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The occasion of stop-motion expert Ray Harryhausen’s 90^th birthday was marked by a number of events.   29^th June 2010 marked the start of a year-long exhibition, Ray Harryhausen – Myths and Legends, at the London Film Museum to celebrate the nonagenarian’s work.

The exhibition was split into three distinct sections, the first of which contained details of the work of people who inspired Harryhausen, such as movie special effects pioneers Eadweard Muybridge, George Méliès, James Stuart Blackton and Willis O’Brien, and featured models and posters to illustrate the stop-motion process and the importance of the storyboard.   The second section of the exhibition was a detailed examination of Harryhausen’s work on his last film, 1981’s Clash of the Titans, a remake of which had recently been released.   The final part of the exhibition, which was contained in three separate rooms of the museum was a chronological display of the models created by Harryhausen for such films as Jason and the Argonauts (1963), Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), and Valley of Gwangi (1969), and the artwork he used to enable him to envisage his fantastic creations.

The opening of the exhibition coincided with Harryhausen’s announcement that he intended to pledge the collection of his life’s work to the National Film Museum based in Bradford, on the condition that the museum could raise the necessary funds to secure and maintain the collection.   The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, the charitable trust established to protect and preserve his work said it was working with the museum to house the collection of more than 20,000 items and hundreds of models in Bradford, the UNESCO City of Film, and that its first fundraising venture would be a new book entitled Ray Harryhausen – A Life in Pictures.

Harryhausen said, ‘It is gratifying that the National Media Museum will, in conjunction with my foundation, be storing and preserving my collection for the foreseeable future.   Now I have reached 90 it is important, certainly in my profession which does not have a reputation for looking after cinematic artefacts, to preserve my art in all its forms, and that this will be available for future generations.’

Michael Harvey, the museum’s curator of cinematography, added, ‘The foundation and the museum are excited by the potential of this important collection and the worldwide interest that its preservation and subsequent availability will generate, both in the film industry and the audiences that love Ray Harryhausen’s work.’

The announcement followed a weekend of tributes to the special-effects maestro at an event in London organized by BAFTA and the British Film Institute.   The occasion was hosted by director John Landis.

On Sunday 28^th June, Sony Pictures Digital Productions announced that it would be renaming its 119-seat screening theatre in Culver City after Harryhausen with a formal dedication ceremony on 12^th July 2010 at which a sign displaying the theatre’s new name would be unveiled and a special screening of Jason and the Argonauts would he held.

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