The Gang's All Fear

When young Forry moved to San Francisco with his parents, he did not enjoy a warm welcome from the neighborhood by any means. In the following extract, he details an encounter with a local gang of street toughs and its surprising outcome. Additionally, we hear of FJA’s boyhood friendship with James H. Nichlolson, later co-head of American International Pictures. This contact would serve Forry well in the years to come, as Nicholson would offer Famous Monsters of Filmland pre-release coverage of his studio’s forthcoming terror tales.

A youthful Forry surveys his collection of pulp magazines. These were briefly sold to a neighbor boy before an agonized FJA asked for them back!

“When I first moved to San Francisco with my parents, the first time I went onto the street a gang of about half a dozen boys grabbed hold of me and took me to the last house on the block and to its back yard. One of the gang then welcomed me to the neighborhood. It was explained to me that he was the leader of the gang and I would have to fight him for leadership. That didn’t appeal to me at all, but I was forced to fight and I knocked him down and stood towering over him. The others went, ‘Hooray, hooray for our new leader!’ I never took any advantage of it.

“In those days I was going to high school and to get there I would first walk along the sidewalk of the house in which I lived, at 530 Staples Avenue. At the bottom of the descent I became acquainted with one of the fellows I was going to school with, Frank Sipos. We accompanied each other to school each day. I found that he was very interested in science fiction. I created what was called the Boys’ Scientifiction Club. Girls were not even mentioned because in the early days there were no girls who were interested.

“In high school I met up with another boy who was interested. His name was James Nicholson. He wasn’t a particularly good student. While I, in the fourth and last year when I graduated, got a straight A in every one of my courses. But James Nicholson eventually rose considerably over me in the eyes of society when he became president of a movie corporation called American International Pictures.”