Wodehouse convention '93! The latest and possibly the happiest gathering of Wodehousians took place on July 30 - August 1, 1993 at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Fran­ cisco. Here's what went on. Acting on the principle that collective guilt will spread the blame thin­ ner, I asked several people to send me their recollections of the convention. They cooperated generously and I mashed the words into a pulp and forced them through a colander. What follows is a sort of haggis made up of contri­ butions from, alphabetically, Charles Bishop, Jan Kaufman, Len Lawson, Jon Lellenberg, Marilyn MacGregor, Toni Rudersdorf, and Elin Woodger, in addition to the Oldest Member. We are joint authors. I found that crediting each author with each (usually brief) contribution made the story unacceptably lumpy even as haggis. So what you will read is a choral blend of voices—a sentence from Jan, a line from Toni, a couple of sentences from Marilyn, and so on, with individual authors rarely men­ tioned. I am grateful to all of them, not only for their facts, but for their spirited impressions of a happy weekend. The first activity of the convention was a sampling of beers at local brew-pubs on Thursday evening, July 29, and our story begins at that point on the next page. Contents Convention '93 1 A few quick ones 13 NEWTS in Remsenburg 10 Want ad 13 It "became him well" 11 Plum Stones 14 Jackets for Jeeves and Wooster 11 New members 15 Two Little Known East Anglian Two Little Known East Authors Compared 12 Anglian Authors Compared 16 P lum L ines Vol 14 No 3 A utumn 1993 1 Thursday evening Friday morning ur brew-pub crawl was led by Sheila his is as good a place as any to discuss McGinn, a non-Wodehousian but Tthe Elevator Question, a matter of con­ neverthelessO lovely Irish lass, who checked tinuing amusement to all of us at the Sir out brew-pubs in San Francisco and made all Francis Drake. Toni said it best: "While the arrangements for our visit. Our group of Sir Francis was indeed a Drake, the elevators fourteen gathered first at the Sir Francis made noises like a Duck with a daffy sense of Drake and cabbed to The San Francisco humour. The bellmen had the grieved faces Brewing Company in North Beach. Sampling of men with secret sorrows; they sighed and of various brews commenced, with people would not be consoled as elevator four trading sips. A little browsing acompanied consistently stopped for reasons unknown the sluicing. and unknowable at the twelveth floor, while From here the group progressed to cleverly erasing all calls to other floors. Gordon Biersch, where dessert seemed to be Elevator three had a bouncing disposition, in order. Oddly enough, a wheat beer while two took long siestas, leaving only garnered some acclaim. A non-Wodehousian, elevator one to quack its way from floor to Corey Bridges, joined us to sample the brew floor. Conversation sprang up among strang­ and fare and company. ers of many nationalities, entirely about We lost some of the east-coasters elevators and voodoo. Voodoo never quite changing pubs. The time shift had claimed seemed to help, somehow." them. The last pub of the evening was 20-Tank dozen of us took the Dashiell Hammet Brewery in the always exciting SoMa (South A tour of San Francisco on Friday morn­ of Market) area, where we collected the ing. Led by Don Herron, a professional crowd who had attended the play "Oh, Lady, Hammett guide, we walked 3 miles up and Lady!" We managed to carry on over the din down some of the steepest hills in San of the music, sipping, tasting, and compar­ Francisco in the midst of a heat wave. (Some ing. of the sidewalks have steps built into them). We returned to the hotel with sunburned eanwhile another group was enjoying a M revival of the 1918 Wodehouse/ Bolton/Kem musical, "Oh Lady! Lady!" at a Information and new memberships downtown theater. Marilyn MacGregor Toni: Twenty of us enjoyed the play and 3215-5 Bermuda Avenue joined the pub crawlers afterwards. The play Davis CA 95616 had us all screaming with laughter and delight. It was so well reviewed on the Dues payments and address changes following day in the San Francisco papers Tom Wainwright that the Sunday matinee performance was 220 Grover Lane sold out, leaving many conventioneers Walnut Creek CA 94596 gnashing their pearly teeth in vexation. Of course, we who had seen it filled them in, Editorial contributions which was no doubt just as satisfactory to Ed Ratcliffe, OM them. 538 San Lorenzo Avenue From a review in the San Francisco Felton CA 95018 Chronicle: "Oh Lady! Lady!" is all innocent fun done with a deadpan air and a musical Dues are $15 per year. flair that retains the show's original style and revives a score that alongside today's Broad­ All quotations from P. G. Wodehouse way shows sounds seventy five times as rich are reprinted by permission of the Copy­ and rarefied as it must have sounded three right Owner, the Trustees of the Wode­ quarters of a century ago." house Estate. 2 Plum Lines Vol 14 No 3 Autumn 1993 necks, throbbing feet, but happy hearts. Len shares of Silver River stock, many Bank of Lawson took a direct shot to the heart at the England five pound notes with the Queen's very spot where Miles Archer was mowed picture on one side and Plum's on the other down by Bridget O'Shaughnessy. (A plaque (provided for a hidden purpose), sheet music marks the spot.) Elin reports that "Len for "Sonny Boy," and The P. G. Wodehouse survived his gunshot wound nicely, although Song Book he wore a rather stunned expression for the Our cocktail bar was open soon after­ rest of the convention. Unless, of course, ward, the crowd gathered, conversation rose that's the way he always looks." to a genial roar, old friends greeted each other, and new friends were enthusiastic. We had hired the pianist from Beefy Friday afternoon Bingham's Oddfellows' Hall, and the stout fellow was willing to play "Sonny Boy" hile most of us were still traveling many times in the course of the evening. We toward San Francisco, or sightseeing, W had no cocoa or backgammon to offer, but or haunting bookstores, it was a time of nearly everybody who is anybody was on preparation for some.Toni unpacked and hand. Seen among the throng was "Mustard" polished up her metal sculptures, destined to Pott, dressed in a checked suit of the same be prizes in The Great PGW-net Contest. color, who managed to relieve many people Shirley Lawson assembled the kits of conven­ of those odd five pound notes, having tion souvenirs. The intrepid Blandings Castle inveigled them into playing Persian Mon- skit participants held a full-dress and techni­ archs. (It is very like Blind Hooky. In fact, if cal rehearsal for 3 hours. The cast presented you can play Blind Hooky...) More than a Dave Smeltzer with a director's chair with few lost their little all to "Mustard." "Director Dave" stenciled on its back, in A number of us gathered round the appreciation of his patience with the rankest piano in one comer of the large mezzanine amateurs anywhere and in admiration of his and let fly with enthusiasm. Neil Midkiff, excellence as a director. Bill Franklin (a.k.a. Helen Murphy, Toni Rudersdorf, and Elin Ronnie Fish) joined the rehearsals and Woodger formed the hard core, with a performance despite a severe flu of the sort number of others drifting by. Neil Midkiff we wouldn't want to describe. took over when the hired hand left, playing and singing with gusto. We had a perfectly y five o'clock conventioneers began wonderful time, some of us singing, some of converging on the Sir Francis Drake B us making strange noises. Hotel, just a block off Union Square in the Elin: Ralston McTodd, cleverly dis­ heart of the city. It was a hot day in a city guised as Seymour Axelrod, quoted poetry at that's proud of its cool summers, and the anyone within earshot. Rosie M. Banks was young doorman who greeted us probably seen gathering material for her next book, wished he could have worn something other insisting all the time she was only Ann than his entertaining version of a Beefeater's Whipple, a simple homebody. The revels uniform. could have gone on for hours and hours, Shirley Lawson had set up the registra­ such was the good time being had by all the tion desk in the mezzanine and as we participants streamed in, she, Christine Dorfii, and Nancy Elin: Games broke out all over the Leone handed us a cornucopia of imaginative place. Don Pollock was conscripted to run and appropriate souvenirs: a tote bag con­ the darts game, and the winners were Steve taining Doug Stow's beautifully designed Roberts in the advanced category and Eliza­ and printed convention program and book beth Hamilton among the beginners. Imag­ marks, a neat little cloisonne lapel pin featur­ ine my surprise to find Charles Bishop ing the Empress, a clever convention poster handing me a carton of eggs and a bunch of showing a number of PGW characters on a spoons and informing me that I was to run cable car, a mug and postcards with the same the egg-and-spoon race. I had failed to picture on them, some quite convincing properly fortify myelf with spiked orange Plum Lines Vol 14 No 3 Autumn 1993 3 juice beforehand, but we Travers can rise to day.