Galaxy
Letter to the USSR
There is a story behind this Letter. I met Governor Reagan at the Beverly Hills art festival when he was running for President of the United States. He was fascinated with my artwork and my booth. Because there was a huge crowd around my booth, and someone asked him a question about the economy and his remedy. That turned into an hour speech that went over most of the artists’ heads. I asked if I could interpret and he gave me the nod, so I explained how his policies would prosper us all. I told him in front of the crowd to pick his favorite sculpture from the inventory I had on display. He did, so I wrapped it up and put it in a big zip lock bag and wrote his name on it. When I handed it to him, I told him I was going to vote for him and recommended that all of the artists do the same, and when he becomes President, I will send it to him, and he has to accept it. He agreed.
(Note): Later in my career when I was having a show as a Master Sculptor, I was approached by a man who presented Secret Service badge, he told me that he was part of his detail in the later part of his life when he was suffering from dementia, that he kept the sculpture right next to his bed and would look at it often. I was brought to tears.
President Reagan called up Forrest Ackerman who was the head of the Sci-Fi Museum in LA, Calif., and asked him if he knew me. Forrest responded
yes; he was just here yesterday showing me a new piece of his. President Reagan asks him to call me on his behalf and ask if I would send a sculpture with the world Sci-Fi Writers as a gift to the USSR from the USA. I sent the one that was ready to go. I felt duty bound to write something from the heart and that’s were the Letter came from.
When I took the sculpture and letter over to Forrest, his wife took the letter and hid it in the lapel of his suit she was repairing. When the delegation landed at the airport they found out that their works were being held under guard at the free zone. The KGB held everything written. It caused quite a stir on the international scene.
The group had a tour to complete while things got sorted out diplomatically. The tour had to go through several check points where their papers would be checked. Here is the stickler, at every check point they would do a changing of the guard, so the guards got to see the sculpture. This sometimes took an hour and a half. They did this at every stop. It was pissing off all the writers and Forrest was losing his patience. They were there to discuss plagiarism.
When they got to Moscow which was the final destination, they were invited into an arena of sorts where the Americans were on the bottom floor and the Russians were sitting up higher looking at them. Forrest blew a gasket and stood up and asked the interpreter what is the meaning of this display? “We traveled thousands of miles just to be treated badly. We just want to go home with our things so we want to give this gift from all of us and go home.”
As he was handing over the gift to Ami Pernov Mrs. Ackerman opened the lapel and pulled out the Letter and handed it to the interpreter. The interpreter read the speech in Russian. The room became silent for a moment, then the Russians all stood up and left the room very quickly. Then all of a sudden all of the doors opened up on the bottom level and the Russians invited them to an open area with tables and they all sat around and talked for a couple of days because all of their material were there protected by Guards and was there with them and they had a great time together.
The Sculpture sits in The Palace of the Writers Guild Moscow, USSR
This story was told by Forrest Ackerman at the World Sci-fi Convention in Denver, Co. in 1982.