CAPTAIN FLASHBACK

A fanzine composed for the 403rd distribution of the Sleeping the Big Sleep: Turbo-Charged Party-Animal Amateur Press Raymond Chandler’s Hollywood Association, from the joint membership of Andy Hooper and Carrie Root, residing at 11032 30th Ave. Raymond Chandler’s 1939 novel The Big Sleep NE Seattle, WA 98125. E-mail Andy at is one of the most influential works of popular [email protected], and you may reach Carrie at crime fiction of the 20th Century, a status which [email protected]. This is a Drag Bunt Press is significantly enhanced by Howard Hawks’ Production, completed on 1/20/2020. 1946 film noir adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Chandler infused the CAPTAIN FLASHBACK is devoted to old tough-guy narrative conventions of pulp crime fanzines, monster movies, garage bands and other fiction with a kind of moral hypoxia, leaving the fascinating phenomena of the 20th Century. All better impulses of private detective Philip written material by Andy Hooper unless indicated. Marlowe and the characters which he encounters Contents of Issue #14: suffocating under the weight of secrets, Page 1: Sleeping the Big Sleep: addictions and crime. Although Marlowe Raymond Chandler’s Hollywood shrewdly fathoms the twists of the case, he fails Page 2: Comments on Turbo-Apa #402 to save his clients from scandal, and no one is Page 5: A Key to Interlineations in Issue #13 Page 15: Fanmail from some Flounder: Letters to CF brought to justice through his efforts. He ends up Page 16: Northwest by Northwest: WESTWIND vaguely envious of the dead and sees his own Page 17: I Remember Entropy Department: role as nothing more than part of the “nastiness” Three Articles by Andi Shechter: of life. Although it was Chandler’s first novel, it “I’m Sorry, There IS No Bar” (1978) is a world-weary story, from a writer who had “Folk Art, Let’s Dance!” (1992) seen war and epidemic, and who only took up “Losing Isaac” (1993) fiction at the age of 44, in the wreckage of his previous career.

Despite this popular and critical fame, The Big Sleep may be one of the least-understood books in history, at least as far as its convoluted storyline is concerned. Many critics openly admit that the plot baffles them, but this does little to diminish their admiration for both the novel and the film. The plot was rewritten for the screen so that the biggest “bad guy” dies in a hail of bullets, and Lauren Bacall’s character is no longer complicit in the murder of her former husband, so that she and Marlowe can end up together. The changes tend to obscure the details of the complicated blackmail scheme that brings Marlowe into the story, but emphasizing the attraction between Marlowe and Vivian Operator? Get me William Faulkner! [Continued on Page 6] ------Issue #14, January 2020 ------

1 ------I work in a volcano. What jobs do you think I’ve ever turned down? ------Mailing Comments on Turbo-Apa #402: work of mythic animated genius with songs and Cover (Hannes Bok and Carrie Root): I was a talking snowman. really impressed by how well these turned out – The photographs from your European travels of the intersection of the scanning and clarifying the past year were all quite lovely. The shot of technology, the very good quality lithography of the Mogul’s birthday celebration was my the original and the printing work by Lee and his favorite and excited the miniaturist’s eye. staff at UPS turned out something great. It is OCCAM’S WHISKERS, Georgie Schnobrich: always a little scary sending our files off to The research which you presented at Teslacon Madison, and just trusting that they will produce sounded quite wonderful, and the fact that you something that looks right. But they pretty much were not genetically connected with the subject always do – any deficiencies have definitely matter seems like a tenuous reason to deny originated at my end, people your capabilities as a researcher and AN WISCONZINE, Greg Rihn: We both had teacher, so I’m glad no one seems to have the experience of seeing Roland Emmerich’s minded. 800 people would once have been a film of Midway, and also made both of our pretty generous throng for a specialty-interest spouses go. I’m still working on making up for convention like Teslacon. If one were to do a it. It was a weird reversal of most modern World daily fanzine for the con, would one be War II films, in that the script was reasonably compelled to work with linotype? accurate, but the visual effects and design of the The life-size marzipan baby is very much of a movie was about as historical as Flash Gordon piece with the death-cake featuring a or The Muppet Movie. The transformation of representation of the deceased in crust or icing. I the berthing spaces on Battleship Row into the sort of admire the craftsmanship, but like you, I Death Star trench was a bit much, and as you am at a loss to explain it. know, it takes a lot of work to get more than one THINGS THAT BEGIN WTH C, Jim Hudson ship into your field of view in a real naval battle. and Diane Martin: All of the holiday activities Also, having seen this film, one might be you described seemed fun and energizing, so surprised to learn that American aircraft carriers much so that I wonder if we might contrive to be had fighter aircraft deployed on them, and they in Madison when you gather to bake this coming actually shot down more Japanese aircraft than December. Cookies are actually one thing I have SBD tail gunners. The failure of the fighters to successfully baked in my life, going back to rendezvous with the bomber squadrons was the holidays 40 years ago… And that leads me to real reason that so many American torpedo the reviews of the two holiday acapella shows planes and their crews were lost – and you attended, and the notion that people who got Emmerich’s film just does not mention them. together 35 years ago are “getting older.” After There have now been two major motion pictures all, Carrie and I were engaged by the winter of about the battle, and there is still room for a 1985 – and that was just yesterday, wasn’t it? good one. You wrote a comment to me about own mole However, Frozen II seemed to be a far more issues, and thereby opened the door for me to successful representation of whatever world is continue the mole saga into its sixth month. The the home of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy ground just doesn’t freeze here the way it does tales. We did not take in the picture ourselves, in Wisconsin, so as far as I can see, Seattle’s but our grandchildren more or less frog-marched moles continue to work right through the winter. their parents into taking them during But that also means that the rain continues to Thanksgiving week. The parents were not melt and disperse their mounds, and stuff keeps especially complimentary, but our grandkids growing up through them, even in the middle of were asking whether it was possible that the December. But we also recently noticed the Academy would establish a new award for best

2 baseball field at the high school had a double Roswell incident a bona fide recovery of an line of 15 or 16 molehills running right along the alien craft, it would have taken time for that left field line, not something the field’s information to be evaluated and grudgingly caretakers had ever allowed to happen before. released to people at Forrestal’s level of So perhaps we really did have a particularly government. It seems like forming a committee large movement of moles in 2019. to contain such information would be the surest way of ensuring that it would NOT remain SEASONS GREETINGS, Marilyn Holt: This contained. James Forrestal was never an was a pretty positive summary of the events of acceptable security risk, and if someone wanted 2019 on the farm. You guys have dialed back on him dead, there were a hundred less problematic the farming, but it seems like you keep finding ways to kill him than public defenestration. I’m more creatures to adopt and care for, from bees afraid he is a particularly florid red herring. to a new generation of egg-producers. You’re still farming more than anyone else in Turbo- MADISON FOURSQUARE #38, Scott Custis Apa. I shudder in sympathy at the prospect of & Jeanne Gomoll: Jeanne, I’m really looking rewiring your entire house; we are probably forward to TAFFORENSIC REPORT, and your looking at doing something similar before we let recreation of the far-off year of 1987. Your go of this house, which we don’t plan to do until reprint projects in TURBO have also been a lot decrepitude forces us. By the way, I took a of fun. The report on the stop-motion animation number of the copies of this zine that you left at project is still remarkably vivid, and I can close our party and stuck them into copies of my eyes and see the set-up in Hope’s bedroom. CHUNGA that I sent to some people that know There were a number of elements that I found you; maybe that means some of them got two difficult to credit, such as the fact that my copies, but it seemed better than recycling them! stepson Harlan ever let someone call him “Harlie,” or that my stepdaughter Gwen ever SONOVA QUARK, Steven Vincent Johnson: spoke the phrase “I didn’t know grown-ups Reading about your prostate surgery and knew how to have fun,” or that Hope was concurrent removal of scar tissue was a bit considered a grown-up at the time. You are difficult, to be honest, but I can only hope that doing a great job of collecting your older fan you are feeling a great deal better by the time work; I can see a really impressive anthology you read this. Your honesty about the things you coming together out of all that. face in recovery could be very helpful to some of your readers, and I consumed this issue with Scott, I was delighted to see the picture of your an unusual degree of attention. father and his old flight crew from World War II. It is kind of curious that someone who had I’m glad you found the material I shared on done so much flying could just give it up, but James Forrestal’s biography interesting. 25 years maybe that’s the answer. After so many hours ago, when I was writing about lake monsters and crammed into the freezing cockpit of a P-38, he UFOs in the Turbo-APA, Forrestal’s potential might have had enough to last him for a long involvement in the government response to time. The crew seem to have pieces from several aerial phenomena – also known as “the ufo different air corps uniforms on, typical of a coverup” – made him a figure of profound smaller unit with a slightly unorthodox mission. speculation in the early days of the Internet. A His reaction to the movie Airport is a classic lot of basic vital statistics that are available to veteran’s response to something we would not anyone with a browser now were much harder to find significant. My grandfather had a friend come by then, and some writers attached who hated M*A*S*H*, because of the way that Forrestal to things that happened when he was in it portrayed Army nurses. He had been burned a very distant location, both geographically and politically. I feel today that even were the [You know this comment will continue!] ------Things have happened again and again and they will continue to happen. ------

3 ------Barr and Giuliani may not like one another, but at this point, in this story, they’re two tarantulas in a bowl. ------Comments on Turbo-Apa #402, continued: MADISON FOURSQUARE #38, Scott Custis & addressed to you too; it was interesting to read Jeanne Gomoll continued]: when his tank was about your experience of captioning interviews with destroyed fighting the Afrika Korps in Tunisia, and Country Music researcher Bill Malone. I’ve known nurses had painstakingly debrided his burns for a number of people involved in transcription and weeks in the process of saving his life. translation over the years, and your captioning work sounds like it changes all the time by comparison. You both commented on my thoughts about dispersing fanzines and other treasures from AFTER WORDS #36, Lisa Freitag: The photos people’s estates. Last weekend, we had a memorial from your travels in Ireland were lovely; but things gathering for Andi Shechter, and despite all the did look quite dark and damp most of the time. stuff that we have already shared, the room was You had a little bit of blue sky at Dunluce Castle. nearly filled with books, art and other treasures But the rain was a minor complaint compared to remaining from her and Stu Shiffman’s household. the stress fracture in your heel – I was impressed Andi’s copies of the first and second printings of by the number of places you managed to see THE BAKERY MEN DON’T SEE are posted despite having pain every time you tried to walk. right now, hoping to make some money for TAFF. And I admit, I don’t believe I have ever heard of a I’ve already sold the copy that Jeanne sent to me convention that ended on Friday evening – many for $56.00, so I’ll be happy to get half that much! that didn’t get going until Saturday, but none that actually left town before Saturday. Not in science KN, Kim & Kathi Nash: Wow, it is nice to read fiction, anyway. I’m kind of skeptical that we will that you have both had some sterling results from ever attend another World Convention outside your cataract surgeries. I didn’t get that much out North America – it begins to seem like we can of mine because the eye still has these large dead enjoy international travel, and we can enjoy a areas from my experience with retinopathy, but I Worldcon, but doing them both at the same time think it did remove a general sense of haze that begins to seem like more than I can do, or at least affected what I could see. But Dr. Kim opined that more than I can enjoy. there was no need to do the right eye any time soon, so it apparently continues to shoulder most COMING TO GRIPS #30, Walter Freitag: Good of the burden of seeing without complaint. God, what an ordeal arose from the seemingly small amount of water slurping around in your I love the kitty pictures! They made an interesting crawlspace! Our friends Jerry Kaufman and companion to the cat story by Redd Boggs that Suzanne Tompkins have had some water and preceded it in the mailing. You commented to me sewer miseries that were nearly as bad as your about the list of small aircraft fatalities among immense leak, but they were not forced to dig a musicians, and I still wonder if they were really grave large enough for an adult human in the any more prone to such calamities than sports bottom of a narrow crawlspace. We have had a figures or actors or any other person who can pair of minor leaks in our basement, one from a afford their own airplane. Or if it is actually more failing drainpipe and the other from the inevitable dangerous than driving. Of course, you can always weeping water heater. Both were dealt with fairly get out of your bus and steal an airplane like the easily, but both involved contractors who shook driver for Black Sabbath. Until someone figures their heads in dismay at the incompetent work out how to kill themselves in a Zamboni machine, done by either the former owner of the house or that incident is the dumbest death in music history. some long-departed semi-professional. I agree, A ZINE OF ONE’S OWN, Catie Pfeiffer: All reaching the level of subtle incompetence is my sympathies on the demise of Meera the guinea pig; dream; you just don’t want to hear something like, once again, the vets did stuff to diagnose and treat “Whoever did this belongs in prison!” her that would have seemed like pretty good care Concrete Masonry Units (formerly known as for a human. I think you were pretty exemplary mom to Meera, too. The comment on musician cinder blocks) were an integral part of our décor airplane deaths to Kim and Kathi Nash could be for well over 20 years. We finally banished them to the garden and patio a few years ago, but Carrie

4 has an ambitious retaining wall she has pondered I also upgraded my system and tried to increase for years, so there’s no getting rid of them. my enthusiasm by treating myself to a large curved monitor, which is the highest definition screen in CONJUNCTIVE DISORDERS, Cathy Gilligan: the house now. I suspect you might have to take This year’s puzzle was very challenging to get your old camera cards to a professional of some started; I broke through by figuring out “bad salad” sort to retrieve those pictures. Carrie and I have and “sad ballad,” and then a lot of them fell into both been labelling and archiving digital photos place. I think “Brandish Boat Canvas” would have this month. And then there is this box full of been clearer than “Brandish Boat Linens,” but photos that came from the Andi Shechter memorial most of them made perfect sense once explained. last week. The first envelope I pulled out appeared “Fart Smeller” and “Smart Feller” was used on an from a convention attended by Greg Pickersgill episode of Family Guy at some point, so that was during his TAFF trip in 1986, maybe the Atlanta another one that fell easily for me, however Worldcon. I know I can ask a dozen people to help mortifying that may be. Anyway, I was able to do identify them, while pictures of people that my quite a lot with it, much, much more than in those Grand-Grandmother took in 1907 present a more years when math is required. So, thanks for that! profound challenge.

------A Key to Linos published in December in CAPTAIN FLASHBACK #13: Page 2: “For you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg.” Doctor Manhattan addresses humanity in the person of Laurie Blake, Alan Moore’s Watchmen (1987). Page 3: “Jeanne Gomoll says you can’t jump here.” And don’t test her patience! Page 4: “Yeah…you wrap like a drunk, blind bear.” Linda Belcher (John Roberts) on her husband’s Christmas skills, “The Bleakening,” Bob’s Burgers S 8, Ep. 6. Page 5: “We tried not to age, but time had its rage.” Attributed to musician Pete Townshend (b. 1945) Page 6: There are no good laws, but such as repeal other laws.” & Page 7: “If I am shot at, I want no man between me and the bullet.” Attributed to President Andrew Johnson (1808 – 1875). Page 8: “I’m going to tell you something: Thoughts are never honest. Emotions are.” Attributed to author Albert Camus (1913-1960). Page 9: “Beware thoughts that come in the night.” From Blue Highways, William Least Heat-Moon (1982). Page 10: “If there weren’t luck involved, I would win every hand.” Attributed to poker champion Phil Hellmuth (b. Madison, Wisconsin, 1964). Page 12: “It’s not whether you won or lost, but how many bad beat stories you were able to tell.” Attributed to sportswriter Grantland Rice (1880-1954). Page 13: “Dear frozen yogurt, you are the celery of desserts. Be ice cream or be nothing.” & Page 14: “Any dog under 50 pounds is a cat, and cats are useless.” Wisdom from the mind of Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), immortal carpenter/saxophonist of Pawnee, Indiana. Page 15: “Smile, because it confuses people.” The Joker (Heath Ledger), The Dark Knight (2008). “Smile, because it’s easier than explaining what is killing you inside.” Page 16: “Help the Black Man. Help the Poor Man. Help the Milk Man. Help the Door Man.” & Page 17: “Help the lonely neglected old farts that I know.” Lyrics, “Strictly Genteel,” from the 1971 film and album 200 Motels by Frank Zappa (1940-1993). Page 18: “That’s for if things get really hardcore. Or if you want to blow up moons.” Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Page 19: “It was the joy of your life to know Clark Gable.” Attributed to Joan Blondell (1906-1979). “He was everything good you could think of.” Page 20: “Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s game.” Attributed to George Herman “Babe” Ruth (1895-1948). ------

5 ------He was about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food cake. ------

Sleeping the Big Sleep Nebraska, living nearby his mother’s sister and [continued from page 1] her husband. Chandler’s father Maurice was a Sternwood. This took advantage of the real-life civil engineer sometimes employed by a chemistry between Bogart and Bacall, who were railroad. He was also an alcoholic and may have married shortly after the film was first been intimidated by his in-laws; the Thorntons completed in 1945. were numerous, prosperous, industrious, and held property in England, Ireland and America. Howard Hawks felt that it was not particularly Whatever the reason, Maurice abandoned the essential that the audience understand the film, family before Raymond’s 10th birthday. Seeking as long as they were entertained by it and the the best possible education for Raymond, his commercial success of the movie argued that he mother Florence Dart Chandler took him to was right. The screenplay, much-inspired by England, and resided in the Upper Norwood area Chandler’s own prose, was a collaboration of what is today Croydon. Raymond attended between two excellent screenwriters (Jules Dulwich College, a public school in London, Fuhrman and Leigh Brackett) and a Nobel prize with alumni including P. G. Wodehouse and C. winning novelist (William L. Faulkner); and S. Forster. One of Chandler’s first cousins, Max when the film was re-written to emphasize the Adrian, was an accomplished actor and one of Bogie/Bacall angle, Julius Epstein, part of the the founders of the Royal Shakespeare writing team behind Casablanca was enlisted to Company. But Chandler chose not to go to make the changes. Brackett probably deserved to University, and spent his early 20s in Paris and be listed first; she was available for on-set re- Munich, living on his Grandmother’s money and writes requested by Bogart, and her dialogue ostensibly increasing his language skills. was so “hard-boiled” that the actor nicknamed her “Butch.” He returned to England and became a naturalized citizen in order to take the The Big Sleep may be unique in that fans often examination for the British civil service. He was have difficulty deciding if they prefer the story duly employed by the Admiralty but lasted as Chandler wrote it or as it was filmed in 1946. something less than a full year in the job before There are seamy details in Chandler’s narrative his persistent absenteeism led to his departure. that were completely unacceptable to the film He made a brief attempt at journalism, filing censors of the 1940s, and Marlowe’s attitude stories with the Daily Express and the Bristol toward women is considerably more enthusiastic Western Gazette. He published reviews and a on screen. In fact, almost every woman that few examples of romantic poetry but claimed Marlowe encounters in the movie makes a pass that he was discouraged from writing by the at him, including cigarette girls and lady cab suicide of an acquaintance, author Richard drivers. In Chandler’s story, Marlowe rejects Barham Middleton. He felt that Middleton was a both of the Sternwood sisters; the only woman far more talented writer, and if he could not who really moves him is Mona Grant, who succeed, Chandler had no chance. begins and ends the story married to the casino owner Eddie Mars. The film presents the He borrowed money from one of his Irish uncles romance between Marlowe and Vivian as the in order to return to America in 1912. He settled redeeming product of the twisted caper; in San Francisco for a year, completing a Chandler’s novel has no such payoff, leaving correspondence course in accounting. At this Marlowe in a gloomy existential funk. point, his mother had apparently worn out her welcome with their English relatives, and she The Path to Pulp joined him in California. They relocated to Los Raymond Thornton Chandler was born in Angeles in 1913; he took jobs picking fruit and Chicago in 1888, but spent his earliest years in stringing tennis rackets to get by, and eventually

6 got a steady job with the Los Angeles Creamery. In 1917, Chandler and a friend named Gordon

Pascal traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, where they enlisted in the Canadian Army. Chandler served with the Gordon Highlanders, and saw action in France in 1917 and 1918. In the latter year, he was given a chance to join the new Royal Air Force, just reorganizing from the former Royal Flying Corps. He qualified for flight school, but was hospitalized twice during the Spanish flu pandemic, and likely discharged due to poor health.

He returned to Los Angeles, where increasing prosperity finally allowed him to find a series of jobs that would allow him to support himself and his mother without further aid from relatives. Beginning as an accountant and auditor, he would eventually become an executive manager at the Dabney Oil Syndicate Company. He also fell in love with the Chandler with his characteristic pipe. C. 1953. stepmother of Gordon Pascal, the friend with He gave himself a course in the American whom he had enlisted in 1917. Pearl Eugenie vernacular by reading pulp detective fiction Pascal, called “Cissy” by family and friends, magazines and was particularly inspired by the was 18 years older than Chandler, and still works of Erle Stanley Gardener and Dashiell married to Gordon’s father. Mr. Pascal seems to Hammett. His first story, “Blackmailers Don’t have absorbed this with remarkable aplomb, Shoot,” appeared in Black Mask in 1933. granting his wife an amicable divorce. Although he was a slow and meticulous writer Unfortunately, Florence Chandler was far less compared to many of his pulp colleagues, his friendly to the idea, and she forbid her son from work was usually well-received, and he marrying Cissy. Chandler was obliged to maintained a steady pace of publication for two support all three of them in separate homes until decades. Yet this still did not translate into Florence died on September 26th, 1923. Ray and personal stability or satisfaction. He had affairs, Cissy were married on February 6th, 1924, and or at least a problematic attraction to women they would remain together until her death in including his agent Helga Greene, his secretary 1954. Jean Fracasse, Sonia Orwell, the widow of George Orwell, and Natasha Spender, wife of Which is not to say that Raymond Chandler was poet Stephen Spender. a stable or faithful husband. He remained at Dabney Oil for 10 years but was terminated in Composition for Cannibals 1932. His former colleagues cited frequent Chandler created The Big Sleep from large absences from work, alcoholism, sexual liaisons elements of two previously published stories, with female employees and threats of suicide as “Killer in the Rain,” and “The Curtain,” from their reasons for discharging Chandler. With his the February 1935 and September 1936 issues of prospects severely limited by the worsening Black Mask. Both of these involved an attempt economic depression, he began to think once to protect or contain a wayward daughter similar again of his old ambition to write. to the Sternwoods and liberal use of Los Angeles locations. There are also elements in ------I’m an occasional drinker, the kind of guy who goes out for a beer and wakes up in Singapore with a full beard. ------

7 ------The French have a phrase for it. The bastards have a phrase for everything and they are always right. ------blackmail scheme. And while he is at that task, it would also be nice to know what happened to the last guy who had the job of minding the Sternwood daughters, an ex-bootlegger named Rusty Regan, who was also married to the older sister. Unfortunately, the two women that Marlowe is supposed to protect are up to their necks in a swamp of blackmail, narcotics, pornography, gambling and murder. Marlowe’s entry into their saga inspires a rash of killings, which ultimately engulfs him, too. He ends up dispatching a professional killer with the improbable name of Lash Canino. This is clearly an act of self-preservation which provokes no tears from either Marlowe or the reader. But it leaves him in no mood for apologies. in common with his stories “Finger Man” and When he returns Carmen Sternwood’s recovered “Mandarin’s Jade.” pistol, she concocts some ridiculous plan for Marlowe to give her a shooting lesson, then tries In science fiction, this kind of composition is to kill him with the blank rounds that he has typically called a “fix-up,” but the basic presciently loaded into the gun. It was Carmen elements of character and plot are usually who murdered her brother-in-law Rusty Regan preserved from the component stories. Chandler when he rebuffed her advances; and her sister used the novel as an opportunity to re-write and Vivian and the gangster Eddie Mars helped her embellish his earlier work, heavily expanding conceal the body – right there in the old oilfields his descriptions and adding more L. A. detail. on the Sternwood property. Marlowe reluctantly The glowering October weather of “Killer in the promises not to reveal Vivian’s complicity in the Rain” provides the general setting for The Big crime or tell her father the truth about Rusty Sleep. Marlowe’s Los Angeles is gloriously free Regan if she will see that Carmen is of the fetters of Prohibition, but crime still institutionalized. He walks away from the case thrives. There were more than 30 illegal casinos bitter and wistful, wondering if he would not of the kind run by the fictional Eddie Marrs in prefer to trade places with Rusty Regan, who the real Los Angeles of the 1930s. There were was “sleeping the big sleep,” and now beyond both dealers in and producers of the kind of the betrayals and cruelties of the world. It is an material sold under the counter in Arthur Gwynn ending written by a man not unfamiliar with the Geiger’s bookstore, specializing in Rare and De idea of suicide. Luxe Editions. And there seem to have been The reputation of both the book and the film plenty of people like Geiger and his partner might lead one to think that there must be a Carol Lundgren, although Chandler always took dozen murders and other acts of mayhem in The great pains to show that he was no friend of Big Sleep. But there are a modest total of six homosexuality. “A pansy has no iron in their murders in the novel as Chandler wrote it, and bones,” he writes, yet Carol Lundgren killed the screenwriters of the film version added a without hesitation to avenge the murder of his seventh killing in order to bring the villainous boyfriend, and would Marlowe or Sam Spade Eddie Mars to a well-deserved end. One murder, have done any less? that of Rusty Regan, occurs before the book Marlowe is hired to help save the wayward begins, but it must be included in this list: daughter of a wealthy, dying Angeleno from a

8 Victim Killer Motive Sean “Rusty” Regan Carmen Sternwood Jealousy & Rejection Arthur Gwynn Geiger Owen Taylor To protect Carmen Sternwood Owen Taylor Unknown Possible suicide; possibly killed by Joe Brody or Lash Canino Joe Brody Carol Lundgren Revenge, in the mistaken belief that Brody killed Geiger Harry Jones Lash Canino To conceal Eddie Mars’ role in Sean Regan’s death Lash Canino Philip Marlowe & Mona Mars Self-preservation or revenge for Harry Jones Eddie Mars* His own Henchmen They mistake him for Marlowe * - Cinematic version only Six (or seven) human beings is a significant Mona has been sent away to preserve the fiction body count but far from an excessive tally by the that she “ran away” with Sean Regan. She’s standards of the mystery fiction genre. And you disguised with a platinum hair-do that inspires can certainly find more twisted mystery plots in Marlowe to nickname her “Silver-Wig.” She works by Agatha Christie, Rex Stout and Ngaio finds Marlowe irresistible, and this time, the Marsh. One glaring issue is that Chandler never attraction is mutual. explained who actually kills Owen Taylor, the Mona frees Marlowe, and he kills Lash Canino. chauffeur who shoots Arthur Geiger, ostensibly But there is no question of Mona actually out of love for Carmen Sternwood. Joe Brody, escaping with Marlowe; Eddie Mars is too one of Geiger’s co-conspirators, admits that he powerful, with politicians on his payroll. sapped Taylor and left him slumped over on the Marlowe can’t go after Eddie, but he can reveal side of the road, but not washing around in the the secret Mars was willing to kill for. He stages surf at the Lido pier. Was Brody lying? Did a the charade with Carmen and her gun, and lets groggy Taylor drive into the surf? Or did Vivian know that the whole story will go to the someone actually pay Taylor to kill Geiger, then prosecutor – unless Carmen is sent away. dispatch him to tie up loose ends? Chandler suggests the Sternwood fortune has Chandler didn’t know. When Brackett, Fuhrman been a major source of income for the Mars- and Faulkner made inquiries about Taylor’s fate, Geiger partnership –Carmen’s drug habit, Chandler couldn’t help them. Taylor’s death is gambling debts and blackmail payments all actually a “red herring,” a chance to deflect added up. What part did Sean Regan and Vivian Marlowe from the murder of Sean Regan, a have in the deal? We don’t know, but Marlowe motive shared by almost everyone that Marlowe promises he will end it all when his client, encounters. When Carol Lundgren kills Brody, General Sternwood, joins his son-in-law in it’s another natural point for Marlowe to exit the sleeping the big sleep. narrative. But this is where Chandler’s Whiled in the Streets ‘cannibalized” second plot hits its stride. Harry Any student in a 200-level literature class would Jones is an analog of Marlowe, a man only be able to see the parallels between the involved in the story in the effort to protect his Sternwoods and the Thorntons, the family who girlfriend Agnes, who was Geiger’s bookstore were Chandler’s sometimes reluctant clerk. When Lash Canino heartlessly poisons benefactors in his youth. General Sternwood was Jones, Marlowe’s moral outrage is finally a kind of personification of the older Thorntons engaged. He ends up beaten and handcuffed in a and Darts, who had amassed considerable wealth Realito body shop but is saved by the soft hearted – or possibly vengeful -- Mona Mars. ------To say goodbye is to die a little. ------

9 ------She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket. ------but saw it slowly consumed by their less one set of locations in The Big Sleep that productive descendants. The General is one of a Chandler knew intimately. These are the handful of characters that Marlowe genuinely Hollywood public library, once located on the admires in the course of the story. Aged to the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar point of translucence, he also represents the Los Avenue, and a succession of bookstores which Angeles of the previous century, which was still Marlowe consults in his quest to identify Arthur alive and kicking when Chandler first arrived Gwynn Geiger. As a bibliophile himself, there in 1913. Chandler was frequent customer at Pickwick Books, in operation since 1931, and also at The Chandler’s descriptions of locations in Los Hollywood Bookstore, formerly located at 6760 Angeles are so specific that one can still follow Hollywood Boulevard. Arthur Geiger’s store the path which Marlowe took while tailing was actually located in The Outpost Building, Arthur Geiger to the house where he was shortly also on the Boulevard, near the corner of Las murdered. And there were probably several Palmas Ave. The old wooden shoeshine stand dozen writers with narrative gifts equivalent to which Marlowe saw in the building’s lobby in Chandler’s, but they did not have the good 1939 is still there today. fortune to live in Los Angeles in the golden age of Hollywood. Los Angeles is another character Many writers have concluded that the character to Chandler, one which witnesses everything of Arthur Geiger and the dual nature of his shop that takes place in his twisty narratives and are at least partly based on Chandler’s friend, the remains ascinating and pitiless from beginning legendary Hollywood bookseller Stanley Rose. to end. Rose was the part-owner of the notorious Satyr Bookshop, originally located on Hudson While we can be relatively confident that at Avenue, and later on Vine Street. Rose was a some point, Chandler visited many of the illicit native of Matador, Texas, who had discovered a places where Marlowe pursues his cases, there is love for literature – or perhaps more accurately, a love for selling literature – in a VA hospital in Palo Alto, recuperating from wounds suffered fighting in the Great War. Arriving in LA due to a coin flip, he began his business peddling rare and unusual editions to the movie studios, who were always looking for new material not yet adapted to film. And if you had a taste for something slightly risqué – or some spirits to fill your hip flask – well, Stanley had a secret compartment in the bottom of his suitcase, and all manner of things were kept there. The back room at The Satyr, and at Stanley Rose Books at 6661 ½ Hollywood Boulevard, was the home of a sort of salon populated by artists and writers with literary ambitions, as opposed to the horde of studio hacks who mostly came and went like Mayflies. During prohibition, this was literally a sort of speakeasy; but Rose was apparently never arrested for violating the Volstead Act. Instead, he took the fall for all of Universal Pictures star John Boles (left) in front his partners in 1928, when he was found guilty of the Satyr Bookshop, 1620 Vine Street in 1931.

10 of publishing a pirate edition of a humorous figured out that Chandler was literally working novel called “The Specialist” by comic writer on their doorstep, and simultaneously undertook Chic Sale. He spent several months in the Los adaptations of his published work and enlisted Angeles County Jail and was ever after proud of him in the creation of original and adapted al the contacts he had made with members of the screenplays. He would have two particularly criminal underworld there. Some of these memorable successes in that field. In 1944, he individuals were fond of visiting Stanley for a collaborated on the screenplay of Double drink and a chat with his regulars, an experience Indemnity with director Billy Wilder. He of inestimable value to an aspiring crime writer adapted two more novels by other authors in like Chandler. And Now Tomorrow (1944) and The Unseen in 1945. And in 1946, he was nominated for an However, it is certainly worth pointing out that Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay Stanley Rose was never accused of any of the for The Blue Dahlia, which was shot with Alan sort of predatory behavior exhibited by Arthur Ladd and Veronica Lake in the lead roles. Geiger in The Big Sleep. And anyone who worked for him would never be taken in by But after the twin success of The Blue Dahlia references to an 1860 edition of Ben Hur or an and Howard Hawks’ production of The Big 1840 “Chevalier Audobon,” neither of which Sleep, Chandler grew increasingly frustrated ever existed. And since Rose’s later location was with Hollywood. His next two scripts, The next door to Musso & Frank’s restaurant and Innocent Mrs. Duff and Playback were not across the street from the Screen Writers’ Guild purchased, although Playback would eventually office, those “studio hacks” were more than become the seventh and final Philip Marlowe welcome to browse through Rose’s inventory novel in 1957. His less-positive experiences in after enjoying a plate of Clams Casino. the studio system were the inspiration for the plot of The Little Sister. Chandler would attempt From Hollywood with Hollywood just one more screenplay, an adaptation of Those who find the plot of The Big Sleep Patricia Highsmith’s novel Strangers on a Train confusing are likely to be just as lost in for Alfred Hitchcock. The two men had wildly Chandler’s second novel, Farewell My Lovely, divergent work habits and soon degenerated into published in 1940. It was also composed largely open hostility. Chandler competed two drafts of of scenes previously published in several the screenplay, and the only word he received in different short stories and involves Philip reply was the note that he had been terminated Marlowe in mayhem created by a woman with from the production. The final screenplay was two identities. Chandler’s third novel, The High beaten into shape by Hitchcock’s assistant Window, was the first with no previously Barbara Keon, his wife Alma Reville and the published material. Released in 1942, it presents short story writer Czenzi Ormonde, who was a somewhat more gallant Marlowe, who actually then working as an assistant to author Ben gets to save an innocent woman from an Hecht. Despite this, Warner Brothers insisted undeserved fate. Another novel expanded from that Chandler’s name remain on the screenplay, shorter works appeared in 1943; The Lady in the over both his and Hitchcock’s objections. Lake takes Marlowe to a small mountain town 80 miles from Los Angeles, where he deals with Freed from these distractions, Chandler returned another mystery caused by one woman assuming to Philip Marlowe. He would complete The the identity of another. Long Goodbye in 1953; he considered it to be his best book. It incorporated some scenes from After publishing four novels in five years, a gap the short story “The Curtain,” which had also of six years would follow before title #5, The been part of the bones of The Big Sleep. But Little Sister, was completed in 1949. The reason there were also numerous for the gap was that Hollywood had finally ------It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in. ------

11 ------There is no bad whiskey. There are just some whiskeys that aren’t as good as others. ------dozen screenplays and some very memorable essays, including “The Simple Art of Murder” from 1950. His literary impact is far larger – writers like Elmore Leonard, Charles Willeford, Robert Parker and William Gibson have all cited him as a major influence on their prose. But Chandler may be even more famous for the movies adapted from his work. Only serious Chandler fans know that the first actor to portray Marlowe on screen was Lloyd Nolan in the 1942 Herbert Leeds film A Time to Kill, based on The High Window. Before Howard Hawks made The Big Sleep in 1945, two films inspired by Chandler’s second novel Farewell, My Lovely had been shot. Screenwriters Frank Fenton and Lynn Root pinched the plot for The Falcon Takes Over in 1942, the third movie starring George Sanders as the suave gentleman Bookseller Dorothy Malone in The Big Sleep detective. And Edward Dmytrk shot his version of Farewell, My Lovely as Murder, My Sweet in autobiographical incidents in the story, and with 1944, with Dick Powell as Marlowe, and a cast The Long Goodbye he tried to combine crime including Clare Trevor, Otto Kruger and Mike fiction and social commentary in a way that Mazurki. Along with Billy Wilder’s Double would not become fashionable until the 1970s. Indemnity, Murder, My Sweet is regarded as The book was a satisfying success and would one of the first and best examples of the film win an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1955. noir genre, further emphasizing Chandler’s Sadly, Chandler suffered two emotional losses in impact on that field. 1954. His friend, the bookseller and agent The High Window was adapted again as The Stanley Rose passed away at the early age of 55. Brasher Doubloon in 1947. The same year, Rose was mourned by many who had never met Robert Montgomery directed, narrated and him; the “scene” in Rose’s bookstore provided starred as Marlowe in his version of The Lady in much of the atmosphere of Nathaniel West’s the Lake. MGM paid Chandler $35,000 for the novel The Day of the Locust and was likely rights to the book and he submitted a 195-page immortalized in numerous other works. And screenplay which was called “remarkably bad.” Chandler’s wife Cissy also died in 1954, after a Another Black Mask writer, Steve Fisher, wrote long illness. Her death left Chandler heartbroken a new version, shifting the scene to the and the final five years of his life were blurred Christmas season and removing all of the by almost perpetual use of alcohol. He attempted sequences at the lake. Chandler was affronted, suicide in 1955, but called the police to and ultimately asked to have his name taken off announce his intentions, and they arrived in time the screenplay. MGM technicians developed a to save him. He took at least one more long visit new camera dolly to allow Montgomery to shoot to England in 1958, then returned to La Jolla, the movie from Marlowe’s point of view; but where he and Cissy had made their home. He th this had the effect of removing the film’s star died on March 26 , 1959, from the combined from the screen, and the studio insisted that effect of pneumonia and renal failure. segments of Marlowe explaining the twists of Chandler’s canon of work is relatively small; the story be inserted into the film. seven novels, about 40 shorter stories, a half-

12 The Little Sister was not adapted for the screen What was gained and what was lost between the until 1969, when Paul Bogart directed James two versions? The attraction between Marlowe Garner in MGM’s Marlowe. The setting was and Vivian Sternwood was almost totally updated from the studios of 1950 to the TV invented by the screenwriters, and in the re-shot networks of the late 1960s, but screenwriter version, it becomes the central object of the film. Sterling Silliphant did his best to transfer as One might argue that it undermines a certain much of Chandler’s wisecracks to the script as amount of the “fun” of the movie, as Marlowe is possible. The film was not a particular success, far less interested in the Fellini-esque succession but Garner made a convincing private eye, and of attractive women who offer themselves to would begin playing beach-dwelling shamus Jim him across the story. But it also concealed the Rockford a few years later. degree to which Hawks had tried to manipulate his cast in “real life.” Hawks was clearly very Director Robert Altman updated The Long attracted to Lauren Bacall, but as a married and Goodbye to the 1970s, with Eliot Gould in the much older man, his affection had to remain role of Marlowe in 1973. Most consider Gould’s unexpressed and unrequited. He was dismayed version to be the worst Marlowe ever seen in a by the clear affinity which Bacall felt for the major studio movie, preferring even the weary also much older and then-married Bogart. efforts made by Robert Mitchum for British Hawks and his wife tried to steer Bacall toward director Dick Roberts in Farewell my Lovely other potential partners, including the 38-year- (1975) and The Big Sleep (1978). old Clark Gable. Chandler wrote that he had always hoped that Hawks seems to have responded to the situation actor Cary Grant would play Marlowe someday, by putting Bogart into suggestive scenes with a but Marlowe’s tough talk would have sounded series of strikingly attractive young actors. He curious if delivered in Grant’s glib mid-Atlantic coached Martha Vickers on how to manipulate accent. Lloyd Nolan and Dick Powell were men with her body in the role of Carmen convincingly strong in the role, and Robert Sternwood; but most of this performance ended Montgomery more closely resembled the character as Chandler described him. But Humphrey Bogart’s performance in the 1946 version of The Big Sleep will forever personify Philip Marlowe for most who have seen the film. One Hawks, Two Cuts If the fast-moving plot of Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep was not sufficiently confusing, the fact that there are two versions of his movie may finally leave one a bit bewildered. When the picture was finished in 1945, a prerelease version was cut and shown to Warner Brothers executives, and also distributed for exhibition to servicemen at bases and anchorages in the South Pacific. Audiences seemed to like the picture, but complained that it felt slightly long. Warner Brothers was happy enough that they put the picture on their release schedule, but then bumped it off again when Lauren Bacall received such poor notices for her work in Martha Vickers as Carmen Sternwood, The Big Sleep Confidential Agent. ------I was neat, clean shaved and sober and I didn’t care who knew it. ------

13 ------There is no trap as deadly as the trap you set for yourself. ------up cut from the re-shoot, because it tended Carmen’s murder of Sean Regan, at least she to upstage Bacall. One sequence that was no longer concealing the death of her survived intact is the interplay between own husband, a la Chandler. This version of Marlowe and the owner of the Acme Vivian has been as thoroughly victimized by Bookshop, played by the 19-year-old Eddie Mars and Carmen as her father and Dorothy Malone. Marlowe likes her from his bank account. Mars’ death gives the the start, but he plays it cool and asks story a much greater sense of resolution than questions that let her demonstrate her own Chandler’s original version. But purists must knowledge and skills at observation. And so be forgiven if they will always miss she is the one who puts the “Closed” sign on Marlowe’s closing soliloquy, from which the door and leads Marlow to what certainly the novel takes its name: appears to be a casual sexual encounter. It probably isn’t an offer that Chandler’s “What did it matter where you lay Marlowe would have accepted, much to his once you were dead? In a dirty sump sorrow. But Hawks seemed to be making the or in a marble tower on the top of a point that Bogart was the sort of man who high hill? You were dead, you were would, and the scene remained virtually sleeping the big sleep, you were not uncut. bothered by things like that. Oil and In 1997, an intact copy of the original 1945 water were the same as wind and air edit was found and restored. It was exhibited to you. You just slept the big sleep, to a fairly substantial audience at a series of not caring about the nastiness of how art house screenings. Many of those who became familiar with both versions, you died or where you fell. Me, I was including the late Roger Ebert, preferred the part of the nastiness now. Far more a version as re-cut in 1946. Yes, certain part of it than Rusty Regan was. But scenes explaining the tortuous plot were the old man didn’t have to be. He omitted; but the new scenes of dialogue could lie quiet on his canopied bed between Bogie and Bacall seemed to move with his bloodless hands folded on the the picture along much more quickly than it had been paced before. Their growing sheet waiting. His heart was a brief affection forms an island around which the uncertain murmur. His thoughts were murky waters of the plot swirl and splash, as gray as ashes. And in little while, but which remains intact at the end of the he too, like Rusty Regan would be story. sleeping the big sleep. On the way Several of the other changes in the downtown I stopped at a bar and had screenplay, such as separating Vivian a couple of double Scotches. They Sternwood from Sean Regan, and didn’t do me any good. All they did mysteriously naming her “Mrs. Rutledge,” was make me think of Silver-Wig and serve to make her a better object for Marlowe’s affections. Mr. Rutledge remains I never saw her again.” conveniently missing throughout the picture. So, even if Vivian did try to conceal     

14

------Fortune favors the prepared. ------Fanmail from Some Flounder Department: Steve Johnson Letters to CAPTAIN FLASHBACK [email protected] 4622 Pavalof Street David Ellis Anchorage AK 99507 [email protected] 7904 Stevenson Rd. Meant to cc you on this note to Joe Siclari. You Baltimore MD 21206 do have readers outside that Madison-focused apa! And I remember Frank Denton, who I have Andy! not seen for decades... he did write a letter for me when I applied to library school, about Thanks for the fanzine package you recently 1976... and I have a decent file of his zines, sent. The contents really hit home in a surprising though not all you mentioned. I must have manner. stopped writing back... Your musings on living with the fanzine collections of deceased friends hit home as I In any case: thanks for including Joe's letter in looked first at the late Kipples from the late Ted Captain Flashback, and for posting that zine and Pauls and then the last issue of SaM from 2019 others on efanzines. I need to respond more CorFlu from the (now) late Steve Stiles. These often... were two local fen I knew from forever. (When in Madison, I lived on Broom Street, not And there's Steve commenting on Ted in your far from site of a certain musically related plane footnotes...how crazy is this? The whole thing crash.) was a weird experience. It may be common among fandom in the personalzine arena. These [APH: Steve continued with the original zines are more like "correspondence" than, say, message offering to send Joe his collection of a zine centered on SF pro gossip or a TV show. CRY OF THE NAMELESS – 26 issues I also noted your good showing in the honorable scattered between #29 and #99, plus 4 issues of mentions in FANTHOLOGY 1994. I guess SINISTERRA – to support fanac.org. He your editorial modesty got the upper hand in that thought that Wally Weber must have sold them case. to him on a visit to Seattle in 1970, I need to make sure that Wally gets to see CAPTAIN [APH: HA! I think I wanted to pat myself on the FLASHBACK -- after the past few issues, his back without expanding the final page count. ears must surely be burning! It was indeed a shock that Steve Stiles went from working on an anthology and posting daily Steve, if Joe Siclari has not yet jumped at this on Facebook to a sudden terminal re-diagnosis generous offer, I’d be delighted to scan the and death within a week. That is not something missing issues for Fanac, and the “hard copies” which happens every week in the personal would be a hit in any fanzine auction, such as fanzine game, but it does seem to be part and will take place at Corflu 37 in March. At last parcel of becoming A Fan of a Certain Age. I year’s auction, fanac.org was one of the think the experience you’ve had is what fans call beneficiaries, and I believe that John Purcell will “Timebinding,” but it is sad that so many such want to do the same at Corflu Heatwave. reveries now revolve around faces we won’t get to see again. I expect this makes it that much It's delightful that we share a connection through more imperative to find the company of those both Madison & Seattle! Thanks for making who share those memories.] yourself known to the rest of the audience – who knows what sort of mail will follow!

15 Northwest by Northwest: convention; the group subsequently inaugurated More Thoughts on Regional Fanzines the series of annual conventions known as “Norwescon,” still one of the more successful regional conventions in the U.S. Founding members included Greg Bennett, Judy Suryan and Laurine Miranda, keeper of the all- important membership list. Early editors of the fanzine included Suryan, Jody Franzen, Tom Olson, Becky Simpson and Doug Booze. WESTWIND maintained a very dependable monthly schedule for at least its first fifteen years of publication. From the beginning it presented material beyond the club’s social calendar and election results. Profiles of regional clubs and conventions were a frequent subject, and columnist Dora Anvil covered news of science fiction at large. She also interviewed a number of regional authors.

Jon Gustafson contributed a regular column on Steve Johnson’s letter leads me to the books from Moscow, Idaho. Elisabeth Eldred continuation of my research on science fiction and Doug Shirk were also resident reviewers, fanzines in the Pacific Northwest. CRY OF THE often presenting divergent impressions of the NAMELESS was probably the single most same film. Shirk and Dora Anvil married in famous fanzine produced by a NW science 1987, changing her byline to “Dora Shirk.” As fiction club, but there were many other titles that Norwescon increased in reputation, a number of deserved the name “clubzine.” In the fanzine well-known professionals became friends of galaxy, we focus on some of the most brilliant NWSFS, and would be memorialized in objects – thick, well-illustrated genzines, clever WESTWIND when they died. The tribute to personal fanzines, commemorative one-shots Ted Sturgeon in issue #95 is a fine example. and Fanthologies. Clubzines, with their Judging from the quality of the paper and weakness for regularity, topicality and genre- reproduction used in publishing the fanzine, the related material might be the dark matter club had a healthy treasury. WESTWIND was underpinning that galaxy. There was a offset-printed on high quality beige or ivory 11- proliferation of club fanzines in the region in the by 17-inch stock and saddle stapled. The covers 1970s, some of which continued to appear for often featured beautiful artwork, and the fanzine decades, even down to the present day. Titles also sometimes had a two-page piece of like BCSFSZzine, NEOLOGY, OASFiS illustration forming its “centerfold.” All of this EVENT HORIZON, IT'S ONLY TALK, seems to have remained under the radar of most PUNS, PORSFS BULLETIN and PULSAR!, fanzine fans. Letters of Comment were typically all piled up an impressive number of issues and from grateful Guests of Honor, or founder Greg can be expected to appear in any crate of zines Bennett, who continued to send guidance to the collected by a Northwest fan. MaNY==ny were club after moving to Texas to work for NASA – of fleeting interest at the time of their issue and shades of Wally Weber! have not grown more compelling over time. The fanzine continued to appear into the last However, I recently had occasion to begin decade but seems to have been converted into a auctioning issues of WESTWIND, the official weblog sometime after 2012. Norwescon 43 will organ of the Northwest Science Fiction Society. be held April 9-12, 2020. The NWSFS was founded in 1976, for the purpose of bidding for the 1981 World SF    

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I Remember Entropy Presents: Three Fannish Pieces by Andi Shechter I: I’m Sorry, There Is No Bar From Issue #1 of Pretentious Science Fiction Quarterly Published by Mike Ward, Spring, 1978 II: Folk Art, Let’s Dance!

From Issue #1 of Folkal Point Published by Andi Shechter and Stu Shiffman, Winter/Spring 1992 III: Remembering Isaac From Issue #12 of Trap Door Published by Robert Lichtman, March 1993

Edited and Published by Andy Hooper and Carrie Root, January 11th, 2020 on the Occasion of Seattle Fandom’s Gathering in Memory of Andi Malala Shechter (1952-2019)

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I’M SORRY, Why THERE IS Star Trek NO BAR Cons? By Andi Shechter

It’s taken me some time, but I’ve finally well by the attendees. Spacecon 3 was good – reached the point where I can admit that I the ticket holders were, overall, pleased with attended Star Trek conventions long before I’d what they were offered, there were no major ever heard of science fiction fandom and problems, everyone was paid, programming science fiction conventions – indeed, I can ran relatively smoothly, and people had fun. It even admit that I’ve worked on Trek cons. I was a personally satisfying, if exhausting, end to usually hasten to add that I went to see the six months of steady work. My arguments with authors, and never once screamed “Oh, Mr. it can be summed up in one name, and I’m not Spock,” or entered a trivia quiz. In fact I here to rant (but catch me at the next con with became a con gofer very early on, a drink in my hand and I’ll tell you all about it). concentrating on the joys of Security (keeping First and foremost, Star Trek conventions, like someone from hitting William Shatner with a Star Trek fandom, are youth oriented. Adults cream pie (he missed)) and getting to meet both like the show and attend the cons, but we some of the really friendly and warm people are speaking of the majority of anywhere from involved in Trekdom. 5000 to 10,000 people. It is a bit unnerving to Based on my experience at two Trek cons, hear an 8-year-old girl tell you she is crazy (one in Chicago, the other in New York – the about William Shatner when she wasn’t even New York con later dubbed Riotcon or alive when he was first seen as Captain Kirk. Fiascon) I joined a Trek con committee in The Committee members’ ages may range Oakland in 1976, worked on an Oakland con from 17 to 55, but the audience is, for the most Space…the Final Frontier 2, and then became part, 11 to 17 years old. This makes for some co-chairman of Space…the Final Frontier 3, interesting situations. which was held in San Francisco in February, Further, Trek conventions are not primarily 1977. The two conventions each had aimed at meeting people. It’s safe to say that attendances on the order of 8000-10,000 people. science fiction cons, which serve many My science fiction con experience began more purposes, are, above all, social conventions, for recently, with the 1976 Westercon in Los seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Trek Angeles. Currently, I’m on the committee for con attendees almost always come with friends, the ’79 Westercon as Security Person. and new friends are made almost as an For those of you who have never experienced a afterthought. If you have volunteered to be a Trek convention, bear with me – it is not made gofer (general-purpose assistant to the of 87,403 screaming teenyboppers with pointy convention committee), this drastically changes, ears who like to mug Nichelle Nichols. Those as you have all that bitching and griping to can’t number more than 389. There is, share with fellow bitchers and gripers. (“I however, much to be learned at a Trek haven’t been replaced in 9 hours,” “My feet convention – a lot of planning and time go into hurt,” “She yelled at me,” “He spit on me,” pleasing a lot of young people, and the “I’m tired / hoarse / hot / bloody / dying.”) cooperation, the people you meet, and the If Trek cons are not social cons, then interest of the fans are well worth experiencing. whathehell are they? Primarily, they are Some solid, reliable nice people have been Function cons. Star Trek convention involved in Trek conventions and have done programing seems insane to many people --

18 there is something going on every hour. From 8 us have the wherewithal to eat – or we have a a.m. to midnight, there are panels, car to get us to a place we can afford. If appearances, films, Trek episodes, trivia Trekkies don’t leave the con site it’s not contests, and individual talks. There is seldom because they are content to eat in the coffee a time when one’s only choices are the art show shop, drink in the bar and sleep in their rooms and the Dealer’s room. – it’s that they can’t leave! Bus fare? Car? Taxi? “I can’t. I just bought a picture of Spock and a Oh, the Dealer’s room. The dealers at a Trek con, overall, sell more slick overpriced model of the Galileo.” merchandise than at other conventions. There Now, since you can’t go to the bar – unless are the commercial models and jewelry and you’ve got the guts to nurse a coke and posters, and tribbles, and dolls. There are withstand the bartender’s stare – if you want to endless piles of the still photos that the show relax, you can go to your room, yes? Er, well… produced – Spock, Kirk, monsters, women, the Again, not all, but many, many Trek fans crash ships, the guests, the crew, the producers and or share rooms. True, we do it at an SF con if executives! There are usually some book we’re short on funds, or the place is booked, dealers, but most of the items for sale are but most of the time we do not cram 8 in a directly connected with Star Trek. The art room. It’s that famous game called “Fool the show is similar, in that most of the art is directly Front Desk.” It means (a) only one person – Star Trek connected – pictures of the stars, the room’s inevitably a single – will have a key, needle-point banners and pictures, pillows, clay and (b) you can try to hide 5 sleeping bags, 7 models, of Spock, Kirk, monsters… Again, duffel bags, and 8 coats in an attempt to fool there are occasional stand-outs, such as the the housekeeping staff. Sure. Granted, most of plexiglas or plastic chess set based on this is based on New York City cons, and thus Federation and Klingon characters and ships, NYC hotel rates, but it is common practice to or a blown-glass model of the Enterprise, cram. Andy anyway, who needs to sleep? excellently crafted. Fans who have attended Trek cons often have Now wait, let’s stop rambling. I’ll go back to the commented on security – teams of bodyguards first point and attempt to proceed logically to and gofer squads of over 100. Absurd to the next, if I can find it by then. consider at, say, Westercon. You will have a few gofers for the art show, the costume Age range of convention attendees: As I said, contest, and when needed, committee the age range of most Trek con people is about members to act as escorts or liaison. But 11 to 17. I’ve seen 5 year old Captain Kirks in Bodyguards? Can you see Poul Anderson costume shows, and I’ve gotten letters from 80 flanked by 3 bodyguards? Larry Niven escorted year old Trekkies. I’ve seen blind Trekkies – by a bereted man with a walkie-talkie down which if you think about it is pretty fantastic. back ways to a panel? Gofers linking arms to BUT, they are not the drinking, bar-hopping prevent fans from mobbing the stage when Bob semi-solvent adults of science fiction cons. Silverberg appears? Well… Star Trek stars, are, Even in states where the drinking age is 18, by their very nature, “stars”, television (and I thought California was progressive!) the personalities. It’s a category unlike any other. only time I ever saw Trek fen in bars was at Science Fiction writers who choose to attend Riotcon when ten of us discovered a bar in cons do so because they like the people, are Grand Central Station at 2 a.m. There is a lot friends with a great many of them, and are of self-imposed starvation at a Trek con – what themselves fans. At Trek cons we are dealing 15 year old can afford a hotel room, admission with actors, fan clubs, autographs on glossy fee, pictures, posters, jewelry, ears, models and pictures: “Stardom”. Shatner has been food too? Mind you I survived two Trek cons practically assaulted, not even counting the pie- on pancakes (cheap and filling), when I was a poor gofer, but at science fiction cons, more of throwing incident; Takei cannot walk through a 19

he/she wrote and who his/her favorite actor is – in short, they’ll act like many neos do. I miss Trek cons, in a way, which is why I still like to work on gofer squads, and partly why I like working on con committees. Everyone is so obviously enjoying the hell out of themselves. There are few blasé, laid-back Trekkies. Trek cons are very exciting and busy. And while I’m glad I’ve (almost) reached the stage where I’m not quite as awed by famous people as I used to be, it’s still part of me. Trek cons are a good way to reach would- walk through a lobby without being swallowed be fans. Watching a neofan, when I was one by a mob; and while the mob is friendly, not so long ago, is treat – you relive some of usually respectful, nice and agreeable, a mob is the awe, excitement, thrill of meeting Real still a mob. Yes, kids have knocked on hotel Authors, Real Creative People. The first room doors trying to find the actors, yes they science fiction author I met was Isaac Asimov have tried to kiss them, give them gifts, date … at a Trek con about three years ago. I also them, invite them home. And these same stars met Harlan Ellison there – and went out and can end up on a stage facing anywhere from spent my last couple bucks on a paperback of 3000 to 8000 people at one time. So you must Dangerous Visions. There are neos at SF cons, have strong, convincing, cool-headed but they are often so busy trying not to be neos bodyguards and cooperative, overworked that you miss the enthusiasm. Trek fans don’t gofers, and you use all of them to run embarrass as easily, so they get more interference. It’s not an easy-job – tempers flare enthusiastic. quickly in a crowd, people get more demanding. To illustrate some of the things I’ve been discussing, let’s look at Octocon, the charity A Trek fan will spend money on Trek trivia – con held in Santa Rosa, California, October 22- cheap, gaudy, trashy maybe, but everyone else 23, 1977. It was a first-time con, by a group of is doing the same thing – it’s part of a fandom self-admitted amateurs who came through with and it’s fun. Trek fans will sit and hear De a fairly successful, friendly convention. Forest Kelley answer the same questions for Remember those things which seemed out of the seventh time (write to me and I’ll send you place? Much of that was derived from the Star the Seven Most Popular Questions Asked At A Trek cons. For instance: Trek Con in a plain envelope – 50 cents, no stamps please.) They’ll watch “Amok Time” Having an Art Show in a small room up a flight and mouth the dialog; they’ll see the blooper of stairs. Okay, maybe that was plain dumb, but reel and holler at the same dumb stunts they’ve since I saw it happen at a Trek con in Oakland, seen 18 times before. They won’t drink, often it signifies amateurism/Trek con to me. Any will not eat, often can’t carry on a conversation responsible, experienced science fiction Art with an author beyond asking which episode Show person knows about stairs, and the Carrying of Heavy Things and all that. Since

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 Art Shows don’t involve the primary people room, and appear on panels. Leonard of Trek cons, they receive less than full Nimoy, William Shatner, and De Forest attention. Kelley tend to limit appearances strictly to an hour or two on stage.  The gofer squad – obviously young, somewhat self-important, but also eager to  Autograph lines – while they are admittedly help, friendly and enjoying the con, even if popular, and in no way a bad idea, usually there wasn’t one “star” to meet. The squad autograph lines and autograph sessions occur was also a fair size, and centrally directed, not at Trek cons, and at SF cons you are left small squads for specific purposes. As usual, more to your own devices. gofers at this convention, as at every other I expect that Trek cons are dying out – it’s taken one, were unpaid, receiving part or all of too damn long for the show to return, the movies their membership money back if they is dead, and many Trekkies are growing out of worked 4 to 8 hours. Gofers are never paid, their enthusiasm. Star Trek fandom has and often work longer than their shifts. Why? developed a number of professional Trekkies – A need and desire to be of help, a chance to those who write Trek books, bad Trek fanzines, be in on some of the parties, or decisions, to dirty Trek fanzines; those who get paid for having meet some of the guests, and meet other been someone’s hairdresser or secretary, who gofers. appear as “stars” at a convention. Joan Winston, who went from convention organizer to  Having the events so far away from a bar – professional Trekkie (co-authoring Star Trek while I realize the con hotel was built that Lives) has recently written a book on Trek cons, way, it would seem that many con com published by Doubleday. In it she spends a great members underestimated the importance of deal of time dropping names, having developed a The Bar to attendees. friendship with Shatner who she evidently admires a great deal. While Ms. Winston  At least one panel ended up discussing Star mentions the crowding at that Chicago Boynton Trek. It began with a discussion of writing for con, she soft-pedals it, never mentioning the legal movies and ended up as a “what it is/was like problems. Her own split with Al Shuster, his later to write for Star Trek” panel. Of course this bankruptcy, the tensions, the problems are sometimes happens at SF cons, too. glossed over. She writes a long, goshwow con report which consists mainly of a list of her  The pros attending Octocon, I have been dinner companions a lot of cutesy side comments informed, were on A, B, and C lists, which about how indispensable she was to Shatner. She differentiated among those who were given praises Jaqueline Lichtenberg constantly, and yet free room, room and board, and room, says no more about Isaac Asimov than “How board, and travel expenses. As Dick Lupoff neat it is to hear ‘Ike’ talk about himself.” I pointed out to me, pros pay their own way to somehow suspect that this will not be her last science fiction cons, unless they are guests of book, either. honor, while pros invited to Trek cons are Both the New York and Chicago conventions treated as “stars”, with star treatment. This were managed, or mismanaged, by Lisa Boynton, can involve first class air fare, a suite in a whose name is now mud with many Trek hotel (or at least a good room), meals, and up convention people, including the “Hole in the to $5000 or more. This often covers no more Deck Gang” (the informal convention gofer than a stage appearance, although those stars (volunteer) registry, organized by Midwest fan Sharon Ferraro Short), and the Dorsai Irregulars with less than top billing, especially George (who hire out as convention security, usually in Takei, Jimmy Doohan, Grace Lee Whitney, the Midwest). Ms. Boynton attained notoriety attend autograph sessions, mingle (much to among many Trek fans by running two the distress of their security), visit the dealer’s

21 conventions at which she was conspicuous by her It was at this same convention that a publicity- absence. As a result of the New York convention seeking news reporter paid a young man to throw she was sought by legal authorities on charges of a pie at William Shatner, inflaming an already fraud. Either Lisa Boynton or Ticketron or both tense situation. Convention workers have claimed neglected to cut off ticket sales at some maximum that Ms. Boynton fudged on paying some of the number; as a result, that Saturday afternoon, fans contracted salaries, including those of the Dorsai were still buying tickets to a sold-out convention. Irregulars. The convention gofers worked far Estimates of attendance, which had been planned more hours than they had originally agreed to for 8000 to 10,000, reached 15,000 to 18,000. work, and in Chicago were given back only their Tempers were short, and the situation was as membership fees and partial payments on their close to riot as can be. The only way gofers were rooms. (The Dorsai later donated some of their able to get around at all was to remove all signs of payment to the gofer squad.) authority (badges, sashes) and sneak out side I grow more suspicious of Trek cons – they’ve doors. I was in the main ballroom that day and come a long way since they were a small gathering was often unable to find anyone in authority. of fans (sound familiar?), and I don’t trust the When people began complaining, demanding a professional slick entrepreneur touch of those chair, satisfaction, stars, the members of the looking to make lots of money off honest fans. convention committee locked themselves in the But damn, I had fun along the way. con suite. ------Your cuisine is definitely superior to that aboard the Enterprise. It is a powerful recruiting inducement. ------

[The title doesn’t have too much to do with the article – but I’ve always wanted to use it on something and this was as close as it gets! – AS ] Most people tell me they don’t like bluegrass music, or something called country music. It’s not like real folk music. My reaction to this is like my reaction when people tell me they don’t like science fiction. Much of this point of view seems based on an assumption about the genre that comes from out-of-date views, an assumption that what something once was, it still is. Country music hasn’t been what it was for years. You can probably still find songs about how “he makes me miserable, and he leaves me to go to the bar with his friends and then he rides around in his truck with his dog, but I love him”, but there’s also still a helluva lot of fifties-style space opera around. I was raised with wonderful music in my house. I heard symphonies, show tunes, Dixieland and lots of the best singers. My parents, leftist-

liberal-democrats, played Harry Belafonte (the closest to the folk singer I knew in my youth), From Folkal Point #1, Winter/Spring 1992

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Ella Fitzgerald, Fran Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Mendelsohn who played the hammer dulcimer Nina Simone and Lena Horne. I heard Danny like an angel. I fell in love. They didn’t sing Kaye and Garry Moore’s humor albums. But I through their noses, didn’t whine, certainly don’t recall a single instance of a Pete Seeger knew their instruments, sang terrific harmonies record, or Leadbelly. I adopted them later as and most of all, sang real songs. They sang part of my musical heritage. And I never heard about love and caring and losing someone and any bluegrass or country music. sitting watching the day go by and wondering I began to discover folk music about the time I what happened to their lives. discovered all the other music I was to love in And vegetables. “Rutabaga Boogie” is one of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s – Jefferson Airplane and their classics. They sang in a way that made you Janis Joplin and Big Brother were my favorites want to listen. They didn’t play coy and sweet (both with strong lead female vocalists – watch and sing about being beaten up by the man out, there’s a trend here). I started listening to they loved, standing by their man, divorce, or Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez (although her early being left pitifully all alone to pine. No one stuff bugged me, seemed too shrill, and not mentioned trucks, jukeboxes, dogs, bars, or very topical – ho, hum, Childe ballads), Judy being drunk. The rhythms were infectious, the Collins (remember when she was a folk fiddle playing was great. They sang a lot of singer?), the Kingston Trio, Tom Paxton, Phil Kathy’s songs and Paul’s compositions. Much Ochs, Peter, Paul and Mary, Jerry Jeff Walker, of the writing was consciously feminist. Seeger, you know. The gang. I decidedly did From then on, I became a devoted Persons not like “country & western” music. My best fan, especially when it came to Laurie Lewis, a friend Edie and I bought a Tammy Wynette demon fiddler and good vocalist whose style album as a j-o-k-e. Somewhere along the line, and personality I liked. I discovered, through however, I, er, well, I found out that I like Larry, A Touch of Grass, a four-man group Dolly Parton. As far as I knew, she was a rarity who did Jerry Lee Lewis and the Beatles as well in country music, a strong woman who wrote a as some traditional bluegrass, and Sidesaddle, lot of good songs and didn’t whine. I wasn’t another all female bluegrass band which thrilled with the way she looked, but I liked included Evelyn Peyton, sister of erstwhile bay what she said. area fan Carrie Peyton. I discovered Any Old Because of my leftist, feminist politics, I started Time String Band, also an all-women group. listening to more and more women musicians This band had a surprise for me, as one of the in the later seventies – found “women’s music” members was someone I’d performed with in had a lot to offer. I still listen to many artists of high school, during the YWCA summer that particular genre. But I was pretty much a musicals back in West Hartford, Connecticut. total folkie by the late-seventies, early-eighties, It was a pleasure to see that Susie Rothfield, when Larry Verre convinced me to go with him who had once told me she wanted a career as a one night to the Red Vest Pizza Parlor in El musician, had actually gotten there. Any Old Cerrito, California. Maybe he thought that Time, now defunct, also featured the angelic since I like Dolly Parton . . . hell, I don’t know voice of Kate Brislin and introduced me to why. The regular performers at the Red Vest Cajun music as well. They did old raunchy every Thursday were a bluegrass band called blues, traditional Cajun, and bluegrass. They The Good Ol’ Persons. The band had started introduced me to music I’d never heard out all female. At the time I first heard them, before, that deserved not to be buried. (And the band had one token male – Paul Shelasky, yes, I now really do appreciate Joan Baez’s a fine fiddle player and the brother of Sue recordings of the Childe ballads). Shelasky, one of the original members. The band was otherwise all women – Kathy Kallick, Dorothy Baxter, Laurie Lewis, and Barbara

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The groups enjoyed themselves. That’s not to there was Patsy Cline, just like there was always say other kinds of bands don’t, but some are C. L. Moore and Leigh Brackett, but there’s more interested in the spectacle they present or now a whole new kind of music. being “up there” on stage. Bluegrass is very Why do I like bluegrass? I find it worth close to the heart. It’s just a few instruments on listening to because I really like music I can stage, usually acoustic (occasionally the bass is move to. In recent years I’ve found I really love electric) and the melody line is clear. There’s Cajun music and what I know of the music of not a lot of fireworks, although there can be Africa, which makes me want to move. I don’t amazing speed and flash in the playing of the quite get how people can just sit there, and not fiddle, banjo, or mandolin. It was clear by the let a toe tap, snap a finger, get up and dance. smiles of the band members, the goofing Bluegrass and old time music is meant for around on stage and the rapport they had with moving. the audience that these musicians shared a lot with each other and with the people who came It’s also good for improvisation and jamming to hear them. They were, to use an overused and virtuoso solos. One of the joys of the Grass word, accessible. They’d always hang out Valley festivals, as well as Seattle’s Northwest afterwards to talk with people, they’d take Folklife Festival is the chance to wander all requests, they shared the lead, and supported over the place listening to pick-up bands each other musically. They played their own jamming – three guitars, two fiddles, a banjo and each other’s music, written by other and someone over there playing spoons. The bandmembers or the work of other bluegrass harmonies, in old-time, gospel, or new style groups in the area. Watching a band member bluegrass can give me the chills. (Sunday playing while the rest of the band smiles at each morning at Grass Valley always was a treat- I’d other and looks impressed – there’s something settle in early for the 2 hour gospel show – so good about that. It’s comfortable and friendly much a cappella 3 and 4 part harmony.) and everyone’s having fun. And while the lyrics I think, though, that the modern bluegrass may not be all that fancy, and the tunes scene appeals to me because I always “look to themselves often are not really complex, the the women”. If you relied on older impressions feelings are real, and the words man something of bluegrass, you wouldn’t expect this music to and say things in a different way. be women’s music, and there sure is enough of Doug Faunt encouraged me greatly by getting the old stuff around, there’s plenty of the new, me a membership in the California Bluegrass which offers wonderful songs like Kathy Association, which sponsors two festivals each Kallick’s “Easy Substitute” or the Spanish- year in Grass Valley, California (no, I’m not influenced “Open Up your Heart”: making up the name). I attended three of the festivals over the years, and heard outstanding California musicians. My biggest delight has Open Up Your Heart / You know I been in seeing Laurie Lewis, a 3 time could believe in you California Ladies fiddle champion, start her If you let me be true to you / I’ve been own band, The Grant Street String Band and trying all day go on to headline all over the country. She also has backed at least 6 more other bands and And if you ask your heart / you know performers – women, singer-songwriters, what I’m trying to say topical writers as well as bluegrass bands. On a night like tonight / it’s so hard to It happened in bluegrass and country music as keep love away. it happened in science fiction – the women made themselves heard. There was always Maybelle Carter and Loretta Lynn, and happily

24 and Laurie Lewis’ “Don’t Get Too Close”, “I Don’t Know Why” or the beautiful waltz “Love Chooses You”: Tell me now if I’m wrong / Are you feeling the same? Are your feet on the ground? / Are you calling my name? Do you lie awake nights? / Please say that you do ‘Cause you can’t choose who you love / Love Chooses You Discography: Any Old Time String Band, Any old Time String Band, Many of the bands play music which goes far Arhoolie Records 4009, 1978 beyond the limits of bluegrass. Any Old Time’s Ladies Choice, Any old Time String Band, Bay Recprds version of the Bahamian tune “I Bid You 217, 1980 Goodnight” and “I’ve Got What It Takes” with Blue Rose, (Cathy Fink, Laurie Lewis, Marcy Marxer, Molly Mason, Sally Van Meter), Sugar Hill Records 3768, 1988 Susie Rothfield belting out a wonder old Bessie The Good Ol’ Persons, The Good Ol’ Persons, Bay Smith song are knockouts. And over the years, Records 208, 1977 I’ve become aware of a particularly nice quality I Can’t Stand to Ramble, The Good Ol’ Persons, Kaleidoscope Records, F-17, 1983 in the love songs written by many of the singer- Part of A Story, The Good Ol’ Persons, Kaleidoscope songwriters involved in the bluegrass: there is Records, F-26, 1986 often no reference to gender in the song. Anywhere The Wind Blows, The Good Ol’ Persons, Whether conscious or not, whether the Kaleidoscope Records, K-38, 1989 Grant Street String Band, Grant Street String Band, Bonita songwriter did it deliberately, intentionally or Records 111, 1983 not, the songs are being written so that a man Singin’ My Troubles Away, Grant Street String Band, Flying or a womanly singing the song can be singing Fish Records FF 70515, 1990 Restless Rambling Heart, Laurie Lewis, Flying Fish Records about a man or a woman. It’s not defined, FF 406, 1986 which makes the song a little more universal. I Love Chooses You, Laurie Lewis, Flying Fish FF 487, 1989 like that. Together, Laurie Lewis and Kathy Kallick (and about time!), Kaleidoscope K-44, 1991 While there are of course many wonderful A Touch of Grass, A Touch of Grass, Matador Rec. 1981 male performers in folk music (try to keep me All in Good Time, Sally Van Meter, Sugar Hill, 1991 Also worth noting: away from a Tom Paxton concert), I am for the The Arkansas Sheiks, The Arkansas Sheiks, Bay Records most part more interested in women 204, 1975 performers. And I prefer music by women, A little Tenderness, Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, from Joan Baez to Sweet Honey in the Rock to Kaleidoscope Records, 1990 A Song That Will Linger, Jody Strecher & Kate Brislin, Tracy Chapman. And in many cases, the music Rounder Records, 1989 I was discovering in the last ten to fifteen years, Blue Lightning, Jody Strecher & Kate Brislin, Rounder California old time and bluegrass was Records, 1991 dominated by women singers, musicians and Twisted Fiddle, Hollis Taylor, Gleeful Music (Portland, OR), 1991 songwriters. Western Dream (Ranch Hand Records, 1989) and Blue Blazes (Sugar Hill, 1991) by Ranch Romance, who play It’s no longer only about trucks and dogs and “Western Swing” (not exactly bluegrtass but a close relation) getting drunk, twang, twang, twang. It’s heartfelt Anything by the late & sorely missed, Kate Wolf and real and creative and well-written, good If you like what you hear, try Nanci Griffith, Mary-Chapin music. Don’t pass it by without listening to it Carpenter and Emmylou Harris for a while. [All Art and Headings by Stu Shiffman – APH]

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were fortunate to have so many friends and it was Although certainly we weren’t close, I can still claim the science fiction event of the month, at the very Isaac’s friendship. During the early and mid-‘70s, I least. I always used to babble, “Oh yes, and Poul would occasionally attend a Star Trek convention in and Karen Anderson were there, and Fritz Leiber, New York City as a break from school. I remember and the Lupoffs and Quinn Yarbro helped decorate being pleasantly amazed that someone whose name the whole place and Marta Randall performed the I’d seen in my library from the time I was a kid haunting the shelves – this same Asimov – was so ceremony and our best people were Debbie Notkin accessible and available and talked to folks like they and Bob Silverberg, and Isaac sent regrets and a were folks. He talked to me. My mom couldn’t check.” Again I called my mom and we laughed. believe it – we both thought this was pretty heady “Mom, we got a wedding present from Isaac stuff. Asimov!” Over the years I only saw Isaac at an occasional The night that I heard of his death, I looked at convention and never got to talk for very long, but I some pictures someone took of Isaac and me. At a treasured the friendship. We all have known people convention in ’75 or thereabouts, he inscribed my who think they should be treated differently copy of Caves of Steel “to Andrea with passionate love” and there’s another Asimov book in the because they write and we are being honored by house similarly inscribed to me “with breathless their presence. For those of us whose lives revolve passion “ or something equally silly. around reading, knowledge, creativity, it might have been a big deal. What made Isaac’s friendship Sometime in late ’74 or ’75, a friend told me that he special to me was the ease with which he gave it – was coming to speak at SUNY Albany, where I was he didn’t think it was any big deal. I didn’t, couldn’t, attending graduate school. He was speaking at a find it in me to mind the “dirty old man” routine class in the afternoon (I think it was an English class either. You’d think I would, since I do find sexism on science fiction) and then was speaking to the objectionable. But with Isaac it was never offensive, campus that night. I showed up at the class, which never rude, just silly. It was always clear to me that it was held in a small lecture hall, and waited as Isaac was in total self-mocking jest and that while Isaac came into the center of the room. He sat down. I took himself seriously about a lot of things, he was walked up behind him and did some devastatingly not serious about that. It was part of an act and he dumb thing like put my hands over his eyes. The was supposed to play this particular part. most gratifying reaction – well, you know what Isaac was like. Isaac turned in his chair, leapt up, and Everyone’s going to have a story about Isaac. As I sat last spring, feeling peeved and angry and cheated gave me a great big hug, exclaiming delightedly, that Isaac is dead, I thought of what so many others “What are you doing here? It’s so good to see you!” would be feeling. What are all those people who Everyone in the room was abuzz, simply dying to write to Isaac at the magazine feeling? What must know who I was that I was so friendly with Dr. Arthur C. Clarke be feeling tonight? And Greg, Asimov. But it was never a big deal with him. He who just took over his column in F&SF? And didn’t hold audiences; he talked to people. So what Harlan, who takes the death of his friends so deeply if he’d written several million books? and so personally, how shocked he must be at the In June of ’75, I headed back to my alma mater, loss of his friend. Yes, people get old and people Connecticut College, where Isaac was speaking at die, but we weren’t ready for this, you know? commencement. (Lucky class of ’75 – I was jealous. It seemed like Isaac was finally going to take it easy In ’74 we had Buckminster Fuller and I don’t for a while. He certainly had ten or twenty years remember a word he said.) I swore Isaac saw me more, or so I assumed. We were all going to have from the stage and winked, and I think I got to say Isaac around for a long time. Isaac Asimov was hello afterwards, but can’t swear to it. going to live forever, if anyone was. And while his work, his contributions, will be around forever, and A few years later, after moving to California, I will form the foundation, if you will, for what married Alva Rogers, who was old buddies with Isaac and, of course, we sent a wedding invitation. I everyone thinks of as science fiction, it was not time still describe the wedding in glowing terms, as we for Isaac to leave us. Dammit. 26