The Two Rays

You may also like...

5 Responses

  1. Vinnie Bartilucci says:

    Ray’s work is found everywhere. An episode of Pokemon paid homage to "The Fog Horn", which is also (through a circuitous route) the inspiration for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

    As far as I’m concerned, when we finally send a man to Mars, he should take with him a copy of Martian Chronicles to read over the radio to Earth.
    Were I that man, the first words as I stepped onto that red orb would be "We made it Ray – We are the Martians now".

    BTW, the google ads I get on this page are for "farenheit 451"…and wheelchairs. Gotta love phrase searchers.

  2. Christopher Moonligh says:

    Ray Bradbury is the man. He did in fact write the original script for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and what a fun movie that was. Because of RB, I feel I have already been to Mars.

  3. John Tebbel says:

    Thanks Vinnie and Christopher for the extra facts. If i've seen "Beast" I've forgotte, can't wait to get the new DVD. When I start to write about the Two Rays I have to be wary of the event horizon past which I never stop writing. I'm saving a story about There Will Come Soft Rains. Stay tuned.

    • Vinnie Bartilucci says:

      If I recall the story correctly, the producer had read Fog Horn in the past and (legitimately) forgotten most of it. He then came up with the idea for Beast, and put in a scene with the lighthouse, not remembering from whence it came. Someone suggested Ray Bradbury write the script. The producer gets together with Ray and pitches the story. Ray is interested, and conversationally, he mentions that there was a scene much like his lighthouse bit in his story, The Fog Horn. The producer suddenly remembered where he had gotten the idea, and realized he was talking to to the guy he'd accidentally stolen it from! Well, the contracts were written up in a twinkling and Ray got the scriptwriting gig. And nary a lawyer in sight.I could swear the anecdote is in one of his collections preceding The Fog Horn.

      • John Tebbel says:

        Ray the B told the story you refer to at the Spotlight, too. Quote I wrote down is "he realized he was trying to hire the guy he stole the story from." Story was from the Saturday Evening Post. At the panel the "accidental" qualifications didn't figure into it. It's a loose producer who forgets the ideas he gets from such a huge, at the time, magazine. In this version his agent sent him a telegram to say the producer was buying Foghorn. I sure can't complain we didn't get his "A" material.