This Were Worldcons
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The Drink Tank Issue 94 This Were WorldCons The DrinkTanCon featuring ted white on nycon 3 john purcell on midamericon mark plummer on conspiracy james bacon on intersection chris garcia on con jose and short comments from john paul garcia [email protected] That right there is It was a decent enough convention, but it is best Forry Ackerman. remembered for new levels of disputation -- lawsuits Everytime I’ve seen and bad debts and bad blood were that convention’s his name in a pro- legacy. You see, the committee of that convention gramme book, it’s set in place an ongoing corporation to oversee the always had the same Worldcon, the World SF Society, Inc. This was note: Fan Since Day actually a good idea at root -- Worldcons were starting One. And he was to handle Real Money and legal protections needed to the first to wear a be put into place -- but the actual personnel running costume to a con- WSFS Inc. were power-hungry fans with personal vention, in fact it’s axes to be ground, and all too quickly two officers of the very costume WSFS Inc. were suing the third officer, who counter- you see him wearing sued, and All Fandom Was Plunged Into Dispute. there. There’s a lot of The lawsuits were headline news in fandom in 1958, Forry in WorldCon, and when the Chair of the 1958 Worldcon (Solacon) even today, so, I’ve announced that the convention was not being held chosen to lead off with his image for this: under the legal umbrella of WSFS Inc. the convention The WorldCon issue of The Drink Tank. hall erupted into applause and cheers. Fandom had We’ve got five articles from Five Dif- had enough of WSFS Inc. (although its descendent ferent WorldCons. First, We’re having our is still around today) -- and by extension, of NYC good buddy Ted White telling us about the fandom and NYC Worldcons. WorldCon he chaired. Steven H. Silver ran I moved to New York City in 1959, a year in programming at Chicon and shares his story which a number of prominent NYC fans (friends of with us. Mark Plummer and James Bacon mine) in turned moved to the West Coast -- mostly brings us the tales of two Bloody British to the Bay Area. Within a few years NYC fandom WorldCons and John Purcell gives us his had undergone a transformation as a variety of us take on the Big MAC. I also give a touch transplanted to New York formed a new fanclub in of on Con Jose: The 60th WorldCon in my 1960, the Fanoclasts. The Fanoclasts were formed hometown of San Jose. in reaction against “traditional” NYC fanclubs. We were primarily “fannish” (fanzine) fans, although NyCon 3 a number of us were also beginning professional by careers in SF as well. We didn’t like the way NYC Ted White: Chairman of NyCon 3 fanclubs had traditionally been formed and run. We abolished officers, business meetings, dues, and all the NyCon3 was held in 1967 and was the third other formalistic and petty-power-seeking structures (and, thus far, the last) Worldcon hosted by New York so beloved by NYC fanclubs. We made acceptance City. There are a lot of implications in that sentence. by the club the only criterion for membership. The To begin with, the first Worldcon was in Fanoclasts were all friends. New York City, in (very) loose conjunction with In November, 1964 a half dozen or so of us the World’s Fair -- which is how a relatively small went down to Philadelphia in my Greenbriar van for American national convention became known as the that year’s Philcon, an annual regional con which is “World” SF Convention. New York City fandom had among the oldest. At that con we learned that Jack a reputation for disputatiousness and factionalism, and Chalker was leading a bid for Baltimore for the 1967 the Exclusion Act whereby Sam Moskowitz and his Worldcon. We talked about that on our drive back to buddies in New Fandom barred other New York fans New York City. like Don Wollheim from the convention certainly did “Jack Chalker!” someone said (it might have nothing to dispel that reputation. It got the Worldcon been me). None of us had a good opinion of Jack, off on the wrong foot, and it helped cement the bad whose professional career lay a good ten years ahead odor in which the rest of fandom held NYC fandom. (and which did not change my opinion), and we were The second NYC Worldcon was held in 1956. aghast at the notion of him putting on a Worldcon. “I mean, hell!” Dave Van Arnam said. “We In 1964, in fact, I was a Major Player (via MINAC, could put on a better Worldcon.” the fanzine I was doing with Les Gerber) in the Conversation stopped dead. My van Boondoggle -- the exclusion of a major fan from that hurtled north on the New Jersey Turnpike as we all year’s Worldcon -- which I strongly protested. contemplated the implications of that statement. In the wake of the 1959 TAFF race (in which “We could put on a better Worldcon,” someone Bjo ran against Terry Carr, splitting the fannish vote said, musingly. “Yeah,” someone else said, maybe and allowing Don Ford to win), my support for Terry Mike McInerney. Carr (I was his chief nominator) caused Bjo’s minions “Well, why the hell not?” I asked. “Why don’t in LA to start a series of rumors against me. These the Fanoclasts bid for 1967?” had grown into a Ted White Legend which was passed That opened the door. Immediately ideas on to new LASFans and caused me intermittent began flowing as we thought of all the things we problems for the next ten years or more. thought should be changed to improve the Worldcon. And in 1964 I was still the defendant in a Before we’d gotten back to New York City, we were $75,000 libel suit Sam Moskowitz had pressured full of positive energy -- no longer the negative his wife, Christine, into filing against me in 1961 reaction against Chalker bidding, but positive ideas for (she dropped it before it went to court). So I was a better Worldcon -- and we’d put together the bidding “controversial.” That created another obstacle for our committee, which Dave Van Arnam bid. and I co-chaired. Our response to this issue It was an uphill fight all was to confront it head-on. We the way. A bid -- any bid -- from made no bones about the fact that New York City was anathema we had “public relations” problems to fandom then. Memories of to be overcome. So we began to the last NYC Worldcon and the mount a vigorous campaign. resulting unpleasantness and Keep in mind that fandom lawsuits were less than a decade was smaller then. Worldcons old. That convention had been usually averaged around 500 a “fusion” bid, one which united attendees -- 1,000 was the biggest several antagonistic fanclubs and any had been. The majority of their leaders -- the only way then the site-voters actually knew us seen to present a NYC bid, since personally, or at least knew of us. in previous years there had been Bid campaigning usually consisted competing bids from different NYC of a few ads in the Program Book fanclubs, which, amid campaign of the Worldcon at which the vote bad-mouthing, had cancelled each would be held, a party or two at other out. that Worldcon, and some bid- Ours would not be a presentation speeches. “united” bid, but a Fanoclasts bid. Progress Report Cover by Ted White We had two years -- 1965 We wanted and needed no help from the Lunarians, and 1966 -- in which to campaign before presenting ESFA, or any other NYC-area clubs. But that opened our bid at the 1966 Worldcon in Cleveland. We a different can of worms -- namely, my reputation in mounted two “Fanoclast Treks” in those two years. fandom. Each “Trek” took us first to Midwestcon (the last I had a decent rep in fandom. I was known weekend of June) and then to the Westercon (July as the publisher of a succession of good fanzines 4th weekend). In 1965 we packed six of us in my (STELLAR, VOID, GAMBIT, MINAC), and as Greenbriar van to make the drive, first to Cincinnati an upcoming fanwriter whose work was always in and then to Long Beach, California. We threw bidding demand. But I was also known as someone who spoke parties at both regional cons. In 1966 there were his mind on issues -- indeed, as someone who might too many of us for my van, so we rented an AMC well say publicly what others were saying privately Ambassador for the overflow. Lee Hoffman joined us -- and thus sometimes at the center of controversies. for the 1966 “Trek,” which went from Cincinnati to San Diego, with stops after San Diego in Los Angeles Typically, then as now, most program items were and the Bay Area. We had rented the extra car on a panels of four to six people, usually dominated by one weekly, no-mileage basis. When we turned it in two or two participants, and slackly focused. I thought weeks later it had over 6,000 additional miles on it. this format was boring and led to boring panels all too We also created more bidding materials than often. So I initiated the Dialogues. any previous bid.