Damon Packard
The name which could have been synonymous with Steven Spielberg. Perhaps in a parallel dimension, but as things would turn out, not this one. Packard grew up in a rural district of Akron. His father Ray Packard was a professor of fine arts and highly regarded artist/collector/gallery-owner of Akron. The Packard Gallery on W. Exchange St was a well known staple in the 60s & 70s, with its statue of Minerva and three Packard automobiles parked in front, art collectors and other notable clientele (which included Orson Welles) had frequented the place. Packard's mother Francis was a stage and commercial actress of Akron whose career was cut short by her passing from a strange illness in 1968. It can be noted that she had almost married the actor Kier Dullea a few years earlier. Packard spent his later early years growing up in Chatsworth, California and began making experimental films in 1979 at the age of 11, the first of which were a series of animated and stop motion shorts, some made for school credit. In the early 80s Packard embarked on a series of ambitious productions (Amazing Stories, The Afterlife, Werewolf Hunters, etc) the prior mentioned preceded, but had no direct connection with the mid-80s Spielberg TV series. He now resides in a small cheap rented room in Eagle Rock, California, destitute, debased, and devoid of future projects.
