A new collection of links and clippings as part of File 770’s commitment to be “All Bradbury all the time.”

(1) BRADBURY MATERIAL IN THE GREAT AMERICAN BROADCAST. [Item by Martin Morse Wooster.] Leonard Maltin interviewed Ray Bradbury for his 1997 book The Great American Broadcast:  A Celebration of Radio’s Golden Age. This summarizes what Bradbury said.

Bradbury told Maltin that his first encounter with radio came in 1934, when Bradbury was 14, and saw George Burns “in front of the Figueroa Street Playhouse….and I asked

George if he’d take me into the broadcast with a friend of mine.”  Bradbury and his friend got a private performance of a Burns and Allen radio show.

Bradbury then began writing spec scripts for Burns and Allen.  “Every Wednesday night, I’d turn in a new script to them.  I would type them in the typing class at Berendo Junior School behind my teacher’s back, so she wouldn’t know what I was doing.  And of course they were lousy, but George pretended they were okay.  He was very kind.”  One of Bradbury’s sketches was used by Burns in February 1935.

In 1982 Bradbury was at the Cocoanut Grove to give an award to Steven Spielberg.  George Burns was in the audience, and Bradbury told the crowd how he and George Burns met when Bradbury was a teenager. ‘When it was all over, George came to me and said, ‘Was that you? Was that you?  I remember you!”

Bradbury also recalled sending one of his Weird Tales stories to William Spear for Suspense.  Producer-director Spear invited Bradbury to his house, where he would talk with Spear and Spear’s wife, Kay Thompson, about fiction.  Celebrities often stopped by when Bradbury was visiting.

 “It was glorious, because these were dream times,” Bradbury recalled.  “I’d have cocktails with Orson Welles and Ava Gardner—they were going together at the time—and Agnes Moorehead.  So it was the first time I really felt accepted around Hollywood.”

(2) LISTEN IN. “RadioWest Book Club: ‘Dandelion Wine'” —  on June 29 the RadioWest Book Club met via Zoom with Dr. Jonathan Eller to discuss Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine. A recording of the podcast is at the link.

GUEST 

Dr. Jonathan Eller is a Chancellor’s Professor of English and director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University. He first met Ray Bradbury in the late 1980s and developed a friendship that lasted until Bradbury’s passing in 2012. Dr. Eller’s most recent books include Becoming Ray Bradbury, Ray Bradbury Unbound and the forthcoming Bradbury Beyond Apollo.

(3) BRADBURY CENTENARY PODCAST STARTS SOON. Bradbury 100 is Phil Nichols’ new podcast, “a celebration of the centenary year of Ray Bradbury. This will be a limited-run series, with about ten episodes, where I aim to bring together fans, friends and scholars of Bradbury.” The first episode will be released on July 25th 2020.

The interviews will include novelist and author of Searching for Ray Bradbury, Steven Paul Leiva; and the managing director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, Jason Aukerman.

You can now subscribe to Bradbury 100 via iTunes/Apple Podcasts.

Listen to the podcast’s “trailer” on Soundcloud.

(4) MOBYUS TRIP. In The Irish Times, “Ray Bradbury, Moby Dick and the Irish connection”.

Science fiction fans will not need reminding that this year – August 22nd, to be exact – marks the centenary of Ray Bradbury’s birth. Nor will they, and many others, need to be told that Bradbury is one of the most celebrated exponents of the genre, a key figure in ushering in the golden age science fiction enjoyed during the cold war.

… One part of the Bradbury story that may be less well known, however, is his Irish connection. This had its origins when in 1953 director John Huston recruited him to write the screenplay for his film of Moby Dick. Though the two men had expressed a wish to work together, Huston’s offer came to Bradbury as a bit of a shock, possibly because at the time he had yet to read Melville’s novel.

But, of course, this was an offer he couldn’t refuse. So, the night of Huston’s proposal, Bradbury – by his own account – stayed up till dawn making good his omission, a feat that smacks of Ahab’s whale-tussling or some such epic fiction. And, by morning, the account continues, Bradbury had knocked enough skelps off the thing to believe he was the man for the screenwriting job. It turned out that he’d signed up for a stormy voyage – but the money was good: $12,500 for the script, plus another $200 a week living expenses.

(5) PLANS FOR BRADBURY STAINED GLASS WINDOWS. “High Honor for the Late Ray Bradbury | Stained Glass Project to Commemorate Legendary Author” – South Pasadena News shows the designs.

A frequent visitor to South Pasadena, Ray Bradbury, a famed American author and screenwriter, will be further memorialized and respected with the installation of stained glass windows featuring the beloved figure inside the local library.

Tim Carey, a painter turned glass artist who currently runs Tim Carey Studio in South Pasadena, has teamed with his former company, Judson Studios, in bringing the project to life. The design has been donated by Carey and the fabrication will take place at Judson Studios this summer or early fall.

The window project looks out the library’s conference room, named after Bradbury, leaving some outside to wonder as they sit and play on a giant Morton fig tree, a landmark destination in town. “To honor him at the South Pasadena Public Library with an artwork of this caliber would be remarkable,” said Cathy Billings, the city’s library director, continuing to raise funds for it. “I love to imagine all the kids playing on the Library Tree looking up at the beautiful work shining from the conference room windows, and being inspired to learn, imagine and read.”

… Carey drew inspiration to take on the stained glass project after meeting former South Pasadena Librarian Steve Fjeldsted, who was also an active member of Rotary in the city.  “During a tour of the library, he showed me the Ray Bradbury Conference Room,” explained Carey. “I was immediately drawn to the windows, and the idea was born. Because I knew it was a long shot, I offered to do the design as a donation to the library back in 2018. Steve championed the idea through many meetings and we were able to create some momentum.”

… To help get the $24,000 project across the finish line, the library has set up a donation page, asking for public’s support.

(6) RAY BRADBURY ON THE APOLLO 11 MOON LANDING. “Science fiction legend Ray Bradbury reacts to the Apollo 11 Moon landing in July 1969. At the time of the Apollo 11 landing, Bradbury was in London. He was interviewed by Mike Wallace, and the interview beamed by satellite to CBS in New York.”

(7) WOULD YOU BUY IT FOR A NICKLEBY? Here is a short story film “Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby is a Friend of Mine” written by Ray Bradbury. From 1981.