Ray Harryhausen, Hall Of Famer
To be fair, you didn't expect the Ray Harryhausen talk at the Science Fiction Museum last night to sell out either, did you? But it did, and even though we hinted that we were from a globe-spanning blog empire, they refused to let us in. "You know, Mr. Seattlest golfs with Mr. Allen frequently," we lied pathetically. But no soap.
Who's Ray Harryhausen? Just one of the greatest stop-motion animators in film history (and SFM Hall of Fame inductee)! The evening promised an overview of his work with a screening of a film montage drawn from his famous feature films. His most recent hit was 1981's Clash of the Titans, but Harryhausen got a lot of mileage earlier out of the Sinbad the Sailor stories, and Jason and the Argonauts.
The special effects work of Ray Harryhausen includes the huge ape of Mighty Joe Young, fighting skeletons, and a T. Rex (before T. Rexes were called T. Rex, really). As the Science Fiction Museum gushes:
His creations were born of metal armatures and synthetic flesh. His work has amazed audiences for five decades, starting with the special effects for The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and continuing through the years with films like The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, and Clash of the Titans. In 1992 Harryhausen was presented with an honorary Academy Award for his life’s work, and in 2003 was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He also has a new book of previously unpublished art out, The Art of Ray Harryhausen, which intense film buffs young and old were clutching, hoping for a Harryhausen sig.
But this is the kind of thing that happens to us, occasionally. We waited around a bit to see if a party of eight, who were late, would show up incomplete to Will Call. And we met Harryhausen fan Steven in line, whom we ran into again on our way to lunch at Le Pichet (try the salade lyonnais) today. It turned out the party of eight had arrived as only seven, so he'd collected the single ticket remaining. Ah, a happy ending.
