A message in a bottle—in search of a mysterious Fortean.
I know virtually nothing about her; and can find absolutely nothing. But she sounds utterly fascinating, and I’d like to know more.
She went by two names, the alteration presumably coming from changes in her marital status.
Arrow Mackey—yes, Arrow—becoming Arrow Moray. She lived in the Alameda County area. She was an artist.
She was in Doubt 11 times between issue 39 (January 1953) and issue 61 (summer 1959), which was the final issue of the run, and so does not indicate that she lost interest in Forteana. The material she sent in was among Thayer’s favorites on a regular basis.
Her first appearance, in Doubt 39, was a generic credit. The second (Doubt 45, July 1954) was attached to that issue’s best contribution, and regarded expert advice for dealing with automatic printing machines. If there was a problem-skipping misalignment, etc.,—it recommended first clearing out all the information and restarting. If that didn’t work—shake the machine or, if it was electronic, shock it. Finally, if all else failed, unplug the defective part and get along the best one could. This went to Thayer’s complaints about modern machinery.
She was awarded second prize—in Thayer’s mock-contest—two issues later, Doubt 47 (January 1955). She clipped a piece from Time magazine (30 August 1954) which credited Stanford scientists with explaining Loa Angeles’s smog problem. It was because of the sun, they said: the more ozone in the atmosphere, the more smog. Except that they did not know what created ozone, beyond speculating a photochemical reaction on some unknown material in the sky. Thayer cynically quipped, “Wouldn’t surprise me if they were right,” which I take to be a shot at the vagueness of the explanation.
A few years later, in Doubt 57 (July 1958), her name appeared five times, three of those in the run-down of the best contributions to that issue. (One was a generic credit.)
1. Unless a synthetic form was found, in thirty to forty years oil would be reserved for only the most essential services.
2. The University of California at Berkeley offered an extension course in the “art of thinking” open to any adult, no previous experience needed.
3. The longest case of suspended animation on record was the planting of Chinese lotus seeds, thousands of years old, in Washington, D.C. They had to be curbed or risk taking over some five acres. (A Fortean two-fer: don’t mess with the past, and how does anyone know they’re really that old?)
4. Hot metal rained on San Leandro. Experts speculated it was from an exploded rocket launched at a nearby national Guard site. “MFS Moray talked to the finder whose lawn and roadway were pitted and burned by the fragments, the largest one only an inch and a half in its largest dimension. Pieces were scattered over an area 20 feet square, and it is estimated that the original object was no larger than 7 inches in diameter. The object fell without a sound, between 1 and 3 p.m. Our good member sent us a piece of it, and it looks like pot metal, cast and machined, and either painted with an ochre color or subjected to heat after shaping. MFS Moray reminds us that this find is only about 20 miles from the place ‘where they found that big hole in the ground recently.’”
Two of her clippings were called out in Doubt 60 (April 1959). One had to do with a filmy, spider-webby material that had been found floating in the air off the coast of Eureka, California. It was sent tot he University of California, Berkeley, but the school could not locate it, and a spokesperson arrogantly dismissed the subject. The other dealt with a claim on the moon sent into he Bureau of Reclamation. It was denied, but not for the reason one might think—rather, because a claim had already been filed and was ruled as having priority. Charlene Magers of Mississippi had precedent; her cousin, Mitchell Herring had submitted a similar claim on Mars.
(Shades of Fortean R. L. Farnsworth.)
Mackey—Morays final contribution was a generic credit in the last issue of Doubt.
The most that I know about her is from the issue that had so many of her contributions, Doubt 57 (July 1958). Thayer gave some details on who she was:
“MFS Moray named above has also gone far beyond the line of duty, carrying several of the Fortean arts to new heights. She is the former Arrow Mackey, poet and publisher of little magazines, herbalist, and now taxidermist of space fauna.
“Her recipe for Fortean Bouquet for Split Pea Soup will be printed soon. At the mo we can only commend her exhibition of Animals from Outer Space which took over the San Lorenzo Public Library for the month of September.
“Seventeen species were represented, all authentic. At least YS can vouch for the two specimens sent to him, (1) the MLINK, adult male, and (2) the CHOLLYFORT. These two marvelous creations appear to be composed of whatever the artist puts her hand on--pipe-cleaners, bits of fur, cornflakes or whatever. She is also the sculptress of the famous statue carved out of butter for the U of California faculty—entitled ‘Destiny with the great splay feet.’”
Needless to say, her recipe never did appear, but one wonders if it drew on her knowledge as an herbalist. Her taxidermy display reminds me of Clay Spohn’s 1949 display “The Museum of Unknown and Little Known Objects,” which exhibited scrap metal, objects found in the trash, lint from vacuum cleaners put together into assemblages with wire and props. The display ran for a few months at the San Francisco Institute of Art.
Despite this possible connection to the Bay Area art world, and other more substantial its of biographical data: a show and where it ran, the name of a sculpture, her interests, her names—I can find nothing about Arrow Mackey or Arrow Moray. Not in standard biographical sources; not at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft library; not in Worldcat (she was a publisher); not at Smithsonian’s art archives; not in newspaper databases. Nothing.
It would seem hen that if she was an artist and publisher, she wasn’t very well known—not exactly a surprise. And that she may have gone by other names at other times. I would live to know more about her, but I have not more leads.
I’ve bene fortunate in getting some responses to these posts that are very helpful. here’s hoping for one more.
That great Ambrose collector in the sky—maybe he wanted Arrows, too. Maybe he was just fascinated by As in general.
I know virtually nothing about her; and can find absolutely nothing. But she sounds utterly fascinating, and I’d like to know more.
She went by two names, the alteration presumably coming from changes in her marital status.
Arrow Mackey—yes, Arrow—becoming Arrow Moray. She lived in the Alameda County area. She was an artist.
She was in Doubt 11 times between issue 39 (January 1953) and issue 61 (summer 1959), which was the final issue of the run, and so does not indicate that she lost interest in Forteana. The material she sent in was among Thayer’s favorites on a regular basis.
Her first appearance, in Doubt 39, was a generic credit. The second (Doubt 45, July 1954) was attached to that issue’s best contribution, and regarded expert advice for dealing with automatic printing machines. If there was a problem-skipping misalignment, etc.,—it recommended first clearing out all the information and restarting. If that didn’t work—shake the machine or, if it was electronic, shock it. Finally, if all else failed, unplug the defective part and get along the best one could. This went to Thayer’s complaints about modern machinery.
She was awarded second prize—in Thayer’s mock-contest—two issues later, Doubt 47 (January 1955). She clipped a piece from Time magazine (30 August 1954) which credited Stanford scientists with explaining Loa Angeles’s smog problem. It was because of the sun, they said: the more ozone in the atmosphere, the more smog. Except that they did not know what created ozone, beyond speculating a photochemical reaction on some unknown material in the sky. Thayer cynically quipped, “Wouldn’t surprise me if they were right,” which I take to be a shot at the vagueness of the explanation.
A few years later, in Doubt 57 (July 1958), her name appeared five times, three of those in the run-down of the best contributions to that issue. (One was a generic credit.)
1. Unless a synthetic form was found, in thirty to forty years oil would be reserved for only the most essential services.
2. The University of California at Berkeley offered an extension course in the “art of thinking” open to any adult, no previous experience needed.
3. The longest case of suspended animation on record was the planting of Chinese lotus seeds, thousands of years old, in Washington, D.C. They had to be curbed or risk taking over some five acres. (A Fortean two-fer: don’t mess with the past, and how does anyone know they’re really that old?)
4. Hot metal rained on San Leandro. Experts speculated it was from an exploded rocket launched at a nearby national Guard site. “MFS Moray talked to the finder whose lawn and roadway were pitted and burned by the fragments, the largest one only an inch and a half in its largest dimension. Pieces were scattered over an area 20 feet square, and it is estimated that the original object was no larger than 7 inches in diameter. The object fell without a sound, between 1 and 3 p.m. Our good member sent us a piece of it, and it looks like pot metal, cast and machined, and either painted with an ochre color or subjected to heat after shaping. MFS Moray reminds us that this find is only about 20 miles from the place ‘where they found that big hole in the ground recently.’”
Two of her clippings were called out in Doubt 60 (April 1959). One had to do with a filmy, spider-webby material that had been found floating in the air off the coast of Eureka, California. It was sent tot he University of California, Berkeley, but the school could not locate it, and a spokesperson arrogantly dismissed the subject. The other dealt with a claim on the moon sent into he Bureau of Reclamation. It was denied, but not for the reason one might think—rather, because a claim had already been filed and was ruled as having priority. Charlene Magers of Mississippi had precedent; her cousin, Mitchell Herring had submitted a similar claim on Mars.
(Shades of Fortean R. L. Farnsworth.)
Mackey—Morays final contribution was a generic credit in the last issue of Doubt.
The most that I know about her is from the issue that had so many of her contributions, Doubt 57 (July 1958). Thayer gave some details on who she was:
“MFS Moray named above has also gone far beyond the line of duty, carrying several of the Fortean arts to new heights. She is the former Arrow Mackey, poet and publisher of little magazines, herbalist, and now taxidermist of space fauna.
“Her recipe for Fortean Bouquet for Split Pea Soup will be printed soon. At the mo we can only commend her exhibition of Animals from Outer Space which took over the San Lorenzo Public Library for the month of September.
“Seventeen species were represented, all authentic. At least YS can vouch for the two specimens sent to him, (1) the MLINK, adult male, and (2) the CHOLLYFORT. These two marvelous creations appear to be composed of whatever the artist puts her hand on--pipe-cleaners, bits of fur, cornflakes or whatever. She is also the sculptress of the famous statue carved out of butter for the U of California faculty—entitled ‘Destiny with the great splay feet.’”
Needless to say, her recipe never did appear, but one wonders if it drew on her knowledge as an herbalist. Her taxidermy display reminds me of Clay Spohn’s 1949 display “The Museum of Unknown and Little Known Objects,” which exhibited scrap metal, objects found in the trash, lint from vacuum cleaners put together into assemblages with wire and props. The display ran for a few months at the San Francisco Institute of Art.
Despite this possible connection to the Bay Area art world, and other more substantial its of biographical data: a show and where it ran, the name of a sculpture, her interests, her names—I can find nothing about Arrow Mackey or Arrow Moray. Not in standard biographical sources; not at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft library; not in Worldcat (she was a publisher); not at Smithsonian’s art archives; not in newspaper databases. Nothing.
It would seem hen that if she was an artist and publisher, she wasn’t very well known—not exactly a surprise. And that she may have gone by other names at other times. I would live to know more about her, but I have not more leads.
I’ve bene fortunate in getting some responses to these posts that are very helpful. here’s hoping for one more.
That great Ambrose collector in the sky—maybe he wanted Arrows, too. Maybe he was just fascinated by As in general.
