Book Review: Once Around the Bloch by Robert Bloch

 

Once Around the Bloch by Robert Bloch

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January  1993

 

Robert Bloch is a master of horror and dark fantasy, one of the important voices of the genre, whose legacy is most connected to his novel Psycho which became a classic movie. Getting the Alfred Hitchcock treatment will certainly help you get remembered but for me, it was three episodes of Star Trek with his name on it that introduced me to his work. We’ll come back to that.

I am always interested in the lives of writers and how a midwestern guy went from writing fan letters to HP Lovecraft to becoming a grand master and all that was very interesting to me. The things that interested me in this book might not be the same as most people.

Most readers are going to be interested in his Hollywood adventures like meeting Joan Crawford and Hitchcock but not me. Tell me about the road trips to the Chicago offices of Weird Tales and double dates with Sci-fi Pioneers Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore. That is the stuff this reader was interested in.

Robert Bloch grew up in Chicago and eventually, Milwaukee is of course where this book starts. It was Lovecraft’s stories in Weird Tales that got the young Bloch’s attention. When money was too tight for getting every issue the young Bloch was bummed that he might have missed a story by his new favorite author. When he wrote the magazine to make sure he didn’t miss one and was surprised when the author himself wrote back. It was Lovecraft himself that encouraged the young man to write his own stories in his style, thus Bloch was a part of the early expansion of the mythos that writers today carry on with.

Lovecraft and Bloch even had fun killing off characters that resembled each other. This was the 1930s and in 1935 he attended his first meeting of the Milwaukee Fictioneers. It was so cool to me that this smaller midwestern town had its own writing group even back then. Bloch was the most famous although Fredric Brown also became known for the short story that was the story by credit on the Star Trek episode Arena. (Two beer town fictioneers with TOS credits) in the genre, Brown is most known for writing novels that were intentionally funny like Martian Go Home, and What Mad Universe.

In the second half of the 1930s, the Milwaukee Fictioneers met two Thursdays a month, each member hosting in a rotation, no alcohol only coffee. They didn’t read out loud, but they discussed craft. One of the most successful writers in the group was Stanley G. Weinbaum whose classic short story “A Martian Odyssey” was seen as introducing relatable alien characters for the first time. But at 33 years old and one year into the group he died young.

Bob Bloch was not just a writer, he had short but productive writing ad copy and worked to help get a friend elected mayor. It was a surprise to everyone when they won. Bloch writes several long chapters about this period he seemed to imply this was the path not taken, that he could have written speeches for political figures. I admit I found this part a little long but Bloch's sarcasm filled the book even in the less interesting moments funny.

Eventually, he followed friends out to LA to write for film and TV. Building off the success of Psycho. Of course, the details of writing that novel and watching the movie get made are fun parts of the book.

Details I am glad I learned…

>Robert Bloch’s first Vacation to LA in the late 30s he stayed with Henry Kuttner and went on a double with writer CL Moore who came out from Indiana on Vacation. The date went well enough for one couple Moore and Kuttner became one of the power couples of SF in the 40s and 50s.

> Bloch was offered the Toastmasters job at the infamous Worldcon in Cleveland (I think 1966). Tony Boucher took over but when he heard Bloch passed because he didn’t have the funds he sold him a story in Magazine of F and SF to make sure he was able to go. Of course, this was when Roddenberry screened both pilots for Star Trek and met all the SF writers. Bloch went on to the pitch and sell three episodes.

> In 1947 Kuttner and Moore hosted Bloch for a vacation in South Laguna and he described them as becoming introverted. I think meaning they were not hanging out with other writers or going to Cons.

> Bloch said the name Norman Bates has a meaning “Nor Man,” a pun that contains a secret in the story… To say nothing that Norman “baits” his trap.

>In the 50s the SF writers (Bradbury, Matheson, and friends) had a loose circle Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. Many were repped by  Gordon Molson Associates literary agency.

>Bloch also referred to this group of friends at one point as “The Matheson Mafia.” The context was Rod Serling had the Matheson Mafia.

> In the 60s the writers in LA hung out in a group called Pinckard Science Fiction Writers' Salon. The group took on a stature unseen in most writer's groups. They hosted astronauts and famous folks. Bloch suggested that this group deserves a book in itself.  Regulars included Norman Spinrad, Philip Jose Farmer, Larry Niven, AE Van Vogt, Forrest Ackerman, and more.

> Bloch gave lots of credit to help from Story editor Dorothy Fontana helping his scripts on Star Trek..  (p. 336)

I think this book is for serious Robert Bloch fans, the golden age, and genre historians like myself. The first third is probably of interest to Lovecraft fans. Overall I thought the book could have been a little bit tighter, and shorter. Bloch does his best to keep the thing entertaining throughout. His memories of the genre history are great, and his sarcasm and playfulness will carry most readers. That said if you are not in those very nerdy categories of interest I am not sure you’ll want to commit to 300+ plus pages. For most readers, I suggest his fiction long before this book, and I think Robert Bloch probably would want you to start there.