No 8 - It's a Shame About Ray.....

When I was sixteen years old, I met Mr Ray Harryhausen. Somehow, my friend J and I managed to blag our way into his studio in Kensal Green, North West London.

He was bang in the middle of filming Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, and (looking back now), was obviously under quite a lot of pressure, but he was nothing less than gracious and dealt with our (no doubt) naive enquiries with patience and good humour .

He showed us the "Trog" puppet and the smaller baboon puppet, which were both still screwed to the animation table, and then, on an editing bench, cranked through a few seconds of the previous days rushes.

To a couple of fan-boys like us, it was all absolutely thrilling.

We must have been in his studio not much more than fifteen minutes, but it's a quarter of an hour I've never forgotten.......

He came across as a thoroughly decent chap.

So to you, Raymond Frederick Harryhausen, I raise my glass.....

XX