Tag Archives: Mystery & Imagination Bookshop

Ray Bradbury’s 90th Birthday Party

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Ray Bradbury's "Cake of Fire"

Ray Bradbury’s 90th birthday celebration got off to an early start on August 15 at Christine and Malcolm Bell’s Mystery and Imagination Bookstore in Glendale.

“Something north of 300 friends and fans of Ray showed up for the first of many events celebrating Ray’s milestone birthday,” reports John King Tarpinian. “George Clayton Johnson, William F. Nolan, Peter Atkins and Marc Zicree among others came to share their love of Ray. There was an open mike so people could roast Ray. Needless to say the crowd sang Happy Birthday before Ray blew out the candle of his flaming book shaped cake. The cake’s pages listed every book of Ray’s from Dark Carnival to his upcoming Juggernaut. The two hours went by all too quickly.”

Pandemonium Press No.54 published this list of the well-known and sort-of-known well-wishers:

Leah Allers, Actress;  Roger Allers, Co-director, The Lion King;  Whitney Scott Bain, Protégé and Screenwriter;  Ron and Margaret Borst, Collectors;  John Dayton, Friend;  FX Feeney, Writer;  Lawrence French, Cinefantastique Magazine;  Alan Neal Hubbs, Director, Pandemonium Theatre Group Productions;  George Clayton Johnson, Author and Screenwriter; Richard Kaminsky, Friend (Chicago, Ill.);  Robert Kerr, Actor in the Pandemonium Theatre Company;  Greg Koudoulian, Shel Dorf Fan Club;  Arnold Kunert, Friend, Producer/Director and US Agent for Ray Harryhausen;  David Marchant, Friend and Representative for the Forrie Ackerman Estate;  Alla Matusov, Principal, Green School of Hollywood;  William F. Nolan, Author and Screenwriter;  William Pappas, Fan and Actor (San Diego, CA);  John Rafanello, CEO and Chief Visioneer, Wonderworld Entertainment  + Disney Imagineer;  Earl Roesel; Mr. and Mrs. Jason Sunni, Friends and Documentary Producers;  Phil Tippett, Visual Effects Artist, Tippett Studios (San Francisco, CA);  Soul Trang, Writer (Austin, TX);  Steve Wollenberg, Actor, Pandemonium Theatre Company Productions;  Phil Yeh, Cartoonist.

Several people shot pictures of the party. This gallery includes a great photo of Tarpinian wheeling the vast “Cake of Fire” through a crosswalk on the way from Porto’s Bakery to the bookstore. Here is Drew Baker’s gallery. And William Wu’s site has extensive coverage.

The photos in this post were taken by John King Tarpinian.

Get Ready for Bradbury’s Echoes

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Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews is coming in June, a book described as “A definitive collection of interviews with one of America’s most famous writers, covering his life, faith, friends, politics, and visions of the future.”

Ray Bradbury and his interviewer, Sam Weller, are expected to attend a launch party at Mystery and Imagination Bookstore in Glendale, CA on Saturday, June 26 at 3 p.m.

Weller frequently writes about Bradbury:

Weller met Bradbury while doing a profile story for the Chicago Tribune, and the two struck up a close professional relationship. Weller continued to do magazine and radio pieces on Bradbury, and soon became interested in writing the author’s biography.

“I asked him simply one day, ‘Why is there no biography on you?’” Weller said. “And he said, ‘I think biography means you’re dead. I don’t want anyone to write on me until my life’s over.’”

Weller convinced him otherwise and the result was The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury which came out in 2005, made the Los Angeles Times bestsellers list, and became a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the flyer.]

Bleeding Edge Signing Party

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Cover art for The Bleeding Edge

Cover art for The Bleeding Edge

The Bleeding Edge anthology co-editors William F. Nolan and Jason V. Brock are scheduled to be joined by contributors Ray Bradbury, Earl Hamner, Jr., George Clayton Johnson, R. C. Matheson, John Tomerlin, Lisa Morton, Cody Goodfellow, and Norman Corwin for a book signing at Mystery & Imagination Bookstore in Glendale, CA on Saturday, February 20. Additional “special” guests and other authors are also likely to appear.

The event starts at 3 p.m. Mystery & Imagination’s address is 238 N. Brand Blvd. in Glendale, CA.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]

Ray Bradbury Celebrates 88th

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Ray Bradbury 88th birthday cake

Ray Bradbury celebrated his 88th birthday in the best possible style for a great sf writer: in a bookstore, surrounded by fans with newly-purchased copies of his latest book, being feted by his colleagues.

Bradbury drew an overflow audience of well-wishers to Mystery & Imagination Bookshop in Glendale, CA this afternoon. I was in the spillover crowd on the sidewalk for awhile, looking at George Clayton Johnson through the door, and Bradbury’s head through the store window. I also watched as one of Ray’s Pandemonium Theatre cadre of actors, Robert Kerr, read Padre Mappple’s sermon (Orson Welles’ role in Moby Dick.)

John King Tarpinian was part of the enthusiastic crowd. He snapped the photo of the Moby Dick birthday cake. Click on the thumbnails to see his other photos of (1) the crowd, (2) Marc Scott Zicree and Ray Bradbury, and (3) Robert Kerr doing the Padre Mapple sermon.

Crowd at bookstore Marc Scott Zicree and Bradbury Robert Kerr and Ray Bradbury