Lora Crozetti
(May 18, 1913 – November 24, 1980)
Lora Crozetti (née Ruth Gentry Warner), an early LA fan and member of LASFS, helped prepare Fancyclopedia 1. She was the author (as R. Warner-Crozetti) of The Widderburn Horror, which was the the basis of the film, House of the Black Death.[1] Other noms de plume include J. M. Loring and Rich O'Mahoney. Lora was the younger sister of LASFS Director Helen Finn.
Her daughter Jeanette (born 1938), who later went by Janice, was presumably the best thing about Lora’s first marriage to Genardo "Jesse" Aredondo. Lora married Jay Crozetti in 1942 and did not remarry after he died in 1952 at the age of 37. Shangri-L'Affaires 13 (April 1944, p. 2) noted:
The club can also lay claim to having one of the youngest dues-paying members in stfandom in Jeannette Crozetti, five years old, daughter of Laura Crozetti,[2] editoress of Venus, super femme which, if advance proofs are any indication, will cause a furore in fandom when completed.
Lora planned at least four issues of Venus, offering a $5 prize for the best article submitted by the beginning of 1945, to be published in issue 4.[3] Issue #2 had apparently not been sent out in September 1944, however; a February 1945 Shangri-L'Affaires 23 article about a fan event noted:
Introduced as '3 generations of fans' were Lora Crozetti, her Mother--Mrs Eva Roberson, and her daughter--Jeanne Crozetti. Lora characterized herself as 'the publisher of Venus, that fanmag printed but never seen.' (Issue #2 has been completed for mos., but never distributed.)
Jay returned from his service on Oahu in 1945; in 1947 Lora moved briefly to Whitewater, Wisconsin, to take care of her dying mother. In the 1950 census, she was back at home with Jay and their daughter, and working as a secretary. She was listed as a "full-time writer, 1960–DATE".
Fandom was not kind to Lora: Francis T. Laney admitted in Ah! Sweet Idiocy, after an uncomplimentary remark about her age and looks, that:
She was too sensitive herself to be as outspoken as she often was, and by no means was an easy person to get along with. Nevertheless, she was a spasmodically active member who could perhaps have been of considerable value to the club had any sizeable number of the members made any effort whatsoever to make her stay with us pleasant. As it was, Crozetti-baiting proved a major sport around the LASFS; I'm not surprised she is no longer in the club.
Bill Watson skipped the part about her skills and contributions, instead going straight to an outrageously rude personal description of her in a fanoir in Energumen 12 (June 1972, p. 17).
- Venus [1944–45]
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- ↑ The movie’s screenwriter is Richard Mahoney, possibly also a Crozetti pename. It’s puzzling that the earliest editions of the book seem to be 1971, while some sources say the movie came out in 1965.
- ↑ A frequently seen misspelling.
- ↑ Venus issues 1 and 2 (dated June and September 1944 respectively) have been scanned on fanac.org.
| Person | 1913—1980 |
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