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Conventions/Performances

[September 4, 1968] Open your Golden Gate (Baycon: Worldcon 1968)

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by Gideon Marcus

Goodness, what a show!

After eight days of the GOP and then the Democratic conventions, it was sure nice to go to a place where everyone was normal…at least, per our definition of normal.


Baycon program.  From Fanac

Worldcon exploded in attendance last year, in part thanks to the influence of Star Trek, and it shows no sign of fading.  Nearly 1500 people came to the Claremont Hotel in placid, undramatic Berkeley, California for a weekend of fan interaction.

Just lookit all the faces!


From Calisphere


Anne McCaffrey, Leigh Brackett, Blanche Williamson, Edmond Hamilton, Jack Williamson.  From Fanac

There was an auction: Philip José Farmer got $210 for his Esperanto translation of Tarzan of the Apes while Kelly Freas got $160 for his painting, "The Royal Road"—the second highest art price in Worldcon history.

Also, Harlan Ellison auctioned David Gerrold, the newcomer who wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles"


From Fanac

Harlan was, in turn, auctioned by Bob Silverberg.


From Fanac

The Masquerade Ball was a tremendous success.  Here's a sampling of costumes:


Best SF: Bruce Pelz as Heavy Trooper from The Dragon Masters From Fanac


Most Beautiful: Lin Carter as Elric From Fanac


Most Humorous: Cory Seidman as a bottle of Cor(rection) Flu(id).  From Fanac

Contemporaneous with the Baycon was a Medieval event held by the Society for Creative Anachronism.  This Bay Area organization has a lot of cross-over with the science fiction community, with a lot of fen sporting Middle Ages alter egos.


from Calisphere

Aiding the…otherworldly attitude of the convention was the infusion of mind-altering substances.  While at Nycon, there was some partaking of grass, Baycon marked the arrival of magic little pills from Los Angeles sold at 50¢ a pop.  Everyone was trying them, including Philip K. Dick.  Supposedly, they were filled with THC—turns out it was actually PCP!  This tidbit courtesy of Ted White.


I think Dick has had enough.  From Calisphere

But, of course, the main event was the Fanquet, and the Hugo Awards handed out therein.  Let's take a look:

Best Novel

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny [Doubleday (and F&SF)]

Nominees

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany [Ace]
Chthon by Piers Anthony [Ballantine]
The Butterfly Kid by Chester Anderson [Pyramid]
Thorns by Robert Silverberg [Ballantine]

I'm not sorry Lord got the top spot, though reviews have been more mixed of Zelazny's work than of Delany's.  As for the others, Thorns was a bit too unpleasant for me, though Vic Silverwolf liked it, The Butterfly Kid was fine…as a bit of Greenwich Village fanfiction, and the less said about Chthon, the better.

This is one of the worst years for alignment between The Galactic Stars and the Hugos.  Let's hope future history looks to us for guidance rather than Worldcon voters.

Best Novella

Co-Winner: “Riders of the Purple Wage ” by Philip José Farmer [Dangerous Visions]

Co-Winner: “Weyr Search” by Anne McCaffrey [Analog]

Nominees

“Damnation Alley” by Roger Zelazny [Galaxy]
“The Star Pit” by Samuel R. Delany [Worlds of Tomorrow]
“Hawksbill Station ” by Robert Silverberg [Galaxy]

Here, we end up in much closer alignment between Stars and Hugos. I am quite surprised that "Damnation" ended up here; I can only assume Zelazy has knee-jerk support from his fans.  Also, "Purple Wage", while Victoria Silverwolf loved it, she did not love it enough to nominate it for the Star…and neither did anyone else.

C'est la Gernsback.

Best Novelette

“Gonna Roll the Bones” by Fritz Leiber [Dangerous Visions]


Leiber accepting his award.  From Fanac

Nominees

“Wizard’s World” by Andre Norton [If Jun 1967]
“Faith of Our Fathers” by Philip K. Dick [Dangerous Visions, 1967]
“Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes” by Harlan Ellison [Knight May 1967]

What a divergence here!  Only Leiber made the Stars list (and there was debate behind the scenes on that one), although the Dick made it as an Honorable Mention.  Still, it's nice to see Norton on the ballot, even if that's not the work I would have chosen as her best from 1967 (Moon of Three Rings)

Short Fiction

Winner: “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison [If]

Nominees

“The Jigsaw Man” by Larry Niven [Dangerous Visions]
“Aye, and Gomorrah" by Samuel R. Delany [Dangerous Visions]

Last year, we had, what?  Seven entries to choose from?  Only having three short story nominees (for comparison, the Stars had thirteen just in the Novelet category) really does the field a disservice.

As for the choices, well, Harlan's story is certainly memorable, and we've no complaints about the Gomorrah.  There's nothing wrong with "The Jigsaw Man", but it's not one of the best stories of 1967.  Indeed, per Larry, it wasn't even a final draft.  He wanted to polish it before sending it on to a magazine, but Harlan, soliciting stories for Dangerous Visions, said he'd liked it raw.

If there's one thing the Hugos show, though, it's that Ellison has an outsized influence on the Hugo nominators.  Nearly half of the sub-novel nominees came from DV, and two more pieces were penned by the man (and see below…).

"Harlan's ego grew three sizes that day…"

Best Dramatic Presentation

Winner: Star Trek – “The City on the Edge of Forever” [Desilu] Directed by Joseph Pevney; Written (sort of) by Harlan Ellison

Nominees

Star Trek – “The Trouble with Tribbles” [Desilu] Directed by Joseph Pevney; Written by David Gerrold

Star Trek – “Mirror, Mirror” [Desilu] Directed by Marc Daniels; Written by Jerome Bixby

Star Trek – “The Doomsday Machine” [Desilu] Directed by Marc Daniels; Written by Norman Spinrad

Star Trek – “Amok Time” [Desilu] Directed by Joseph Pevney; Written by Theodore Sturgeon

Talk about outsized influence!  Last year, there was a lot of worry in the community that Trek wouldn't win since there were five nominees, three of which were Trek episodes.  The concern was that the Trek vote would get split such that Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea or Fahrenheit 451 would win.

No such trouble this year!  City would not have been my top choice, however.  It wasn't even in the top five for me.  I'd have picked Doomsday Machine as it is both stellarly SFnal and quite good.  Mirror, Mirror is even better, but it requires a knowledge of Trek to fully appreciate, whereas Spinrad's script does not.

I do appreciate all the big SF names in this line-up.  Trek really is our show.

Best Professional Magazine

Winner: IF Science Fiction ed. Fred Pohl

Nominees

Analog Science Fiction and Fact ed. by John W. Campbell, Jr.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ed. by Edward L. Ferman
Galaxy ed. by Fred Pohl
New Worlds ed. by Michael Moorcock

This is, with the exception of the addition of F&SF, an exact duplicate of last year's slate.  IF seems to be floating on inertia since last year marked the beginning of its decline.  On the other hand, 1967 was a pretty middlin' year for mags anyway, so I suppose any pick is a fair one.

I'm just glad Amazing didn't make the cut…

Best Professional Artist

Winner: Jack Gaughan

Nominees

Frank Kelly Freas
Chesley Bonestell
Frank Frazetta
Gray Morrow
John Schoenherr

I'm not sure why Jack won–he's not bad, but he's easily my least favorite of this group (Schoenherr is my favorite, but Freas, being #2, tries harder–there are whole issues of Analog that only have his art in them!)

Frazetta does't do magazines, but he does do a lot of high profile book covers.  Gray Morrow's work is always consistent, always pretty good.  I'm surprised not to see Virgil Finlay here, but I suppose his comeback didn't start until later last year.

Best Fanzine

Winner: Amra ed. by George H. Scithers

Nominees

Australian Science Fiction Review ed. by John Bangsund
Lighthouse ed. by Terry Carr
Yandro ed. by Robert Coulson and Juanita Coulson
Odd ed. by Raymond D. Fisher
Psychotic ed. by Richard E. Geis

Sadly, Lighthouse is no more (though its final issue had an hysterical piece by Ellison, the last word in Adam & Eve stories).  Yandro remains consistent, and a good source of Trek news.  I like ASFR when I can get a copy.

Offhand, I'm not familiar with the rest.  I do note the conspicuous absence of Galactic Journey…again!

Best Fan Writer


From Calisphere

Winner: Ted White

Nominees

Ruth Berman
Harry Warner, Jr

I'm quite excited about this list.  Ted, of course, is a polarizing figure, but he's never boring.  He is also quite friendly to fellow fen, even if he is now also a "filthy pro", and we have had a long and enjoyable correspondence for years.

Ruth Berman, of course, is both a superfan AND a big Trek booster.  She practically wrote Inside Star Trek.  We became acquainted this year, and she is a delight.

Harry Warner has been around since the dawn of time, and I always look forward to his FAPA (Fantasy Amateur Press Association, natch) contribution (Horizon).  He lives in Hagerstown, not far from my mother-in-law.  I should visit him someday…

Best Fan Artist

Winner: George Barr

Nominees

Bjo Trimble
Johnny Chambers
Steve Stiles
Arthur “ATom” Thomson

Barr, in addition to being a prolific cover artist, does the comic "Broken Sword", which appears in the fanzine, Trumpet.  I've seen Trimble's art in various zines, clean and cute lineart.  Johnny Chambers does the 'zine Ymir, Steve Stiles' work appeared in Cry of the Nameless (which just got revived!), and you probably know UK artist ATom from Hyphen.

Where next?

One of the most important items of business at any Worldcon is the determination of where the next Worldcon will be held.  The one bid I'd heard advanced as an alternative to St. Louis was Columbus, Ohio.  In the end, St. Louis trounced Columbus 393 to 5 (with a few votes going to such places as Tel Aviv, Leningrad, and Deer Knuckles, British Columbia, etc.—maybe year after next).

Incidentally, it was also decided that Worldcons would happen overseas every fifth year.  For those waiting eagerly for a West Berlin convention (unless you want Berlin, Maryland), it'll be a while.

Anyway, we already have a Guest of Honor for '69: artist Jack Gaughan.  Fan Guest of Honor will be Ted White.  Two fan/pros.  Interesting.

Hope to see you there, but if you can't make it, remember that a supporting membership is just $2 (enjoy it while you can—they're gonna vote to raise it to an outrageous $3 next year…)


From Fanac




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Conventions/Performances, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[August 10, 1968] First Trans-Oceanic Fan Fund Brings Fandom Together

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by Alison Scott

One of the most interesting features of Science Fiction fandom is the presence of 'fan funds', which aim to reduce the monumental differences between science fiction fans around the world by raising monies to help a fan from one part of the world to visit another. You may already be familiar with the Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund, known as TAFF. This is by far the biggest of the funds, in that rather than being an individual fund-raising effort, TAFF happens every year. It started off as a one-off fund to send the Northern Irish fan Walt Willis to America in 1952, but the idea seemed a good one, and now TAFF sends fans both ways in alternate years. The artist Steve Stiles came to this year’s Eastercon, British National Convention, as the TAFF delegate.

As well as TAFF, though, there have been occasional one-off funds to help people cross the Atlantic. Before TAFF, Ted Carnell travelled to attend the 1949 World convention, and since then there have been other one off-funds, like the one to take John Berry to the 1959 Worldcon and to take Ella Parker to the 1961 Worldcon. But these trips have all been to take people from Europe to America and vice versa.

TAFF winners, and some other fan fund recipients, often write trip reports about their activities. These can be sold to raise money for the fund, but are also a great source of information about local fan groups and their members, for other people considering travelling or who are just curious. The first of these was Walt Willis's magnificent report The Harp Stateside, but there have been several others. Not all fund recipients have completed their reports, often citing exhaustion or penury following their trip, but nevertheless the reports that have been produced are fascinating.

This year, however, will see the first ever Trans-Oceanic Fan Fund trip. This year’s Worldcon will be Baycon, at the end of this month, in Oakland, California. Baycon won the site selection comfortably at NYCon III last year, against the alternative bid, Pan-Pacificon. Although Pan-Pacificon was unsuccessful, it was an interesting bid. It aimed to hold the World SF convention in three locations at once – Los Angeles, Sydney and Tokyo, with a system of taped speeches and other international exchanges. As part of this, John and Bjo Trimble, who were on the con committee, launched the Trans-Oceanic Fan Fund, or TOFF, with the intention of bringing over the Japanese fan Takumi Shibano, and they started soliciting donations.

TOFF organiser Bjo Trimble speaking on a panel item while wearing a
Bjo Trimble, pictured at NYCon III wearing a Maneki-Neko badge (photo Jay Jay Klein)

The choice of Takumi Shibano has been questioned by some. Why support the travel of a fan that few of us are familiar with? But it turns out that Mr Shibano is by far the most prominent fan in Japan. He has been producing his fanzine, Uchūjin, (“Cosmic Dust”) since 1957. He was instrumental in starting national conventions in Japan; there have been several of these, both in Tokyo and elsewhere. It’s a measure of Shibano’s critical role as the primary mover and shaker in Japanese science fiction fandom that once his trip to the USA was announced, the other Tokyo fans wanted to move the national convention to a time when he would be there to run it.

I am very lucky in that Ella Parker showed me her copy of the first English edition of Uchūjin. I do not know if there have been any more in English. This is from September 1962. It contains a report of the national convention in 1962, and a detailed bibliography of Western SF translated into Japanese. Shibano explains, somewhat apologetically, that he had to put fiction into Japanese fanzines because there was no professional SF magazine in Japan at the time, and several short stories are reprinted here. I understand that since then he has been quite successful in helping Japanese science fiction publishers find and publish Japanese-written stories. Mr Shibano founded the Federation of SF Fan Groups of Japan and is serving as its chair. He is truly Japan’s #1 Fan Face.

So I think it is not too hard to accept that Mr Shibano is a great choice for a fund, though for British fans like myself, there is a question about whether we could reasonably be expected to donate to a fund that takes someone from many thousands of miles away from us, halfway round the world to somewhere else thousands of miles from us. However, it seems that US fans were also only somewhat enthusiastic about donating to the fund. A trip of this kind was inevitably quite expensive and although Mr Shibano was well known and well respected in Japan, SF fans elsewhere in the world didn’t really recognise the name. I am sure this reflects the language barrier, although I understand that Mr Shibano’s English is excellent. John and Bjo made a fanzine to sell, Maneki-neko, as a fund-raiser, but discovered that the amount of money you can raise from fanzine sales is quite limited. Maneki-neko includes detailed articles about the history of Japanese SF fandom; well worth getting your hands on a copy!

A fanzine cover featuring a three colour hecto illustration of a Japanese maneki-neko - good luck cat.

At any rate, although they had raised half their hoped-for funds by the start of NYCon, the Trimbles had decided to additionally extend the invitation to Mr Shibano’s wife, Sachiko, so the amount required had doubled. They had brought material for auction, but the fund-raising auction was scheduled for midnight! However, help was at hand. The Trimbles had become friendly with Gene Roddenberry, the producer of the television show Star Trek. Indeed, part of the funds already raised were from a successful auction and raffle at Westercon. Bjo Trimble had even managed to sell raffle tickets to James Doohan, who only afterwards learnt that the star prize was some of the sweaty Spock ears that were apparently available in quantity on set.

Nevertheless, when Roddenberry learnt that they were still struggling to raise the funds needed for the trip, he sent several large boxes of unique Star Trek artefacts from the show for auction at NYCon, including some of the Tribbles from “A Trouble with Tribbles”, which had not yet aired at the time, a script for that episode, and costumes and props from the show. The material was so exciting that many fans showed up to buy these rarities and all the money needed for Takumi Shibano and his wife Sachiko was raised at the convention. So the Shibanos will be at Baycon!

Did you buy one of Captain Kirk's tribbles at NYCon III? Let us know!

Shibano has also suggested that it might be possible to hold the Worldcon in Japan one day. Wouldn’t that be a marvellous thing! We are of course hoping that the Germans are successful in their bid for a convention in Heidelberg, which would be the first Worldcon in a non-English speaking country and moreover, the first non-UK Worldcon that I have a reasonable chance of attending, as a trip to America is way beyond my limited means at present.

Nevertheless, I know that many of the Journey readers and fellow-travellers will be doing their utmost to make sure they are at Baycon. If you are one of those, do please take the opportunity to meet Mr and Mrs Shibano and learn more about their fascinating parallel lives in science fiction. I understand that they both speak very good English, though are rather bashful about it.

I hope this will be the first of many Trans-Oceanic Fan Funds. Imagine if, one day, the possibility of fan funds from all parts of the world was a normal and routine part of science fiction fandom, so that every year we could meet people from around the globe?



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