From the Mine Steven H Silver lthough numbered as Argentus 9, this is really the forward to reading it). After reading the beginning of A eleventh issue of Argentus, since both 2005 and 2009 Steve’s piece, make sure you use the enclosed TAFF ballot saw special editions of the ‘zine published early in the year. to vote for either Anne Murphy/Brian Gray or Frank Wu to In 2005, there was the Argentus Guide to Game Shows, be the 2010 TAFF delegate. which needs to be updated following four more years of Back in 2008, Howard Andrew Jones blogged about an fans on game shows, including an impressive five-game run idea he called Universe-R, a fictional alternative world by Christine Valada on Jeopardy! This year’s issue was where all the books and movies he wants to see, but won’t Argentus Presents the Art of the Con, an 80 page look at be created, actually exist. I asked him to write something con-running. I’d love to add articles to either or both of up for Argentus, but his schedule meant it wouldn’t appear those special editions, so if you have anything you’d like until this year. I know I’d love to see the second season of included, please feel free to send it to me. Firefly that exists in some alternate. 2009 also saw Argentus receive its second Hugo An off-hand comment by Ralph Roberts on the Mike nomination, for which I would like to thank all the 2008 Resnick discussion list has led to his reminiscences about contributors and all the Hugo nominators. I take great pride working for NASA in the 1950s and 60s. in those nominations and although it is my name on the And Fred Lerner has contributed his usual insightful ballot as editor, Argentus would not be what it is without the piece looking at the way critics attempt to constrain the efforts of the writers and artists who permit me to use their boundaries of the genre by defining what does and does not work in its pages. Similarly, Argentus was recognized by belong. the video-blog Chronic Rift with its Roundtable Award, and For the mock section this time, I asked people to re- although I wasn’t able to record an acceptance speech in imagine various classic television shows as science fiction. time for their subsequent award show, I want to thank the See what a science fictional Happy Days or Three’s producers of Chronic Rift for the award on behalf of all Company would look like at the end of this issue. Argentus’s contributors and also want to point them to the other great work being down with fanzines. The opening article in this issue in non-science fictional From the Mine ..................................................................... 1 in any way, although I’ve run portions of it in a variety of Six Silent Clowns ................................................................ 2 other fanzines. A look at six silent film comedians, which The Virus-Scarred Man ..................................................... 18 was tremendous fun to research. You can find parts of it in Welcome Home ................................................................. 20 Alexiad, Askance, Challenger, Chunga, The Drink Tank, Taff Notes: Prelude............................................................ 21 and Reluctant Famulus, or you can read the entire thing A Culture of Maps, Trains, and Sex: A Review of here, along with additional “DVD-extras.” Catherynne M. Valente’s Palimpsest Tour........................ 25 Gregory Benford sent in a piece in which he talks about Cheng Ho Discovers America!.......................................... 27 the predictive nature of his own science fiction and the one Welcome to Universe-R .................................................... 29 time he managed to predict the future. Later in the issue, The Bonds of Discipline.................................................... 30 several authors, ranging from Robert Silverberg to Michael NASA, My Dream Job ...................................................... 31 Burstein, talk about the one story they’ve written which A Day In East London....................................................... 33 seems to have disappeared from public consciousness. No Down and Out on the Way to Sai Gon or Breaking Bad ... 38 reviews, reprints, nominations. Perhaps it will inspire They Disappeared.............................................................. 44 readers to track down copies of the original (and only) Letters of Comment........................................................... 49 appearance and find out why these authors still have a warm Mock Section..................................................................... 54 spot in their heart for these stories. At the Nebula Awards in Los Angeles in 2009, Janis Ian Sheryl Birkhead: 49 Kurt Erichsen: 29 filked her own song, “At Seventeen.” Not wanting to allow Brad Foster: 27 her cleverly re-written lyrics to go to waste, I approached Anne Green: 22, 34, 51, 53 her had she agreed to allow me to reprint them in Argentus, Deb Kosiba: 20 so just imagine sitting in a room a listening to Janis sing Sue Mason: 18, 30, 37, 52 these words while accompanying herself on guitar. William Rotsler: 59 And we give you travel, whether it is James Bacon’s MO Starkey: Cover bookstore crawl through the wilds of South Africa, A Brianna Spacekat Wu: 31, 32, 43 description of Cat Valente’s book event that took place as she rode The City of New Orleans from Chicago to the Gulf ©2009 Argentus, Inc. Argentus is published annually by Steven H of Mexico, Larry Sanderson’s tragic-comic attempt to fly to Silver. You can reach him at 707 Sapling Lane, Deerfield, IL Viet Nam, Cheng-Ho’s voyage of discovery for China, and 60015-3969 or via e-mail at [email protected]. His LiveJournal the beginning of Steve Green’s TAFF report (I refused to is at shsilver.livejournal.com and his website is at www.sfsite.com/~silverag. He’s also on Facebook. allow him to send me the portion of the report covering the time he stayed with me in Chicago…but I am looking 1 Six Silent Clowns Steven H Silver In 1913, after a few years in the cinematic wilderness, Ben Turpin Turpin was befriended by Wallace Beery and played support roles in several of Beery’s “Sweedie” movies, made efore there was for Essanay at their Niles, California studios. When Charles B Charlie Chaplin, Chaplin came to Essanay, he befriended Turpin and made Buster Keaton, or Harold Turpin his second banana in a handful of films. Lloyd, before even Roscoe The men had different views of comedy, however, with Arbuckle, Ben Turpin Turpin looking more for the quick slapstick laugh and stepped in front of the Chaplin wanting to create more complex films. After a few cameras at Essanay films, the two separated, with Turpin moving to Vogue Studios in Chicago to help Studios before hooking up with Mack Sennett fill roles in the movies Sennett, who is best known for the Keystone Kops films, being made by Broncho was nothing if not unsubtle, and his films demonstrate that. Billy Anderson (the Ay in Turpin’s own broad humor fit into Sennett’s concept of film Essanay). Although quite well, and he was willing to appear in several films cast Turpin’s goal was to against his physical type. In addition to the perennially conquer the new medium of film, his primary role at crossed eyes, Turpin wore a small brush moustache and Essanay was to work as a janitor, shipping clerk, a property stood only 5’4”, an inch shorter than Chaplin and Buster boy and scenery shifter, a “telephone girl” and scenario Keaton. Given his statue and odd appearance, Sennett cast writer despite having a long career in Vaudeville behind Turpin in roles such as a Yukon prospector in Yukon Jake him. (1924) (a role that both Chaplin, 1925, and Keaton, 1922, Born Bernard Turpin in New Orleans on September 19, also found themselves in). 1869, Turpin moved to New York with his parents in 1876. Turpin’s biggest success came when Sennett cast him in When he was seventeen, his father informed him that he parodies of other film stars, most notably in The Sheik of was planning on moving back to New Orleans, but that Ben Araby (1923), in which Turpin parodied Rudolph Valentino. should try his hand in Chicago, and gave Ben $100 in seed Turpin similarly parodied Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Erich von money. Turpin lost the money in a crap game in Jersey City Stroheim, William S. Hart, and more. and hopped a freightcar, living the life of a hobo and filling In 1924, however, Turpin announced his retirement from in the odd jobs with attempts to entertain people, films. His wife, who had lost her hearing in an accident specializing in pratfalls, tumbles, and tricks. According to several years earlier, suffered the first in a series of strokes Turpin, when he was thirty, a box fell on his head, and he decided to spend his time taking care of her. A series permanently crossing his eyes, a condition he later claimed of shrewd investments allowed him the leisure to turn his not only enhanced his comedic value, but which he also back on films, as he had also become a real estate magnate insured for $25,000. Shortly after Turpin married Carrie Le Mieux, he began working at Essanay from 1907 through 1910, making eighteen films before leaving the janitorial job and films behind. His first film, An Awful Skate, or The Hobo on Rollers, has the distinction of being Essanay’s first film. The idea for the film was obvious since Essanay’s original studio at 496 North Wells Street was also the home of the Richardson Roller Skate Company. During that time, he scored a notable first in film history when he starred in 1909’s Mr. Flip. Playing a character who flirts with every woman he meets, he became the first actor to receive a pie in the face on screen.