It was 1960 Alan discovered a new world of sordid pleasures between the pages of "Famous Monsters of Filmland" magazine. In 1963 and '64 he put on what is arguably the first Fan-Media Conventions. He produced a series of fanzines, dabbling with the folly of mimeography and yet, being a glutton for punishment, joined Dr. Donald A. Reed's "Count Dracula Society" becoming Vice President and producing a slew of publications.

He was working with Kustom Kar King Ed "Big Daddy" Roth in 1970 at MovieWorld in Buena Park till moving to Los Angeles doing T-Shirt designs by day and managing "The Holly Cinema" movie theatre on Hollywood Blvd. by night. He even worked a number of years at the infamous "Collectors Book Store" also on the boulevard plus a brief career in modeling and TV commercials but in 1972 began designing advertising material for several motion picture companies which lasted 20 years.

It was a dark and stormy night at the home of Dr. Reed when the two of them drew up plans for "The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films". Together, they produced several television presentations of their annual award ceremonies and the Academy is still operating today.

Returning as Art GoH at StarCon 2 in Leicester, England, Alan worked on many of the infamous "Bob Burns Halloween Extravaganzas", even playing a Morlock in the Time Machine presentation written by and starring David Gerrold. Meanwhile, back in fandom, won several awards for Best Fantasy Art and a Walt Disney award for Best Photography.

Giving up studio work and leaving the big city for Palm Springs where he wrote a weekly, internationally syndicated movie review column and produced graphics for a number of independent printing concerns. With the advent of personal computers found his next love affair with the Mac, producing some of the first entirely computer generated fanzines. Most notably, Airwaves and Delineator. It was also in this small desert community, he met and married DeDee; in fact, they were the first couple married at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas opening day, 1990.

The next few years Alan dealt with a series of medical calamities, from a mild stroke, kidney stones, to prostate cancer, which after several surgeries is still recovering.

Ever the dilettante, he has produced several podcast interviews with cult movie favorites from years gone by, cover art for a number of magazines and books, performed in and around a number of movies and now working with the marvelous Xanadu Las Vegas. He hopes to see you there.

 

IMDB / Voices of Cancer / SciFiVegas