ELLISON ANECDOTES --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Greg Songer" Long time ago, but here goes... Was at University of Dayton taking a course in Science Fiction, must have been 1978 or 1979. The professor was able to get the school to invite HE as part of a Distinguished Speaker series. We worked in class for at least a week prior to his visit, reading his works and hearing tapes of him reciting some of them. The day of the class he came in, talked, answered questions. One young lady in the back called him on the fact that he was putting down television but had made money writing for it in the past. He pulled himself up to his maximum height, glared, and yelled "DO YOU FUCK???" She her eyes bugged and she couldn't say a word - her jaws just flapped. He repeated it - then, she got mad and started yelling back, taking offence. He said then that her question to him offended him at least as much as his question of her, embarassing him in public. He apologized later to her. He went on to talk about his life and work. At the end of the class he kept talking; nobody in our class budged an inch, even though the next class was trying to come in. The professor for the next class heard him speak a minute or so, and changed from being pissed his classroom was occupied to appreciating what was going on; he just shushed his students and got them to filter into the back of the class. That night, they showed "A Boy and his Dog" twice, with an hour of Q&A in between. He told how he sat in a con writing his ass off, taking donations to put people's names, favorite cities, pet turtle's names, etc. in his story in order to raise money to get the ending of the movie re-shot to match HIS ending, not the less controversial ending the studio thought was more PC. Said that after both endings were shown, his ending was chosen as being better. If I remember correctly, he talked to the young thing that asked him the offensive question after class, took her to dinner. May have found the answer to his question to her that night! Enjoyed meeting the man in person, hearing him talk. Just got on the 'net yesterday, and that one of the first searches I did was Harlan (the first author I looked up was Heinlein - would have given my left nut to meet HIM) shows how after 20 years I still remember that incident. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sandra McCall (sandra.mccall@autodesk.com): Just back from my first meeting Harlan Ellison and, even tho HE did not mention this website (you should get him to, Richard Hatch does) I did a search anyway to see if I could find some interesting stuff on this incrediable man. So here I be! I have always respected Harlan and with his rep of tossing fans out of elevators I always wondered what he's really like. After hearing him speak via phone at the 50th World SF Con, in Orlando, FL, about Isaac Asimov (who we had just lost to the grim reaper) my heart softened for this man. So when the op came to see him in person, even in Clovis, CA (I'll send pictures, if they come out to add to your collection), I jumped at it, drove the 270+ miles from Marin County in the Bay Area. (well, actually Harlan was icing on the cake, I was suppose to met Kelly & Laura Freas there and help with their table, but they didn't come to the con after all) I was surprised and delighted with Harlan, his manners and his speaking. He did encourage us to get close, which we did, I & the love of my life set on the same step of the stairs within a foot of Harlan also sitting on the stairs. It was wonderful, a dream of a life time, I hung on every word, and grew to love him every minute. And that was just day 1. Day 2 was better, we came down for breakfest at the Ramada Inn we were staying at and ended up in a booth right next to Harlan and his lovely wife (brave woman, lovely woman). Of course Harlan hailed us and we could over hear his stories, and he would include us in some of his comments. When he got up to settle the bill I told him that we had come to work for Kelly & Laura, then he told me the story of why they weren't there, I was glad and said so, that Kelly wasn't ill (I worry about him, my favorite artist since I was 12 and we won't say how long ago that was:) He sat at our table to work out the tip, I offered him my calculator, he said "no I can do this". W Anyway, I'm rambling... I wanted to say, and I haven't had a chance to read the whole "my day with Harlan" (got a status report I'm suppose to be doing), but you said something about noticing for the first time that there is another generation younger than mine... boy this con made that clear to me... I would mention Kelly Freas and get blank looks like "who the heck is that" and I would say, "Kelly Freas has been illustrating books & mags for the last 40 so years!" they would still look blank and say "oh" like I was crazed or something. Harlan even mentioned during his speaking of how the younger people just kindof stared at him like "who is this guy"... I also feel that there is something wrong with this generation if they don't know who Harlan is, or who Kelly is, soon Asimov will be lost to them as well. All the great SF writers & artist that I grew up with, so I won't be able to speak to anyone about them, I'll have to explain who they are... it's down right scary. But to close, cause I bet the last thing you need is long email from a stranger, I found Harlan to be short (he's still taller than me:) but he is so very very deep, and I love him dearly and wish I could have met him earlier in our lives. His humor is wonderful, you can never ask him a simple question, because he'll tell you a very long story in return, so be ready & willing to listen til he forgets what the point was. He looks well compared to some of the photos you have here, that show he was having problems with his health. He can be mean, but his honesty and straight forwardness are refreshing. I would trust this man with my soul & life (unless I pissed him off then forget it). Thanks for making & keeping these pages, I'll be back again & again. Sincerely, for love of Ellison, Sandra McCall --------------------------------------------------------------------- Todd Cassel (TheDoh@prodigy.net) I just wanted to write you to let you know about a tiny but super experience I had at the I-Con in Long Island NY this weekend. My wife and I did the full 3-day thing and that was a first for me. I've attended about as many SF conventions as I have fingers on my left hand (and, yes, I have all my fingers) but only for the day and mainly for the dealer room. But about 3 and a half years ago I took my lovely spouse to a Philadelphia Comic Show because Harlan was coming to sign and speak. I have been reading Harlan religiously since I was 13, I'm 36 now, and I had never seen him live....and to be honest he IS getting on in age (and health) and we DO live all the way over here in the lovely east coast, not exactly every day Harlan land. So anyway, though she had never read his works and still hasn't, she fell in love with his lecture....er, performance! And when he smiled at her and asked what dope (me) would really want such a horrible thing as a picture of him as I stood next to him while she snapped our picture, he won her over. So now she catches all the Buzzes and the Tom Snyder appearances and even the horrid Politically Incorrect appearance (not Harlan's fault, of course) but we still part ways in our reading choices. So she agreed to follow me up to our first sleepover, 3-day SF convention because Harlan was scheduled throughout. The weekend was fantastic. HE was scintillating and fascinating and hilarious and touching (as he read Paladin Of The Lost Hour) and a great time was had by all. But here's the part that will ensure a spot in my memory even when the Alzheimer's comes knocking: it may not sound like much to you as you have held many a conversation with the man and met him and dined with him as well, but it was a great moment for us! As we arrived Friday afternoon and went up to the 10th floor to drop our luggage in our room (1025) ((and I only GOT this room because of my usual check-in request for a high floor that I've grown used to doing to keep my distance from the boom booming of the inhouse disco on the lower floors)) there was Harlan himself leaning outside his door (1028) right across from our yet to be entered room talking to a woman in 1026 who I later found out was Joe M. Strazewski's (pardon my spelling) wife! Well, within miliseconds my mind leapt at amazement that the master was right across from our room and I also calmed it down and told it to be cool and not interrupt their conversation like some inconsiderate fan. So Harlan stopped his conversation anyway to look at us and I took out my key and gave him a smile and a hello-nod. As we entered our room I heard my wife exclaim to him "We came just to see you!" To which he feigned shock and then fumfahed that the woman was not his wife (which we of course knew) and pretended as if we caught him in a tryst. About 10 minutes later, while settling in our room and remarking of how amazing that, as my spouse will often call him, my God was staying right across from us, there came a knock upon our door. I opened it up and there was Harlan leaning against our frame with Susan behind him holding an ice bucket. He said "I came just to see YOU" and smiled impishly as Susan headed to the ice machine mumbling something like "you make friends EVERYWHERE" to him since she was obviously wondering why he was knocking on a stranger's door to begin with. Of course, I am not actually taken aback by celebrity but he did leave me dumbfounded and he continued, "and you are?" and I replied with my name and he repeated "well, I came just to see you....and you do?" and I replied again with my name and rank "Todd Cassel, famous non-writer" and he smiled and shook my hand and bounced off toward Susan (are they inseparable or what?). That's it. A cute little tale but it meant so much to me, especially coming in just the first 10 minutes of our Con experience. The rest of the weekend was great. We went to one panel with a stupid topic that he immediately commandeered and changed to Our Biggest Embarrassment (co-panelists were George Alec Effinger, Barry Malzberg, Joe Haldeman, Barbara Hambly, John Peel, Nancy Kress, Joe Strazewski - pardon my spelling). The 2nd day we caught the Babylon 5 panel, not because of my experience of seeing about 6 of the episodes in my entire life, but because Harlan was on it (with Joe, Peter David and Michael O'Hare). Harlan was 15 minutes late, but when he showed up he again took over and a great time was had by all. Went to an evening reading where he decided not to do the reading until Sunday morning and instead chewed some great fat, and a great time was had by all. Then our big weekend was capped Sunday morning with more fat chewing for an hour and the reading of Paladin for the next 45 minutes or so. Hope I'm not sounding too fanny, I just love this guy! And it even inspired me to get off my dead ass when I got home and neatly organize my disaster of an Ellison shelf in my overflowing book mausoleum. Thanks for taking the time to read this, if you did, I truly enjoyed myself and wanted to share the experience (since I don't work with anyone enlightened enough to, gasp, even have heard of Harlan...and all my Harlan knowledgeable buddies are spread across this great country of ours). -TODD --------------------------------------------------------------------- HaxMary2@aol.com When I met Harlan in the flesh, it was 1978, in Houston, Texas, at the Sheraton Hotel (since torn down)... The occasion was "TurkeyCon" (the Star Trek convention held at-or-around Thanksgiving of that year.) Jimmy Carter was in town the same day, which might jog Harlan's memory... Anyhoo, Harlan was addressing a small banquet-room, about the "City on the Edge of Forever" Star Trek story for which he won a Hugo (original writing). I know that pisses him off. People in the front row started throwing challenging questions at him, and Harlan yelled back: "Fuck you! Gene butchered the fucking show, isn't that enough??" and he threatened to come down and kick somebody's ass... Well (heh,heh) an eventful day, no doubt... I was treating the urinal later with my bodily fluids, when this little troll wearing welder-sunglasses came in and took a piss... I did a double-take, and it was Harlan Ellison. I couldn't resist and washed my hands next to him and boldly asked: "Will you autograph this?" It was a piece of paper-towel with which I was drying my hands. He grumbled, "Where do you get this shit?" and scrawled his name, then started to rush out the door. There, he was met by an adoring fan, whose eyes lit up wide, and who exclaimed, "Mr. Ellison! Would you sign this?" And Harlan said "Fuck you, kid, buy it from him" tossing a thumb over his shoulder at me...LOL... My favorite Ellison story }=] P.S. The next time I heard of Harlan, he beat up a Jeep because some teenager thumped a cigarette on his hood. More recently, on the Tom Snyder show, Harlan flat-out said Whitley Streiber (the "Communion" abductee) was "crazy as a soup sandwich." I LOVE this guy, and not only for his psychodelic writing... ---------------------------------------------------------------------