A Farewell to Ray Bradbury

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. –Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury

August 22, 1920

June 5, 2012

Trivia:
• Wrote something every day.
• Has published more than 300 short stories.
• Learned to do magic tricks and loved magic almost as much as writing.
• Never obtained a driver's license.
• Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• There is a crater on the moon named Dandelion Crater in his honor.
• There is an asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter named 9766 Bradbury.
• Sold newspapers at a corner stand to support himself before his writing career took off.

Thank you, Ray, for taking us into a far future ... a strange past ... with stories that almost could be or might have been. You will be missed.

Bradbury 13: A Bit About Ray

I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves — you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories.
–Ray Bradbury

He's been writing for the better part of a century. He has published more than 300 short stories and novels. Ray Bradbury has captured the imaginations of many, inspired those around him to create and influenced the way we look at life. His most profound tales are those that are based on his own personal experiences and go beyond mere entertainment. They provoke thought and prompt action. Like a ripple in a pond, growing bigger as it moves outward, his influence on pop culture is so profound it is impossible to tell how far reaching it truly is.

Ray Bradbury is a prolific writer. He loves writing and, as it turns out, audiences world-wide love reading his stories. I enjoyed this little clip of Ray Bradbury talking about how he got his start in writing.


Trivia:
• Learned to do magic tricks and loved magic almost as much as writing.
• Never obtained a driver's license.
• Has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• There is a crater on the moon named Dandelion Crater in his honor.
• There is an asteroid in the belt between Mars and Jupiter named 9766 Bradbury.
• Sold newspapers at a corner stand to support himself before his writing career took off.

Thanks, Ray, for making the world a more beautiful place.

Bradbury 13: The Man Behind the Magic

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you. –Ray Bradbury

In the spring of 1984 thirteen radio dramas based on stories by Ray Bradbury were aired on NPR. These radio drama were produced at BYU on a budget of $120,000. The series received a Peabody Award {for excellence in radio broadcasting} that year, as well as two gold CINDY Awards. The genius mastermind behind this was Mike McDonough.

{Mike McDonough (left), Ray Bradbury (center)
Photo courtesy of Phil at Ray Bradbury & Media
©Mike McDonough}

Bradbury 13 began with low or no-budget dramas of three of Bradbury's stories, recorded by McDonough and his classmates and teachers at BYU. Several years later, he received a grant from NPR and produced a series of thirteen episodes. He wrote each of the scripts himself, utilizing as much of Ray Bradbury's original dialogue as possible. He translated the narrative into dialogue and sounds to preserve Bradbury's work. He engineered all the sound organically himself, only using a synthesizer to make the sounds for the time machine in A Sound of Thunder. And he had original music scored for the series, with multiple tracks which he used together and separately to make each episode unique. The result was an amazing collection of stories told through sound and drawn out in the imagination of the listener.

He has gone on to a very successful career as a sound designer in television and movies. And just because I'm a bit of a Trekkie, here's a little clip of one of the movies he worked on.


Trivia:
• His credits include Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection and Demolition Man.
• Was only 22 years old when he wrote, produced and directed the Bradbury 13 series.
• Recorded and manipulated all the sound effects for the Bradbury 13 series himself.
• His motto is, anything for a sound.
• Is currently Senior Sound Designer with Carbine Studios in Aliso Viejo, California.

Thanks, Mike, for making the world a little more beautiful.

Bradbury 13: A Tribute to Paul Frees

You may not know Paul Frees, but you know his voice. –Josh Pincus

{Image}

Paul Frees was know as The Man of a Thousand Voices. He spoke the introduction to each of the Bradbury 13 episodes in deep and foreboding tones, as well as giving the credits at the end. He had an amazing four-octave range, which made him highly sought after. He had a long and busy career in radio and in film doing voice-over work for both animated and live action movies. He even appeared on screen in several films. His resumé is the longest I've ever seen on IMDb, and includes 346 titles. At one point, he was employed by nine different animation studios. According to film historian Hal Erickson, It was literally impossible during the 1960s and most of the 1970s to turn on the TV on any given night and not hear the ineluctable Mr. Frees. Here is a sampling of some of his many, many characters.



Trivia:
• Is the Ghost Host at Disney's Haunted Mansion. There is a singing bust in his likeness in Disney's 2003 film, The Haunted Mansion
• Is the voice of several of the characters at Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Most recognizably, he is the voice who says, dead men tell no tales. Audio recordings of Frees from the ride can be heard in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
• Was the voice of The Pillsbury Dough Boy. He was reportedly earning $50,000 a year during the 1970's for that job alone.
• He voiced Boris Badenov and several other characters on Rocky & Bullwinkle.
• Passed away suddenly in 1986 at the age of 66 of heart failure. This was just two years after Bradbury 13 was released.

Thank you, Mr. Frees, for making the world a little more beautiful.

Bradbury 13: The Happiness Machine

Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things. You simply must do things. –Ray Bradbury

The final episode in this series of old time radio dramas is The Happiness Machine. This story occupies three chapters in Dandelion Wine, which is a collection of short stories all set in the fictional Green Town, Illinois and loosely connected by the theme 'summer' as well as the 12-year-old character, Douglas Spaulding and his family.


The Happiness Machine
It was the sort of sound that might be heard coming from a giant's kitchen on a summer day. There were all sorts of hummings; low and high, steady and then changing. It was the sound of Leo Alfman and his happiness machine.

My Rating:
It doesn't take much digging to find the deeper meaning in this wonderful story. Leo sets out to built a machine that will make you happy, but he takes the long way around to find out that he doesn't have to look any farther than his own family to find true happiness. I think that so many people look outside of themselves for happiness. They blame their circumstances or the people around them for their unhappiness. But life is what you make of it and you have a choice about how you feel and what you do with what you've been given. If you just look, you'll find happiness all around.

Air Date: June 25, 1984

Narrator:
Paul Frees

Cast:
Jesse Bennet
Jean Jenkins
Mark Alston
Lynn McKinlay

Music:
Roger Hoffman
Greg Hansen

Production Assistant:
Patrick Mead

Associate Producer:
Jeff Raider

Created, Produced, Directed:
Mike McDonough

Executive Producer:
Dean Van Uitert

Audio Clip of The Happiness Machine
Buy The Happiness Machine mp3
Buy Bradbury 13 Audio CDs

Bradbury 13: Here There Be Tygers

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.
–Ray Bradbury

Today's Bradbury 13 is Here There Be Tygers. It was the twelfth in the series to air and is based on the short story of the same name in A Medicine for Melancholy, which was published in 1959.


Here There Be Tygers
The rocket ship sank down towards planet seven of star system 84. They had travelled millions upon millions of miles. Earth was far away, her system and her sun forgotten. And now the rockets of these tiny men could travel anywhere for the speed of their rockets was the speed of a god. And now, they were feathering down towards an alien world.
My Rating:
Travel through space has fascinated man since . . . well, since somebody looked up and noticed there were other planets out there. This story is really very enchanting, if you love stories about space travel and things that you imagined doing when you were a child, with a dash of the dangers that lurk in the unknown to keep it interesting. On the surface, it would seem that this story is all about those dreams we dream when we are young. But as with each of the other episodes, there is a deeper meaning to the story. This one deals with how we treat our natural resources and how money equals power. It makes you stop and think. I was 11 when these stories came out and listening to them then, I only enjoyed them for their entertainment value. As I've listened to them again to get ready for posting, I find there is more there and have really liked grasping the deeper meanings.

Air Date: June 18, 1984

{Tim Eisenhart, Bruce Newbold, Max Robinson and one other.
Photo Courtesy of Phil at Ray Bradbury & Media
©Mike McDonough}

Narrator:
Paul Frees

Cast:
Max Robinson
Bruce Newbold
Michael Drury Beck
Tim Eisenhart
Jeff Raider

Music:
Roger Hoffman
Greg Hansen

Production Assistant:
Patrick Mead

Associate Producer:
Jeff Raider

Created, Produced, Directed:
Mike McDonough

Executive Producer:
Dean Van Uitert

Audio Clip of Here There Be Tygers
Buy Here There Be Tygers mp3
Buy Bradbury 13 Audio CDs

Bradbury 13: The Fox and the Forest

While our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all.
–Ray Bradbury

Today's Bradbury 13 episode is adapted from The Fox and the Forest. This short story was included in The Illustrated Man in 1951.

The Fox and the Forest
There were fireworks the very first night. Things that you should be afraid of, perhaps, for they might remind you of other more horrible things. But these were beautiful rockets that ascended into the ancient soft air of Mexico and shook the stars apart in blue and white fragments. Everything was good and sweet. The air was that blend of the dead and the living of the rains and the dusts. And in the shadows, with bottles of assorted liquors at his elbow, the man in the Panama hat lit a Turkish cigarette and stared into the crowd, searching. Searching.

My Rating:
My favorite voice actress of the series, Barta Heiner, plays the female lead, which I really enjoy. She has a very lovely voice. Additionally, I really like this story. There is a timelessness to it, I think almost as much as The Wind. There is quite a game of cat of mouse going on. And as always, there is an interesting twist which, in this case makes you wonder if you can ever really escape your responsibilities even if those responsibilities are dreadful or even wrong.

Air Date:
June 11, 1984

Narrator:
Paul Frees

Cast:
Neil Barth
Barta Heiner
Glenwood Thompson
Jay Bernard
Janet Swenson

Music:
Roger Hoffman
Greg Hansen

Production Assistant:
Patrick Mead

Associate Producer:
Jeff Raider

Created, Produced, Directed:
Mike McDonough

Executive Producer:
Dean Van Uitert

Audio Clip of The and the Forest
Buy The Fox and the Forest mp3
Buy Bradbury 13 Audio CDs

Bradbury 13: The Wind

A man who is "of sound mind" is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key. –Paul Valéry, Mauvaises pensées et autres, 1942

Bradbury's short story, The Wind was first published in the March 1943 edition of Weird Tales and was included in The October Country in 1955.

The Wind
It was a huge cloud of vapors; a big sniffing hound trying to smell him out. It pushed its wet cold nose up to the house, taking air, trying to get in the windows and doors, following him from room to room, watching him from all the windows. Waiting.

My Rating:
Of all the episodes, I think this is the most timeless. This story has provoked some deep thinking on my part. There is a lot of great symbolism going on. I couldn't help comparing the Wind to life. Sometimes life is calm and beautiful, like a spring day with a gentle breeze. And sometimes there is foot of snow on the ground, with more coming down and an icy draft blowing at the eaves and in under the door. That's just the way life is. You take the good with the bad and do the best you can. Sometimes the icy winds of winter aren't hard to weather. But sometimes it seems like those beautiful days of spring will never come and you can't stand one more minute of the storm that is blowing around you.

I think that very often people reach out from the middle of those hard to bear storms, at the end of their rope and looking for help. Those on the outside may not understand how bad the storm is from the inside and not be able to offer the help that is needed. I think a lot of people in this world feel very alone in the trials they are going through, even though they know there are many people around them who care for them. Sometimes all you can do is hunker down and wait for the storm to pass. Like I said, lots of deep thinking about this one.

Air Date: June 4, 1984

Narrator:
Paul Frees

Cast:
Bob Nelson
Charlotte Nelson
Jesse Bennett
Mike Flynn
Janet Swenson

Music:
Roger Hoffman
Greg Hansen

Production Assistant:
Patrick Mead

Associate Producer:
Jeff Raider

Created, Produced, Directed:
Mike McDonough

Executive Producer:
Dean Van Uitert

Audio Clip of The Wind
Buy The Wind mp3
Buy Bradbury 13 Audio CDs

Bradbury 13: The Man

Whatever we worship, short of God, is sure to be our undoing.
–Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

Today's Bradbury 13 radio drama episode is The Man. It aired ninth in the series and was based on the story of the same name in The Illustrated Man in 1951 and S is for Space in 1966. Of all the episodes, this is the only one with a religious theme to it. The Man is a religious figure without a name, allowing Him to be whomever the reader/listener wants Him to be. As I listened to it again, my mind pondered over my religious beliefs and the way they fit into my life.

The Man
They were the first earth men to reach the planet. They had travelled millions of miles through black space and landed in a fury of smoke and flames, but no one in the city noticed. The chances were one in a billion that they'd arrived at this planet, among millions of planets, at this precise moment, but they had.
My Rating:
A space expedition from Earth lands on a distant planet and no one finds it even remotely interesting because they've just been visited by a Man. The ship's captain is put out by the non-existent welcome from the people and demands to see the Man or proof of the Man's visit. Frustrated by the lack of solid evidence that the Man has actually been there the captain insists that the people are hiding the Man from him and demands to be taken to him. The mayor tells him to look into the faces of the people and asks if he can see the Man there. The captain replies that he cannot to which the mayor says, Then I'm sorry for you. Religion isn't something that can be quantified or definitively proved. If only he'd searched our faces with his heart. . . It is a feeling in your heart that leads to a knowledge in your mind of things that are true. And sometimes that requires using a little faith.

Air Date:
May 28, 1984

{Mike McDonough at the console,
with performers Scott Wilkinson, Max Golightly,
Lynn McKinlay and one other.
Photo courtesy of Phil at Ray Bradbury & Media.
©Mike McDonough}

Narrator:
Paul Frees

Cast:
Max Golightly
Scott Wilkinson
Lynn McInlay
Mike McDonough
Mike Flynn

Music:
Roger Hoffman
Greg Hansen

Production Assistant:
Patrick Mead

Associate Producer:
Jeff Raider

Created, Produced, Directed:
Mike McDonough

Executive Producer:
Dean Van Uitert

Audio Clip of The Man

Buy The Man mp3

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Bradbury 13: A Sound of Thunder

I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room. –Ray Bradbury

I apologize for the interruption to my regularly scheduled Bradbury 13 post last Wednesday. It was a bit of a last minute decision. I was busy doing a week of giveaways and since I was organizing prizes and posts for the giveaway, I decided to take a week off of Bradbury because even though I had the skeleton written out, I wanted to do a little more reading up on this story and flesh out my post a bit more. I wanted to do the story justice because it is in my top three.

A Sound of Thunder was first published in Collier's Weekly magazine in 1952. It was included in The Golden Apples of the Sun in 1953, which has since been reprinted in several different forms and under several different titles and is now called A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories. A Sound of Thunder has since become the most reprinted science fiction story of all time {I know, Bradbury isn't, strictly speaking, a science fiction writer. Most of his stories are more fantasy, but he is billed as sci-fi, so I'm going with it}. I've tried to keep my reviews fairly spoiler-free, but this story is popular enough that I think that most everyone is familiar with it, so I'm including a summary this time. In this story, a group of time travelers go on a safari back to the time of the dinosaurs to kill the ultimate game. The time travel agency has taken every precaution to insure that nothing it disturbed by the time travelers. They've erected a path that hovers above the ground to keep from disturbing the environment. They carefully choose which animals they will hunt, arriving just moments before they animal is about to die of natural causes. They leave no evidence of their presence, because who knows what the consequence will be if they make even a minor change to the way things were. However, in this trip something goes wrong. The hunter is frightened by the enormity of the dinosaur and in his haste to return to the time machine, he steps off the path and steps on a butterfly. When the group returns to the present, things are different from how they left them.

I had to wonder if the term butterfly effect comes from this story. The premise is that one tiny change in conditions in the present {or past, if it were possible} has a huge effect on the future. Mathematicians and scientists were exploring cause and effect in the 1890's. But it wasn't until somewhere around 1972 that the actual term came about, and it was used in conjunction with Edward Lorenz's experiments with computer weather models. So, somewhere in the middle lies Bradbury's most excellent A Sound of Thunder, which is, in my option, largely responsible for the term and concept.

A Sound of Thunder
They wiped the blood from their helmets. The monster lay a hill of solid flesh. Within it, you could hear the sighs and murmurs as the furthest chambers died, the organs malfuctioning, liquids running a final instant from pocket to sack to spleen, everything shutting off, closing up. Forever.

My Rating:
The curious thing about life is its endless possibilities. What you do in this moment, in a very real way, determines what you will be doing in a week, a year, a decade. It also influences the people around you. I often think about moments in my life were things may have taken a different direction if I had done things differently and wonder what it would be like if I had chosen a different path. If I were to hop in a time machine and tell my former self to do things differently, would I return to something better, or would I come back to find things much worse than I left them?

Air Date: May 21, 1984

Narrator:
Paul Frees

Cast:
Max Robinson
Bryce Chamberlain
Jay Bernard
Jeff Raider
Duane Hyatt
Jennifer Olafsen

Music:
Roger Hoffman
Greg Hansen

Production Assistant:
Patrick Mead

Associate Producer:
Jeff Raider

Created, Produced, Directed:
Mike McDonough

Executive Producer:
Dean Van Uitert

Audio Clip of A Sound of Thunder

Buy A Sound of Thunder mp3

Buy Bradbury 13 Audio CDs

Bradbury 13: The Screaming Woman

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. –Ray Bradbury

Episode seven {ignore the nine on the picture; the episodes were re-numbered with their recent release on Audio CD, from which I swiped borrowed the image} of the Bradbury 13 series is The Screaming Woman, which was adapted from the short story first published in 1951 and also included in S is for Space in 1966. The stories come from several different Bradbury books, and are on a wide variety of themes and subjects. While reading up on the series, I came across a quote by the writer/producer/director, Mike McDonough, which I thought was interesting and helped tie the story choices together. Mike said, I chose stories that I felt I could mould into half hour radio dramas, stories that had interesting possibilities for sound. Sound is a huge part of the story telling and Mike and his team did a wonderful job of communicating through sound.

The Screaming Woman
Margaret Leary is ten years old and likes to play in the vacant lot on long summer days. She and her friends like to play pirates and bank robbers and cowboys. One summer afternoon, Margaret was playing in the lot and discovered there was something buried deep in the ground — and it was still alive.

My Rating:
I think what makes a good story is its ability to get you to feel like you're a part of it. What makes this story enjoyable is that it is just so frustrating. As an outsider, you can see what is happening but are helpless to do anything about it. I won't say any more, because I don't want to give too much away. But trust me when I say this is a good one. But then again, I think they're all good .

Air Date:
May 14, 1984

{Rachael Jacobs and Mike McDonough
Photo courtesy of Phil at Ray Bradbury & Media
©Mike McDonough}

Narrator:
Paul Frees

Cast:
Rachael Jacobs
Beverly Rowland
Neil Barth
Mark Alston
Bryce Chamberlain
Coleman Creel
Oscar Rowland

Music:
Roger Hoffman
Greg Hansen

Production Assistant:
Patrick Mead

Associate Producer:
Jeff Raider

Created, Produced, Directed:
Mike McDonough

Executive Producer:
Dean Van Uitert

Audio Clip of The Screaming Woman

Buy The Screaming Woman mp3

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Bradbury 13: Dark They Were and Golden Eyed

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. –Anatole France

Dark They Were and Golden Eyed is episode six in the Bradbury 13 series {the recent release of the series on Audio CD places it at number two, which isn't too far off the mark in my book, as far as favorites go .} The short story it is based on was first published in the science fiction magazine, Wonder Stories, in 1949. It was also included in A Medicine for Melancholy in 1959 and S is for Space in 1966.

Dark They Were and Golden Eyed
As long as the rockets had spun a silver web across space, Harry Bittering had been able to accept Mars. But now, the web gone, the rockets lying in jigsaw heaps of molten girder and unsnaked wire on Earth, people from Earth left to the strangeness of Mars, the cinnamon dusts and wine airs; this was the moment that Mars had waited for. Now, it would eat them.

My Rating:
Ray Bradbury certainly has a penchant for stranding people on Mars. I wonder what it is about that planet that is so fascinating to him? Whatever it is, this episode is among my favorites. The descriptions of the Martian landscape and habitats is very rich and descriptive. And this is another one of those tales that makes you think a little. The theme for this story is change. Change happens, whether we want it to or not. We can be swept along by it or we can embrace it, whether we are the instigators of the change that is going on around us or mere bystanders, caught in its path. Whatever the case may be, in all that I've observed, it seems like making the best of whatever situation you're found in seems to make the constant of change a little easier to handle.

Air Date:
May 7, 1984

{Coleman Creel, Bryce Chamberlain, Oscar Rowland
Photo Courtesy of Phil at Ray Bradbury & Media
©Mike McDonough}

Narrator:
Paul Frees

Cast:
Bryce Chamberlain
Beverly Rowland
Steve Densley
Jennifer Coleman
Coleman Creel
Max Robinson
Jay Bernard
Nathan Hale

Music:
Roger Hoffman
Greg Hansen

Production Assistant:
Patrick Mead

Associate Producer:
Jeff Raider

Created, Produced, Directed:
Mike McDonough

Executive Producer:
Dean Van Uitert

Audio Clip of Dark They Were and Golden Eyed

Buy Dark They Were and Golden Eyed mp3

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