Robert Bloch - Once Around The Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography

Robert Bloch was destined to make generations nervous about showering when he penned PSYCHO. But theres more to his story than just a brief stay at the Bates Motel. In ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH, he recounts it all, in the fast, furious and funny way that only he can.

ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH takes us from Blochs early years in Chicago to his first fateful encounter with the pulp magazine classic, Weird Tales. Within its pages, he discovers the peerless horror fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, and he begins a correspondence with Lovecraft which changes the course of his life. It is Lovecraft himself who first suggests that young Mr. Bloch might just have the knack for dreaming up literary terrors of his own. And how right he is.

As a young family man in Wisconsin, our struggling author finds the inspiration for his masterwork, PSYCHO, thanks to the real-life exploits of a-mercifully-distant neighbor. His name is Ed Gein, and he is a lonely, backwoods sort of fellow with a penchant for digging up corpses for company (not to mention arts and crafts). And hes not above making a few fresh corpses of his own when excavating gets dull. In the hands of a master craftsman, this raw material will become the stuff of legendary nightmare, and Norman Bates will be born.

But ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH is not just the story of a literary lifeit is also a tale of Tinsel Town. Aside from providing the genesis for Alfred Hitchcocks favorite black comedy, Robert Bloch has also lent his talents to the big and small screens over the years as a scriptwriter. He has helped to create such cinematic terrors as STRAIT-JACKET (directed by the immortal showman, William Castle), ASYLUM, and THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD, and written teleplays for TV cult classics like THRILLER, NIGHT GALLERY and STAR TREK.

Along the way, Robert Bloch has enjoyed the company of many of the best and brightest talents of our day, and ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH shares revealing reminiscences of his friendships with people like Ray Bradbury, Christopher Lee, Metropolis director Fritz Lang, Boris Karloff, Buster Keaton, and Joan Crawford, among many others.

ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH is the first-person story of an American original who has spent his life entertaining all of us with the finest chills Hollywood and the printed page have to offer.

NECESSARY READING FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN HORROR FICTIONTHAT HARDLY NEEDS SAYING... BUT BLOCHS UNAUTHORIZED AUTOBIOGRAPHY OFFERS MORE THAN FASCINATING ACCOUNTS OF HIS RELATIONSHIPS WITH H. P. LOVECRAFT AND ALFRED HITCHCOCK; this book provides a detailed account of the life and times of a dedicated writer... throughout sixty years of dealing with the scoundrels, fools, thieves, con-men, ordinary joes, hypocrites, losers, rascals, wimps, back-stabbers, bars, drunks, and occasional fellow-spirits that make up the literary and film worlds... It is a privilege to stroll alongside him through his life.

Peter Straub

In the process of describing his transformation from an innocent child into the serial author who has terrified America for generations, Robert Bloch inadvertently reveals the shocking truth that he is actually as lovable as a trunkful of well-hugged Teddy bears.

Gahan Wilson

Unauthorized Autobiography indeed!... The footnotes alone are worth their weight in gold, and the rest is a joy to read... I GLADLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK AS THE STORY OF A MASTER CRAFTSMAN AND A DELIGHTFUL HUMAN BEING. I wish there were more like him.

Christopher Lee

A Bloch-Buster that races along at a smile-a-minute... a mirthquake... A HOLLYWOOD BABYLON! WHAT PSYCHO DID FOR SHOWER CURTAINS, THIS WILL DO FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHIES... SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE: the horror fan, the sci-fi aficionado, the movie buff, the romantic, the antic... Lay this book down at your peril; youll find yourself waking up in the middle of the night to read the next chapter.

Forrest J Ackerman

READING THIS BOOK IS THE NEXT BEST THING TO HEARING BOB BLOCH TALK, and Bob Bloch is one of the most entertaining speakers I know.

Ramsey Campbell

Bob Bloch has been my good friend for more than forty years but I learned more about him from this fascinating autobiography than I ever knew about him before. I am delighted that he has, at long last, cast aside his inherent modesty and written this book to tell me all the intriguing things that his unpretentious reserve would not permit him to tell me personally. PS. ALL THE REST OF YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE IT TOO.

Richard Matheson

TOR BOOKS BY ROBERT BLOCH

American Gothic
Fear and Trembling
Firebug
The Kidnapper
The Jekyll Legacy (with Andre Norton)
Lori
Midnight Pleasures
Monsters in Our Midst
The Night of the Ripper
Night-World
Once Around the Bloch
Psycho
Psycho II
Psycho House

ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH

Copyright 1993 by Robert Bloch

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10010

Tor is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates Inc.

ISBN 0-312-85373-4

First Tor edition: June 1993

Printed in the United States of America

This book is for the people in it
who have done so much to enrich
my life.

ONE

I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

The trouble is, it had somebody elses initials on it.

From what little I ever learned about family history, this was my grandfathers fault.

Simon Bloch and his brother Sol came to the United States as youngsters; the family emigrated from Darmstadt, in Hesse, around the time of the Civil War.

I was told that their father was a cigar maker, but they grew up to follow another trade. Somehow they settled in Chicago shortly before the Great Fire of 1871 and opened a wholesale grocery store. The two brothers met and married the two Mayer sistersmy grandfather got the pretty oneand their business prospered.

In 1884 my father was born. He was named Raphael, but inevitably called Ralph or Ray. His sister Lillian was several years younger. They lived in what was then a fashionable area of Chicagos South Side close to their cousins, Beatrice and Tess. Many more members of the Mayer clan settled in the city, but I know little of their background. As a child I gathered my grandmothers people considered themselves superior to a family descended from a lowly cigar maker. Who knows; maybe their family rolled joints.

But as Chicago entered the Gay Ninetiesa term which in those days did not refer to sexual preference amongst nonagenariansthe family business boomed. My fathers favorite memories centered around visits to the Columbian Exposition of 1893. At the age of nine, however, he was less interested in the hootchy-kootchy dancing of Little Egypt than in the equestrian feats of Buffalo Bill.

By this time my grandfather and my uncle were the owners of Blochs Butter Store, at State and Madison streets, one of the choicest locations in Chicagos Loop. As well-to-do citizens, they sent their children to private schools. My father was enrolled in the Morgan Park Military Academy. He was there near the turn of the century when the proprietors sold Blochs Butter Store for the staggering sum of $100,000 in cash.