by Gideon Marcus
The Big Show
There are many science fiction conventions in the United States, from New York's Lunacon to Westercon, held in San Diego this year! But the granddaddy of them all is the annual Worldcon, which travels from city to city as various fan groups are able to submit a winning bid to the con's members.
This year, Cleveland won the honor, and so the convention representing the three cities of Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit was appropriately called "Tricon." More than 800 fen (plural of fan, natch) descended upon the Sheraton-Cleveland (the historic "Renaissance") hotel for a long weekend of fun and fannery. Even the best rooms at this ancient hotel were tiny, and several complained of dusty closets. Luckily, we spent little time in our rooms!
As with every Worlcon there were panels and speeches, including one by Harlan Ellison, entertaining as always.
There was an Exhibit Hall…
and an Art Show (the 7th annual, under the supervision of superfan Bjo Trimble)…
Bob Silverberg was inducted into the Knights of St. Fantony:
Gene Roddenberry presented the pilots of the show, Star Trek, to much acclaim:
There was a masquerade judged by Fred and Carol Pohl, with yet more Star Trek-inspired costumage:
But mostly, Worldcon was a venue for fans and pros to rub elbows, drink, shoot the breeze, and play cards.
Leigh Bracket, Lester Del Rey, Bob Silverberg, Isaac Asimov (Fanac photo)
And, of course, the main event was learning which stories, people, and entities won this year's rocket-shaped awards.
At the banquet awards ceremony: Is that the Young Traveler? No! It's Robyn Asimov! (From John Skrtic)
So for those of you who weren't there, here at last are the Hugo results!
Best Novel
A tie between Frank Herbert's Dune and Roger Zelazny's …and Call me Conrad.
Nominees
The Squares of the City by John Brunner [Ballantine, 1965]
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein [IF]
Skylark DuQuesne by E.E. "Doc" Smith [IF]
I'm not surprised the Heinlein didn't win, despite being the best of these titles. A lot of fen refused to vote for it given that it didn't finish until this year. Of course, this means Heinlein's probably lost his chance for this one, which is a shame since it's his best work yet.
I'm happy to see the Zelazny prevented an unalloyed win for the not-really deserving Dune. The Brunner was largely panned by folks whose opinions I respect (e.g. Algis Budrys and Judith Merril). We never even reviewed it at the Journey as we weren't quite certain the subject matter was really SF.
As for the Smith, well, we think that was mostly an honor in memoriam since the Doc passed away last year. The Skylark stories are quite dated, and the newest one was pretty lousy.
Short Fiction
‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison [Galaxy, Dec. 1965]
Nominees
Marque and Reprisal, by Poul Anderson [,F&SF, Feb 1965]
Day of the Great Shout by Philip José Farmer [Worlds of Tomorrow Jan 1965]
Stardock by Fritz Leiber [Fantastic Sep 1965]
The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth by Roger Zelazny [F&SF Mar 1965]
I'm sure Ellison was pleased to take home the rocketship. There's not much to say here; all of these stories got or were nominated for Galactic Stars. Fafhrd and Gray Mouser fans are going to be disappointed Stardock didn't win, I suppose.
Best Dramatic Presentation
No Winner. There weren't even any candidates! Apparently Harlan didn't have the Tricon committee's phone numbers, so he couldn't rattle chains at 3am (to be fair, he has since apologized for his behaviour last year. Now he just needs to apologize for The Oscar…)
Best Professional Magazine
IF Science Fiction ed. Fred Pohl
Nominees
Galaxy ed. by Fred Pohl
Analog Science Fiction and Fact ed. by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Fantastic ed. by Cele Goldsmith
Fantasy and Science Fiction ed. by Avram Davidson and Joseph Ferman
The winner this year comes as quite a surprise to me. Analog still has twice the readership of the next most-read mag. I suppose IF did start Heinlein's serial, so maybe this was a back door way of giving the Hugo to R.A.H. Still, IF finished at the bottom of our rankings last year.
1965 was weird for most mags, though. With Cele Goldsmith and Avram Davidson stepping down, and Pohl coming into his stride, I think everything was a bit in flux.
Best Professional Artist
Frank Frazetta
Nominees
Frank Kelly Freas
Jack Gaughan
Gray Morrow
John Schoenherr
Another big surprise. I can see why Frazetta might be popular, what with his doing the covers for the Tarzan reprints in '64 and working on the Conan covers (the first due out in November of this year). But he hardly did anything last year.
As for Schoenherr finishing below Gaughan and Morrow? That's patently ridiculous. Maybe that's just alphabetical order. I don't have the vote tallies…
Best Fanzine
ERB-dom ed. by Camille Cazedessus, Jr.
Nominees
Yandro ed. by Robert Coulson and Juanita Coulson
Double: Bill ed. by Bill Mallardi
Niekas ed. by Edmund R. Meskys and Felice Rolfe
Zenith Speculation ed. by Peter R. Weston
With the Tarzan and other Edgar Rice Burroughs coming back into print, it makes sense that a Burroughs-specific fanzine would get the nod. Of the other four, I know Yandro and Zenith Speculation, but not the other two. I spend most of my time reading the newszines.
For the fourth year running, our own endeavor did not make the ballot. I blame myself for the oversight. For those reading, Best Fanzine is spelled "G-A-L-A-C-T-I-C J-O-U-R-N-E-Y".
Now that that's settled, I'm sure we'll get more votes next year!
Best All-Time Series
Foundation series, by Isaac Asimov
Nominees
Barsoom series, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Future History series, by Robert A. Heinlein
Lensmen series, by Edward E. Smith
The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
This is a new category. The nomination of Tolkien's series is significant — had not Donald Wollheim published the series in cheap paperback form, the adventures of Frodo and Samwise would be largely unknown. The other nominees are unsurprising, though I was sad that neither Cordwainer Smith's nor Zenna Henderson's series were on the list. If the "Best Series" Hugo continues, Smith could get the nod next year given his untimely death last month at the age of 53.
It is interesting that Asimov ultimately won as it seemed pretty clear the Tricon committee hoped Tolkien would get the nod (they proposed Lord of the Rings as an example from the first). Well, as Harlan knows, you don't always get what you plump for.
So that's that! It was an exhausting but thrilling time. We enjoyed the small part we played in the proceedings, all the wonderful people we met, and we look forward to next year's event in New York!
(And don't forget to tune in September 8 at 8:30 PM (Pacific AND Eastern — two showings) for the world television premier of Star Trek!)
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Some mix up on the captions?
L. Sprague de Camp was World Con Guest of Honor.
Ellison was his usual entertaining self.
Flew up from Houston to Cleveland. Found this to be a very good con. Fine panels and some gorgeous Freas art to be auctioned.
Big surprise was Gene Roddenberry (no one knew who Roddenberry was) showing up with two pilot episodes of Star Trek a new show to premiere September 8.
Everybody was surprised there had been no adult space opera for 10 years on TV or the silver screen, not since Forbidden Planet. This was not Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers space opera this was Astounding-Magazine-Like (or an approximation there of).
Best novel tie between Zelazny and Herbert was interesting.
By the by Roddenberry must have brought that Star Trek costume because the show has not aired yet , no one at the con could have possibly ginned one up.
That's my understanding — there were so many costumes from episodes that haven't aired yet, he must have brought them with him.
I have to say, that short fiction list is impressive. It would be nice, though, if they'd go back to giving Hugos in several categories of short fiction. The way it is now, we're comparing apples and oranges. Actually, that might make Harlan's win all the more impressive, since his story is considerably shorter than the others. But more categories is better.
I'm afraid that IF's win probably isn't down to Heinlein, but a different Best Novel loser: Doc Smith. Month after month, Fred ran letters praising Skylark DuQuesne and the magazine for running it. Don't ask me why, because it's inexplicable. Following it up with Heinlein probably helped, but that was mostly this year.
I was at this one, my first. I don't believe Shatner was there, not only based on my own memories, but also that he doesn't appear in any of Jay Kay Klein's photos from the convention that are posted by the Eaton Collection (over 1,000 from Tricon). One memorable event was the Asimov/Ellison "duet" that was supposed to be an exchange of jokes and japes, but which turned into Harlan's story about a run-in he'd had with Frank Sinatra and Sinatra's bodyguard at a famous Hollywood eatery.
Jerry is right: Roddenberry wasn't at the convention. Those Star Trek-costume wearing people weren't at Tricon, either. (I know: I was there, too. I was 20, and it was my second Worldcon.) The only ST costume was worn by actress Sheree North, who was there with Harlan and Norman Spinrad—and I have the photo to confirm it!
Au contraire, mon frere. I said Shatner wasn't at the convention; Roddenberry was, and was in a number of Jay Kay's photos.
The FANAC photo says he was. All I can do is print what I see!
Indeed Roddenberry was at that con. He introduced the pilot showings. I talked to him in a hotel hallway the next morning.
Fun post. Minor points. The Trek costumes at Tricon weren't "Star Trek-inspired costumage" so much as actual costumes from the show, and Roddenberry himself donned a Romulan costume at one point. The show hadn't premiered yet, after all.
Also, that photo of Shatner…was he actually there? Or has the photo been mistakenly bundled with the Tricon ones?
Thank you for that clarification. We hadn't seen the show yet (obviously) so we didn't know. As for whether or not Shatner was there, all we know is what Fanac tells us!
My recollection is that Gene Roddenberry attended, but none of the actors. (I think the women who wore the costumes were models but not actors – but I could be wrong about that.)
The latest Yandro suggests that you're correct (models, not actors).