ferry was going to owe a bunch of money to Ackerman as well, shows how much energy the man has, which is probably why he proved such a formidable adversary in court. That he is publishing again under the Famous Monsters imprint is a remarkable development, given what the lawsuit put everyone concerned with it through, himself included. A less determined man would have walked away, but Ferry hasn't, and it seems almost like he can't. That said, the book is unbelievably mean-spirited in its treatment of Ackerman, who, if you listen to the event structure as opposed to the "how could I have known that the green eyed devil of envy was pulsing to life in FJA?" asides, clearly took Ferry under his wing, introduced him to his friends, helped him make a couple of FM-themed videos, and then legitimized the magazine undertaking by his presence when the ever-energized Ferry reactivated Famous Monsters. Ferry's characterizations of Ackerman's motives and his willingness to publish personal correspondences where they support his desire to make Ackerman look bad in public make for juicy reading, but are also appalling in their own way; one has to wonder what, if not respect for Ackerman and his collaborators on the original 200 or so issue run of FM, drew Ferry to want to recreate their achievement? Which, by the way, he does fairly well, as you'll find if you pick up one of the recent FM issues -- they counterfeit aspects of the old mag in a pitch perfect style. As a writer, Ferry is pretty good at cultivating a narrative voice of seeming openness, so it takes awhile before you realize just how ridiculous even his admitted treatment of FJA was at the time of their association. For example, Ferry goes on at length about his small glimpses into Ackerman's personal life, which seem pathetic rather than decadent, and then asserts that as someone who was running a mag Ackerman was associated with -- but not, it should be mentioned, really being paid regularly to write for -- Ferry felt entitled to forbid Ackerman to engage in activities that would reflect badly on a magazine read by children! It's a ludicrous argument for one sexually active grown-up to make to another, and if memory serves, at Ferry's behest Ackerman even gives in and avoids a "swinger" weekend he'd planned, which hardly makes him seem like the weird old perv Ferry tries to insinuate he is. Despite the copious use of his name in the initial stages of their collaboration, Ackerman also had articles he prepared for the magazine rejected by Ferry toward the end of their association, which speaks volumes about the lack of respect that had developed between Ferry and the man whose work he was simulating as FM's second generation editor-publisher. A curious sin of omission in "Life is But a Scream" is that Ferry never really gives a very clear idea of exactly how he managed to get all "right, title and interest" in the FM name and mark. Did he buy it from Jim Warren (the original publisher)? No. Warren went bust in the early 80s, and Ferry has a lot of negative comments to make about him as well (except when he wants to credit Warren with inventing FM's wisecracking style, as a way of impugning FJA). Did he buy the title from Warren's creditors? Nope. They weren't using the mark, and apparently weren't interested in using it either. So what happenned? Despite the critical nature of this point for any understanding of the legitimacy of Ferry's claim on FM, the book is vague about it, and doesn't really say. My conjecture: for a small registration fee, Ferry simply re-registered the lapsed FM mark with the trademark office in conjunction with the video projects he and Ackerman worked on together in the early '90s, and when the registration went through at the government office, Ferry decided he could publish a mag too. I would also guess that he leaves this (or whatever else happened) out of his otherwise very detailed history because, set beside Ackerman and Warren's decades with FM, it doesn't seem like a very legitimate claim on the magazine's legacy, whether the legalities say otherwise or not. From a legal standpoint, Ferry may indeed be entitled to FM's mark, but emotionally, it seems a little unfair that he could simply fill out a form and claim ownership to something Ackerman and Warren created and worked on for decades, if indeed that's what happenned (and between the lines, that's what it seems like). One other big beef with this book is that Ferry is a true starf__ker in the worst way, who goes on for pages and pages about the legendary status and magical personal qualities of any B-level star who was willing to sit for an interview with him at FM, or who didn't completely side with FJA when the excrement hit the fan. It is possible to appreciate the careers of people like Gary Owen or Phyllis Diller and to respect their achievements without having to buy into the hagiographic slop Ferry slathers around in his book. That Ferry is, on the evidence presented by his book, such a shameless flatterer of the celebrated may explain the initial attraction between he and Ackerman, but if it does, it is clearly an attraction both men have lived to regret.
20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
An American Tragedy,
By horrorfan2004 "davidandbeecher" (california) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Life Is But A Scream! The True Story of the Rebirth of Famous Monsters of Filmland (Paperback)
This book is one of the ugliest, most mean spirited pieces of filth I have ever encountered.Yet it is essential reading, I think, for anyone who might consider getting involved in the sad world of horror fandom. If you are thinking of attending horror conventions, be sure to read this book first.It might make you think twice about going.Author Ray Ferry has an evil vendetta against Forrest J. Ackerman, one time editor of the 1960s monster mag Famous Monsters of Filmland. This book's sole purpose is to express that vendetta, over & over again. For that, Ferry has been deservedly vilified.But many of the horror fans who sit in judgement of Ferry are themselves guilty of the same baseless vendettas against each other.As a former attendees of horror cons, I saw first hand how fragile the egos & psyches of my fellow fans are.This is a world where obese nerds make fun of each other for being.....obese nerds! A world where people routinely go on vindictive rampages against each other over nothing more than minor disagreements over the artistics merits of a particular film.These rampages include email hate campaigns launched for the specific purpose of turning people against each other.As a horror con attendee I was both subjected too & asked to participate in this kind of behavior. I was vilified for speaking out against all this.There were also times when the viciousness spiraled out of control to such an extreme degree that I lost control of my normally better judgement & lashed back, just as viciously, I'm ashamed to say.It was like a whirlpool that sucks you in.I came to see horror fandom for what it is: a sad, sick world populated by infantile middle aged men who hate each other for no reason at all. Delusional losers who think that they're celebrities when they are not. Sad little men who think they have the power to ruin people's lives, when they don't.Few of them are open to even the remotest possibility of making peace with each other.The hatred is exactly what they want.Life is But a Scream is a tragic portrait of what horror fandom has become.It's poorly written & mean spirited, but it's still an important historical document of a world you'd be better off avoiding.Enjoy the classic horror films, they're wonderful.But for your own good, stay away from horror fandom.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great cover, upsetting text,
By Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Life Is But A Scream! The True Story of the Rebirth of Famous Monsters of Filmland (Paperback)
The cover harkens back to the days when we were children and easily scared by the possibility of monsters, and with Forrest Axkerman's magazine FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, which raised the association (at least to me) that all the monsters one was scared of actually lived in Hollywood, perhaps under the Hollywood sign or in a creepy "modern" house like the one Vincent Price lured his victims into in HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, or the one that Dr. Hodel lived in according to the book BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER. In any case, this magazine made a permanent association between noir LA and the monsters (Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy) that permanently roam little boys' nightmares all across the USA.
But, when you read the book, it's a little attenuated, and there's a lot of quarrelling going on between the author, Ray Ferry, and the kindly old Forrest Ackerman, whom we had always conceived of as sort of a kindly old CRYPT KEEPER, one who knew everybody and knew where all the bodies were buried, in an affable way. But now here he is revealed as a terrible megalomaniac and always preening and vain, a Clifton Webb type if you know what I mean. Anyhow, Ferry's attack on Ackerman is so severe that one longs for a more objective account of their dispute, but in the meantime one reads LIFE IS BUT A SCREAM as one would HOLLYWOOD BABYLON, more in disgust than with joy.
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