Who really wrote "Poltergeist?"
Disclaimer: Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais, and Mark Victor are the credited writers of the film. While I cannot prove there were other writers involved, the following information is interesting nonetheless.
Much of the following I originally posted on a thread at the SpielbergFilms.com discussion board. The full original thread can be read here:
http://www.spielbergfilms.com/showthread.php?t=1877
******************************
I found the following comment on an archived Usenet posting. I also found the archived web site of the author, a guy named Robert Martin. I think he might have some credibility considering what is on his resume. Pay special attention to his claim about the writing of "Poltergeist" below. In his usenet posting, he didn't give his name, but he did include a link to his then web site (http://flixman.home.ml.org). It's down now, but still up via the Wayback Archive. On that site, he listed his real name and contact info.
His old web site and resume:
http://web.archive.org/web/200003060...022/resume.htm
from: 1997
http://groups.google.com/group/bit.l...61643fc2ba99c9
Spielberg already proved his Teflon status when his role in Vic
Morrow's death was completely paved over (by powerful Hollywood
interests in connivance with the major media) while he left John
Landis to twist slowly in the wind. That's a story only 4 or 5 people
could tell in detail, and none of them are talkng because, in the
immortal words of Mel Brooks, "Gentlemen! We have to protect our
phoney-baloney jobs!" -- but I know more than most people do. I'd
spill here, but frankly, the "dark side of Spielberg" book is way
overdue, and this would be a good tale to save for such pages, if I
ever grow spiteful enough to write them. (Note to DreamWorks: if I had
a *job* I might be *too busy* to think about stuff like this.)
(Another cool chapter would be about the committee of eight writers
who wrote -- and, for many scenes, outright *stole* from multiple
sources -- the Poltergeist script credited to Spielberg and two
writers. MGM even shut down production on a TV movie because there was
a set-piece, involving a ghostly hand emerging from a television
screen, that the writing committee wished to incorporate into the
Poltergeist script, but other appropriations were not so above-board.
Spielberg was unaware that his "ghost writers" had sticky fingers
until the lawsuits hit. Veteran fantasy writer Richard Matheson and
actor/screenwriter Paul Clemens were paid off. Spielberg has, wisely
enough, not taken a bogus writing credit since.) (Another chapter might play compare and contrast between Spielberg's
many pronouncements on "artist's rights" and his role as 800-pound
bear producer on other director's films.)
More info on Mr. Martin's self written bio on the IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0552979/bio
Robert Martin was the original editor of "Fangoria", the magazine of horror and exploitation film. Martin steered the publication from 1979 to 1986 -- the slasher-film boom years. Martin's so-called "acting" was a by-product of his career as a journalist, and included a prominent role as a wheelchair-bound geek in "Madhouse", the first video made by the band Anthrax (who were Fangoria readers), directed by Amos Poe. A collaborative relationship with writer-director Frank Henenlotter resulted in two produced screenplays, with Martin writing initial drafts from Henenlotter's detailed outlines. In 1994, Martin, under the name "Ed Flixman" became editor of "Sci-Fi Entertainment", the "Official Magazine" of the Sci-Fi Channel, and continued in that capacity through October of 1996. His column of film news continued to run in that magazine, until an argument with the editor regarding remarks in his column that the new editor feared might incur the wrath of the Sci-Fi Channel. In December of 1996, Martin relocated from his native New York to Los Angeles, where he mostly worked as an Internet techie, but also wrote press materials for a few films, most notably "The People vs. Larry Flynt," in which his description of Flynt as "the last champion of the sexual revolution" stirred the wrath of Gloria Steinem, generating considerable press for the film. (In Martin's original, the phrase had been "the last champion of a failed sexual revolution.") As of January, 2006, he is working as a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas.
************************
Blockbuster films draw legal action like a honey pot draws flies. Poltergeist has been hit by a $37 million suit by actor Paul Clemens (who starred in The Beast Within, Death in Canaan and Promises in the Dark) and Bennett Michael Yellin. Clemens and Yellin claim that substantial portions of a script their agent submitted to Steven Spielberg's office in January of 1980 found its way into Poltergeist. Spielberg's office denies ever receiving the manuscript. The story Clemens and Yellin wrote involved a strange house which traps a family (consisting of a mother, father, an older daughter, middle son and a young daughter) and hides the youngest daughter somewhere within its structure, while the family can hear her ethereal voice calling for help. Clemens and Yellin registered their script with the Writer's Guild West on September 7, 1979 and it bears some striking similarities to Poltergeist, including a murderous tree that comes to life, and a room with saliva dripping from around the edges of a door frame, and an interior of smooth, glistening pink flesh resembling a throat which Clemens described as a kind of "well" going into the depths of hell. In Clemens and Yellin's finale, bodies of people who have drowned in the swamp on which the home was built-come violently up out of the water and break through the floor-boards of the house. "We think there's clear story misappropriation," said Clemens' and Yellin's attorney, Derrick Fisher. "Spielberg might defend his story against copyright infringement by claiming it was an 'independent creation." Well, you can have independent creation in maybe one of these plot elements, but there are so many of them which are almost identical." In 1981, Clemens had obtained a first draft copy of the Poltergeist script, but was counseled by his attorney to wait and see what similarities remained in the finished movie. The first draft had prompted author/director Frank DeFelitta to protest a scene he felt was lifted from his film "The Entity" (to be released by 20th Century Fox next spring) in which a mother is literally raped by a ghost. In that case, the script was changed. The plaintiffs have already lined up two expert witnesses, magazine editor Forrest J. Ackerman and author Ray Bradbury, who have agreed to go over each story and render their own professional opinions as to similarities in plot and structure. Ackerman also served for the defense in the Battlestar Galactica vs. Star Wars lawsuit, and Bradbury read Clemens' original story when asked back in 1979 for his literay advice. Clemens insists he has no personal animosity towards Steven Spielberg. "I like Spielberg," he said. "I've met him twice and he was enourmously gracious to me. I love his films. This is just a specific case. I'm not out to 'get' Spielberg. But look at the evidence! He's the only person we sent this script to and he makes this movie."
The above was from
Volume 13, No 2/Vol 13 No 3 by the way (November-December 1982) "Krull" was on the front cover.
The plaintiffs have already lined up two expert witnesses, magazine editor Forrest J. Ackerman and author Ray Bradbury, who have agreed to go over each story and render their own professional opinions as to similarities in plot and structure. Ackerman also served for the defense in the Battlestar Galactica vs. Star Wars lawsuit, and Bradbury read Clemens' original story when asked back in 1979 for his literay advice.
This link mentions a further connection between Forest J. Ackerman and writer Paul Clemens:
http://sergioleoneifr.blogspot.com/2...-birthday.html
Next, we have a cached version of Mr. Bob Martin's resume. Notice below the mention of Forest J. Ackerman.
So, what I'm getting at is that Mr. Martin's claims could have some validity seeing as how he worked for Starlog/Fangoria magazine at the time "Poltergeist" was released. He also later worked for Mr. Ackerman. It seems to me that Martin may have obtained his info about the "Poltergeist" lawsuit from Ackerman or during his duties as editor of Fangoria. (or perhaps both). I've tried to reach him through his email address, but it bounces back.
from:
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:...gl=us&ie=UTF-8
Robert Martin
New York, NY
I am seeking a temporary or permanent assignment in Publishing/Printing, Desktop Publishing, Digital Pre-Press, or in the Intra-Company Publishing fields, using the skills and experience gained from a widely diverse background.
Proficiency:
Quark Xpress
Photoshop
Microsoft Office
Word
Excel
Outlook
Working Knowledge:
Illustrator
Freelance
Microsoft Office
Power Point
Access
Word Perfect
Freelance Experience in writing and DTP
• Development of press materials for major films from Sony Pictures Entertainment (Matilda, The People Vs. Larry Flynt, The Fifth Element) and MGM Studios (Hurricane Streets).
• Complete production duties for the one-shot small press publication Wonderama, a film nostalgia publication by Forrest J. Ackerman (of Famous Monsters magazine). Executed layout designs using Quark Xpress and Photoshop, restored aging newspaper photographs for republication, and handled complete digital pre-press, for this 100-page, perfect-bound publication.
• Developed “retro” designs and executed layout for The Bette Pages, a small press publication specializing in pin-up nostalgia, using Quark Xpress and Photoshop.
• Developed copy for the primary corporate identity brochure for Applied Graphics Technology, the prestige digital pre-press house.
• Co-Screenwriter of several low-budget horror-comedy screenplays for Shapiro - Glickenhaus Entertainment, one of which was produced for theatrical release, and another released directly to video.
• Fiction appeared in the NY Press weekly and in Toxic magazine.
• Development of the corporate website of Euro-Tank, LLC, manufacturers of environmentally safe storage devices for gasoline and diesel fuels, currently in progress (the site currently on view is not my work).
• A weekly “Page 3” column of human interest pieces for “The Gold Coast,” an entertainment supplement to The Jersey Journal, ran for one year.
Staff Experience
1994-1996, Editor, Sci-Fi Entertainment.
Sovereign Media, Inc., Herndon, VA
Sci-Fi Entertainment, later retitled Sci-Fi, is the “Official Magazine of the Sci-Fi Channel,” a consumer magazine in the SF Media category. With publication offices in Virginia, I handled all editorial and production from my New York residence, transmitting rough layouts in Quark Xpress to the Herndon offices.
Under my editorship during its first years, Sci-Fi came to rival the sales of the traditional market leader, Starlog. At the end of 1994, I assisted in the launch of “The Dominion,” the cable network's ambitious science fiction web portal, providing HTML and graphics conversion of the magazine's content for republication on the World Wide Web.
1991-92, Managing Editor, CrimeBeat, The 54 Corporation, New York
Handled development, trafficking, and production of features for this upscale retooling of the "True Detective" magazine genre. AdWeek named CrimeBeat “Best New Magazine of 1991” (a title shared with Allure, launched the same year).
I also successfully convinced the publishers (veterans of traditional publishing) to allow me to set up an in-house workstation for graphic design and digital pre-press, which I configured and maintained. During this period, I gained a strong familiarity with the standard publishing software tools.
Though I retained the title and the duties of a production editor, I worked with Art Director Derek Burton in creating original graphics in Photoshop and Illustrator, and complete page layouts in Quark Xpress.
1986-1987, Editor, Hard Rock
Starlog Publishing Group, Inc., New York
At my urging, Starlog’s publishers agreed to allow me to re-focus their rock entry, which was suffering from lackluster sales. With the help of co-editor Danny Fields, we developed the first newsstand magazine to focus on the subgenre of music known, at that time, as “speedmetal” or “metalcore.” Such bands as Metallica, Anthrax, and Soundgarden received their first national coverage in our pages.
Sales figures showed significant signs of improvement; unfortunately a Jimmy Swaggart-led ‘anti-rockzine’ campaign ended our distribution in Wal-Mart and in several southern states, directly leading to the magazine's demise. The same approach to this new music trend subsequently worked very well for a number of other magazines, most notably Rip.
1979-1986, Editor, Fangoria
Starlog Publishing Group, Inc., New York
Applied principles established with Starlog to create the only successful horror-fantasy media magazine. I established Fangoria as unique in its field during my 6 years as editor, defining its format and approach to film, standards to which it still adheres. The magazine recently published its 200th issue.
1978, Associate Editor, Starlog
Starlog Publishing Group, Inc., New York
I joined the first mass-market Sci-Fi media magazine as it was still struggling to emerge from its initial, "start-up" phase. Assisted editor Howard Zimmerman in the preparation of the letters column and front-section news items.
1976-1978 Editorial Staff, Marketing Bestsellers
North American Publishing Co., Inc., New York
Marketing Bestsellers was a trade magazine directed to magazine and book dealers, emphasizing title selection and point-of-purchase techniques for maximizing impulse sales. As book review editor for two years, I was responsible for fifty capsule reviews of new releases each month. Shortly after my promotion to the post of editor, I left to accept a position with the Starlog Publishing Group.
References available on request.
********************************
Counterpoint from Steven Awalt, editor of SpielbergFilms.com:
Matheson also worked on "Twilight Zone" and "Amazing Stories" post-"Poltergeist," so if he felt Spielberg had ripped him off, I'd be really surprised...
About "Little Girl," doesn't the girl fall in a crack in her room, and then communicate through the television with her parents? If I'm remembering it right, the similarities are certainly there, but again, Matheson didn't feel they were paramount, at least from what we know on the record (i.e. — no suit).
Also, if that's truly Bob Martin who posted those thoughts (in what dfurtney posted above), he's an opportunistic, uninformed schmuck. I remember Martin from when I was a kid who read "Fangoria" religiously, and while he was loose in his editorial style, I'd be dismayed if he actually said these things. He's obviously misinformed about the events surrounding "Zone," and those are some big friggin' charges to make against a man since the accusations are about the deaths of three human beings that Spielberg had no connection with. Further, how serious of a source is someone when they more or less try to bribe a party to buy silence with employment over something he likely knows jack about. He can write any damned thing he wants, but that doesn't make anything he says well researched, accurate or purely true.
Finally (and this is just my opinion), I don't think I'd call Forry Ackerman as a star witness to discern story structure in a screenplay. Bradbury is credible, since he's an author and a screenwriter. Still, "star" is the key word here, since a copyright suit like this should be easily discerned by a judge versed in copyright law. You don't need an author or a screenwriter to be able to study the similarities and differences in creative works, nor do you need third parties to present facts about how each work was created and drafted.
One last thing: This is the first I've heard about eight authors having a hand in "Poltergeist." It flies in the face of what we've heard from Spielberg, Grais, Victor, and Hooper (who has his own discrepancies in regards to the screenplay). I'd be interested to hear more of why Martin claims this.
******************************
A lawsuit pending against Steven Spielberg and POLTERGEIST's co-writers could, meanwhile, prove more than tiresome. Spielberg and associates still stand accused of having appropriated substantial portions of a script written by actor Paul Clemens and Bennet Michael Yellin. The script, they maintain, had been forwarded to Spielberg's office in January 1980. Its protagonists underwent a fate which would sound more than vauguely familiar in the context of POLTERGEIST. The case could reach the courts during the next few months, Clemens told us, although he's been instructed by his lawyers not to discuss the case. MGM, the disbributor of POLTERGEIST II, also had no comment on how the outcome of the case could affect their release.