Fred Patten RIP

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davemerrill
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Fred Patten RIP

Post by davemerrill »

the news is that Fred Patten passed away yesterday. According to Mark Evanier he was found unresponsive on Nov. 1 and never regained consciousness.

When I first joined the national C/FO, they were looking for someone to be "secretary," which mostly meant answering letters about Robotech. I volunteered and soon I got a phone call from Fred telling me what I'd be responsible for. I met him in person for the first time at the Worldcon in New Orleans in 1988. I'm pretty sure he was at the one Anime Expo I attended, but I didn't see him there. Lloyd arranged from him to come out to AWA as a guest, right before his stroke. I'm glad he was able to come out and see the Atlanta branch of the house he built. After the show we heard about his stroke and immediately I wished I'd spent more time with him.

Luckily he was able to recover somewhat and continue writing and attending events - I saw him again briefly at Anime Los Angeles, in the crowd of a panel I did about anime fandom. I made darn sure to let the crowd know that right there in the wheelchair was the guy that more or less started it all.

I always hoped he'd get well enough to travel, or I'd get where I could do more West Coast travelling, but I never saw him again.

https://www.newsfromme.com/2018/11/12/f ... ten-r-i-p/

https://blog.alltheanime.com/fred-patten-1940-2018/
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DKop
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Re: Fred Patten RIP

Post by DKop »

Why in a weird way this comes as no surprise when someone like Stan Lee dies. This news actually does break me in a way, but it was expected.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned to you Dave at AWA that I didn't think Fred had much longer to go. I've also been slowly working on a project for a while that some people on this forum were aware off, and I wanted Fred input on that. This is what I get for waiting so long, so im especially bummed about it. :(

Fred is really the founding pillar that hasn't gotten a lot of recognition for his contributions to anime fandom, and seems to have been treated as a relic. I've been going through his Reading Anime/Watching Manga book, and I've got a ton of articles written by him on print like Newtype USA that I should get around to scanning and archiving them for blog reasons. I should get started on that soon, since now would be the opportune time to do it.

RIP "Old Man" Fred...
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karageko
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Re: Fred Patten RIP

Post by karageko »

Well damn. I'd always been loosely aware of who he was but it was another one of those names in fandom whose writings I'd been meaning to read, and hadn't gotten around to yet. It's been quite touching to see the people I follow in fandom extol his legacy and achievements. I'll have to get off my butt and read more from the man himself.
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mbanu
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Re: Fred Patten RIP

Post by mbanu »

Whenever I find myself tempted to go too old school in my anime mentality, grumbling about new anime and how nobody watches the old stuff, I remind myself that Fred Patten helped start the first American anime club when he was 37. I actually have a bad photo of him on my desktop taken of him at a party at 33, already looking awkwardly out-of-place with his 1960s fashions and a spill on his pants. I look at it and remind myself why it's important to push forward.

I'm glad I was able to write him a postcard before he died; I hope that I can keep learning from his example.
mbanu: What's between Old School and New School?
runesaint: Hmmm. "Middle School", perhaps?
SteveH
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Re: Fred Patten RIP

Post by SteveH »

I think it's safe to say that if not for Fred Patten I would not be an anime fan. While Star Blazers is my 'catalyst anime' and set the tone for all my interests and preferences, Fred's article in 'Fanfare Magazine' was the opening of my third eye.

A throwaway line about soundtrack LPs and a small cut of the cover for Symphonic Suite Yamato (Nippon Columbia CQ-7001 2,300 Yen and GOD DANG I JUST DID THAT FROM MEMORY!!!) Sent me into the rabbit hole of deep diving, as Yamato led to Matsumoto (nee Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999), the LPs led me to seek out Marg Baskin and her crew at a con, meeting Ardith and on and on.

I met the man at the 1984 Worldcon, he was carrying around a bag of LPs he was selling (I think from Melody Records) and I bought a copy of the Dunbine OST/BGM which I then had Yoshiyuki Tomino autograph. I *think* I gave him a copy of Space Fanzine Yamato but I don't think I expressed what his article meant to me.


He's written a lot but so much history was still in his head, and now it's gone. The world is more poor for the loss.
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usamimi
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Re: Fred Patten RIP

Post by usamimi »

It really is sad to hear. He was on ground zero for so many firsts for anime in America, and his writings were always full of wit, humor, and warmth. I always hoped that maybe I'd get a chance to talk to him about his Streamline Picture days (his series at Cartoon Research on it were SO good, I keep trying to push it on people to this day: http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/st ... es-part-1/), but at least he left us with a legacy of well documented and well written accounts. RIP to someone all anime fans owe a little bit to!
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karageko
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Re: Fred Patten RIP

Post by karageko »

Today I have learned that Dave's not the only candy cartoon promoter in the anime wild west.

http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/an ... h-america/
Fred Patten wrote:Candy Candy. We didn’t watch only the boys’ adventure anime. We at least sampled the girls’ anime. Actually, I was the big rooter for Candy Candy, because I was fascinated in this Japanese take on American history. Candy White is a blonde orphan, about ten years old, who becomes a young maid at the estate of a Robber Baron just before World War I. You can tell that the Reagans are Robber Barons because they have a huge mansion near Chicago, dozens and dozens of liveried servants, and regularly go fox hunting in full regalia. Candy has a harsh life as a maid, but she is afraid to displease the head maid who warns her that if her work is not good enough, she will be EXILED TO MEXICO! Cut to a caricature of a Mexican slavemaster who makes the Frito Bandito look like Ricardo Montalban. Candy suffers as she grows up through over two years’ worth of half-hour episodes, finally marrying her True Love. Candy Candy was even more popular in Italy than in Japan. When Yumiko Igarashi, the Candy Candy manga artist upon whose work the TV anime was based, came to the 1980 San Diego Comic-Con, she told Wendy Pini that she was furious at Toei Animation for giving Candy a cute pet albino raccoon, Clint, just for merchandising plush doll purposes. Clint was NOT in the manga!
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zimmerit
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Re: Fred Patten RIP

Post by zimmerit »

davemerrill wrote: Tue Nov 13, 2018 6:06 am Luckily he was able to recover somewhat and continue writing and attending events - I saw him again briefly at Anime Los Angeles, in the crowd of a panel I did about anime fandom. I made darn sure to let the crowd know that right there in the wheelchair was the guy that more or less started it all.
This was, I think, the only time I saw him in person. I'm glad he was able to stick around for as much time as he did after his stroke.

Amusingly, when news of his passing broke most of the messages I saw on Twitter were from people in furry fandom. A reminder that he touched more than just anime fans, I suppose.
Sean // zimmerit.moe
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usamimi
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Re: Fred Patten RIP

Post by usamimi »

That's right! He had one foot in anime fandom, the other in furry. He's written books on that fandom as well, iirc. I've never read any of them, but now I'm kinda curious.
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DKop
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Re: Fred Patten RIP

Post by DKop »

Just a heads up, i'm compiling all my Newtype USA issues to my next blog post that will feature all of his writings from what I own. I remember on an AWO episode that Daryl wanted a compilation of his writings but they didn't exist. I've figured now's a good time to take what I got and put that out there for people to see/read. It'll take a couple of weeks since im pretty busy with stuff right now, but it will come out.
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