A great story.
Harlan had and still has a listed phone number. His response to calls from
people he doesn't know -- I've known him since the late '60s -- varies but
it's frequently in the direction of what you received. Of course, no one
knows what the person they're calling is doing before they call but when
he's interrupted, it's a more vociferous response. He was apparently busy
when you called.
Ray Bradbury was an altogether different case. I've known Ray for a
couple years longer than I've known Harlan. (This all makes me sound
like I'm a million years old. I'm not a kid anymore but I met these guys
when I was. 13 when I met Ray, 14 or 15 when I met Harlan.) Ray's
always been kind and friendly to kids and writers and people who admire
his work. Really to people in general. In his later years -- he
died at 91 --
he got a lot pricklier and more defensive but, underneath, he was still the
same good-hearted, talented guy.
I posted this to my Facebook page the morning Ray died:
Just heard that Ray Bradbury has died.
I'm stunned. Shocked. Ray's been ill for ages but it seemed like he'd go
on forever.
I first met Ray when I was 13 years old. I was a fan of his work and he
invited me (and my two cousins) to his office in Beverly Hills to talk about
his career (always one of Ray's favorite subjects). Among other things, he
told me about Leigh Brackett and how much her professional advice helped
him. He also told me about science fiction fandom and the Los Angeles
Science Fantasy Society (LASFS). I soon attended a meeting then another
then another. Without question my involvement there led to my career as a
publicist for "Star Wars" then a consultant to multiple studios and now as a
writer.
Throughout all the years, I've stayed in touch with Ray. As a
fan. As a friend.
As someone who's meant a great deal to me as a professional mentor. And
now, as someone I'll greatly miss.
Craig.
At 09:46 AM 6/7/2012, Rix Posterz wrote:
In the min-1970's, I was a young, aspiring writer living in L.A.,
working on a Sci-Fi project with a friend named Tim Bruckner (who
is now a well-known sculptor of super hero and fantasy
figures). The story was about a dream-eating deity called "The
Enicol". To make a long story short, both Tim and I were quite
excited about the strange tale we'd come up with and decided to try
to contact as many well-known writers in the Sci-Fi genre as we
could. Believe it or not, back in 1974 Harlan Ellison's home phone
number was listed in the San Fernando Valley white pages,
so...after staring at it for a day or two, I dialed the number and
Harlan Ellison did indeed answer my call. I got as far as saying
something to the effect of "Hello, Mr. Ellison, my name's Rick Ryan
and I've always been a huge admirer of your work..." That's as far
as I got before Harlan seemed to go totally berserk, angrily
screaming at me about bothering him with my call, demanding that I
promise never, EVER to call him again! Of course, I quietly did as
he asked and immediately hung up the phone.
Within the following month or so, someone had told me that Ray
Bradbury had an office in Beverly Hills (I'm pretty sure that's
where it was---if not, it was very close to Beverly
Hills). Anyway, early one afternoon, I entered the building where
Mr. Bradbury's office was supposed to be and. lo and behold, on the
second floor at the end of the hallway was a door that had "Ray
Bradbury" on it in some fashion or another. Unfortunately, the
door also had a very large sign on it saying something
like: "WARNING! Please Do Not Disturb! I Am a Working Author and
WILL NOT RESPOND! If you wish to contact me for any reason, call:
555-6238" (Of course the wording on the sign and the telephone
number were different, but you get the idea...). So. for the next
2 or 3 days I called and called that number and no one ever answered.
Back then, they didn't have answering machines and Ray Bradbury
wasn't the kind of guy to have one anyway---hey, he never drove a
car, so why would he want an annoying answering machine. Anyway,
after dialing that number for what seemed like 100 times, on the
101st attempt, a voice answered on the other end of the line. It
was Ray Bradbury. In contrast to Mr. Ellison, Mr. Bradbury talked to
me for at least a half an hour about everything from the craft of
writing to his experience working with John Huston on the set
while they were filming Moby Dick (for which he wrote the
screenplay). After all this time, I don't remember all the
incidentals of the conversation. What I do remember is what a kind,
warm and welcoming gentleman the legendary literary giant Ray
Bradbury was when he talked on the phone to some young, naive
kid who was callling him with some crazy Sci-Fi idea. I also
remember his closing words in our conversation were "God bless you,
son". What a wonderful human being. It's one of the great honors of
my life to have had that experience over 35 years ago....
Rick Ryan
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