Martian #1.
 
In 1965, Forrest J. Ackerman hired legendary movie make-up artist Dick Smith to produce a Famous Monsters of Filmland Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up Handbook. Smith (1922-2014) was the guy who did the award-winning make-up for movies like The Exorcist, Little Big Man, The Godfather, Taxi Driver and Ken Russell’s Altered States. Smith’s special edition illustrated magazine presented a 100-page step-by-step guide on how to get the look for some of cinema’s best-known movie monsters. Using a range of everyday objects—from crepe paper and breadcrumbs to ping pong balls—Smith shared some of his best-kept secrets of the trade.

In his introduction to the handbook, Smith wrote:

Make-up is an exciting hobby, but it has been enjoyed by only a few young people because learning how to do it was very difficult. It was my hobby when I was a teenager, so I know both the difficulties and the excitement. I enjoyed make-up so much that I became a professional make-up artist, and after twenty years, I still love it.

What I want to do with this book is to provide you young amateurs with the information you’ll need to make it easy for you to understand and enjoy this art. The book begins with very simple make-ups and ends with some complicated ones.

Any kid who grew up on black & white Universal and RKO monster movies would have dug Smith’s book. Nearly every kid loves the thrill of making themselves into monsters and scaring the bejesus out of grown-ups. It’s all the fun of growing up. And Smith’s Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up Handbook certainly offered the young and those old enough to know better that chance.

Dick Smith’s Do-It-Yourself Monster Make-Up Handbook is still available to buy as a paperback. But here’s a taste of how it looked when first published in Famous Monsters of Filmland in 1965.
 

 

Martian #2.
 

 

Werewolf #1.
 
See more of Smith’s scary monster make-up tips, after the jump…

 
Tomorrow marks the centennial of the birth of the ultimate horror film fanboy, Forrest J Ackerman, best known for being the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, who was born on November 24th, 1916. He’s also responsible for coining the term “sci-fi ,” was the literary agent for some of the biggest science fiction writers of that genre’s original golden age, and the creator of the dead sexy Vampirella comic book heroine (who was based on Danger Diabolik actress Marisa Mell as he told me once himself).

It was Ackerman’s boundlessly enthusiastic championing of fantasy and horror movies in the pages of Famous Monsters that saw his influence spread over a generation or two of America’s most dedicated monster movie nerds. You might say that he was a slightly pervy avuncular patron saint of the freaks and geeks of the 1960s and 70s. Many of his avid readers—like Steven Spielberg, Guillermo del Toro and Rick Baker—grew up to make movies themselves and his home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles saw visits from famous faces running the gamut from director John Landis to Ogre from Skinny Puppy. The Sci-Fi Boys, a 2006 documentary, was made about the many filmmakers who were inspired by Forry Ackerman.

In 1982, Ackerman—an avid punster and devote of the corniest of jokes—told the Los Angeles Times that he came up with the term “sci-fi” after hearing a radio ad extolling the virtues of high fidelity audio:

“My wife and I were listening to the radio, and when someone said ‘hi-fi’ the word ‘sci-fi’ suddenly hit me. If my interest had been soap operas, I guess it would have been ‘cry-fi,’ or James Bond, ‘spy-fi.’ “

The Ackermonster—or “Dr. Acula” as he was also known—represented such literary luminaries as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Charles Beaumont and A.E. Van Vogt. He was also the agent for Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and although Forry was not a Scientologist himself, was someone the notoriously paranoid Hubbard trusted throughout his life.

And then there was his magnificent collection of sci-fi and horror memorabilia, easily the best in the world. Ray Bradbury called it “the Fort Knox of Science Fiction.” Forry gave weekend tours of the collection, opening his 18-room home—dubbed the Ackermansion—to the public and showing off treasures like the stop motion models used in King Kong. Or a life-sized Maria from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Forry owned Bela Lugosi’s ring, which he wore, and also the actor’s Dracula cape. One of Johnny Eck’s outfits. Just imagine the most insanely iconic stuff from classic horror and sci-fi films and he lived among it. Forry had all the good stuff and it was a ridiculous tragedy when the city of Los Angeles declined to take conservatorship of his collection when he offered it to the city in the 90s. Instead the collection was sold off piecemeal over the years, some of it going to Seattle’s Science Fiction Hall of Fame, some to a museum in Berlin and some to Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.
 

 
Keep reading after the jump…

Edgar Swank in cloak, two female members of the COS, Anton LaVey, Lois Murgunstrumm on the fireplace altar, and Diane LaVey.
 
The Black Pope, Anton Szandor LaVey, was, depending on who you ask, either one of the great 20th Century iconoclasts or merely a moderately successful con artist. Either way, LaVey, who founded the Church of Satan in 1966, certainly knew how to work the press—and he certainly made good copy for the tabloids. His books The Satanic Bible, The Satanic Rituals, and The Compleat Witch sold millions of copies and his church, at its height, boasted of hundreds of thousands of members (though some have challenged those numbers).

A gorgeous hardcover photography book titled California Infernal was released in May by Trapart books in an edition of 400 copies. The tome contains over 100 rare and previously unseen photographs of Satanist Anton LaVey, as well as film star Jayne Mansfield and Famous Monsters of Filmland publisher Forrest J. Ackerman.
 

 
The photos, the work of freelance paparazzo Walter Fischer, capture LaVey at home in the infamous “Black House”, the headquarters of the Church of Satan, as well as at the “Ackermansion” and Mansfield’s Hollywood “Pink Palace.”

Though some of the photos are staged for publicity, many of the most intriguing photos are candid shots of LaVey doing relatively normal stuff. My personal favorites are a series of shots of LaVey geeking out over Ackerman’s collection of horror movie ephemera.

The majority of the photos were taken in the Church of Satan’s second year of existence. Anyone with an interest in LaVey as a cultural icon or in the history of the COS, would be well-served to pick up a copy of California Infernal by following this link. It makes an excellent companion piece to the exhaustive, and also-recommended, The Church of Satan, Volume One and The Church of Satan, Volume Two by former COS member Dr. Michael Aquino.

Here’s a gallery of some of the photos published in California Infernal which Trapart Books was kind enough to share exclusively with Dangerous Minds:
 

 

LaVey and “Forry” Ackerman.
 
More after the jump…

 
Doubtless an entire generation of future sound manglers were forever altered by this fun slab o’ vinyl from much beloved champion of all things Sci-Fi, Forrest J Ackerman and composer/sound effects master Frank Allison Coe which was sold from the pages of comic books in the early 60’s (see below). It’s always nice to find early examples of truly experimental music from outside the usual academic sources, though I love that stuff too.
 
Tone Tales From Tomorrow : 15 minutes of pure primitive electronic glee. Perfect for annoying grown-ups, neighbors and siblings. God-like.

 
Tin Age Story: This time with Ackerman narrating…

 
With thanks to Eddie Ruscha and Gary Panter !