Happy Birthday Ray Bradbury!

Happy Birthday Ray Bradbury! Ray Bradbury was a prolific writer who made a mark in fantastic fiction and gave a hopeful vision of the future.  His first story, “Hollerbochen’s Dilemma” (1938) was printed in Forrest J. Ackman’s Imagination!   Ackerman helped pay for Bradbury to attend New York’s First World Science Fiction Convetion in 1939.  He was also invited by Ackerman to join the Los Angeles Science-Fiction Society.  Bradbury’s first story collection was Dark Carnival (1947).  The Martian Chronicles based on his 1950 collecting his Martian stories was made into a miniseries in 1980.  It is screaming for a film adaptation especially with The Martian (2011) and of course planned flights to Mars!  One of his short story, “A Sound of Thunder” (1952) inspired many adaptations.  It was a 1989 episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater.  A Sound of Thunder (2005) was released in theaters, but twisted the original story and failed at the box office.  

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) had a scene out of Bradbury’s story, “The Fog Horn” (1951) which made a life long friendship with Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen.   Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 novel was made into a film in 1966 directed by Francois Truffaut, but featured Julie Christie more than focusing on the theme from Ray Bradbury’s highly regarded novel.  There is a recent film in 2018 starring Michael B. Jordan starring as the fireman tasked to destroy books.  Bradbury worked on the screenplay for John Huston’s adaptation of Moby Dick (1956).  His play was turned into a film, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1998), based on a 1958 short story.  It had an incredible cast that went direct to video.  The 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone, “I Sing The Body Electric”, was written by Ray Bradbury.  He later adapted it into a short story in 1969.  Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 novel was made into a film in 1966 directed by Francois Truffaut.  There is a recent film starring Michael B. Jordan starring as the fireman tasked to destroy books. 

In 1962, he wrote the novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes.  It was adapted into a 1983 Disney film.  He consulted with Disney on the American Pavilion for the 1964 World’s Fair.  Bradbury also consulted on Spaceship Earth at EPCOT.  There was a television series, The Ray Bradbury Theater, which ran from 1985 to 1992.  One of Ray Bradbury’s book that was most influential to me is Zen in the Art of Writing (1990), I highly recommitted it to any creative person.  In 1993, Topps Comics produced a comic series, Ray Bradbury Comics printed EC reprints and original adaptations.  An animated television film, narrated by Ray Bradbury, was made of The Halloween Tree in 1993 which won him the Emmy Award.  In 2007, he was awarded the Pulitzer Citation for his work.  We lost Ray Bradbury in 2012 with “Author of Fahrenheit 451” on his headstone, but he lives on in his writing.  Happy Birthday Ray Bradbury!   

#RayBradbury, #TheMartianChronicles, #ASoundofThunder, #Fahrenheit451, #ZenInTheArtOfWriting.