Comments | robinbailey: EXCAVATIONS

robinbailey

EXCAVATIONS - Sou-Westercon, 1952

Jun 02, 2011 20:15

This evening, I've been exploring the contents of one of the boxes of material left to me by Bob Tucker, and I came across a plain brown envelope of mysterious nature. Flipping it over, I discovered a handwritten address to Bob Tucker at Box 702, Bloomington, Illinois. No zip code in those days, of course. A stamped return address in the upper ( Read more... )

conventions, sou-westercon, excavations, fandom, westercon, science fiction

Comments 13

jwjohnson June 3 2011, 04:26:41 UTC

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing!

robinbailey June 3 2011, 04:35:31 UTC

You're welcome! I'm happy to finally be able to share some of this material. And I wonder if Roger C. Nelson, the chairman of this convention is still with us. According to another site (lightcloud, dedicated to Ray Bradbury), he was posting as of 2003, but I can't find anything of him since. Or for that matter, I wonder what became of Tom Gould. I really his his cover art here.

Best,
Robin

robinbailey June 3 2011, 16:40:49 UTC

Glad to have you on board, jwjohnson!

farrandy June 3 2011, 15:20:15 UTC

Enjoying the excavations very much. Looking forward to future digs.

robinbailey June 3 2011, 16:39:50 UTC

Hi, Randy! It will be a couple of days befored I post another. It's turning into a busy weekend. I assume you're going down to SoonerCon and hope you have a great time.

farrandy June 5 2011, 17:23:38 UTC

Unfortunately, no, we're not at SoonerCon this weekend. We were planning on going, but on April 22, I went into the hospital for back surgery for a ruptured disc. I'm recovering now and doing okay but I am still on medical leave from work, which means that we're short on income right now, so we had to forgo SoonerCon this year. I'm just now getting to the point where I can think about working on artwork; for a long time I couldn't sit very long in one place and all of the drugs I was taking just sapped all of my energy--but I know I don't need to tell -YOU- about that.

Anyway, getting better all the time. Our next con will likely be FenCon in Dallas (and hopefully I'll have a lot of new art done by then).

robinbailey June 6 2011, 05:45:57 UTC

Whoa, sorry to hear about the surgery, but hope the repair work is all successful. Look forward to seeing new artwork.

meowwl June 3 2011, 18:08:39 UTC

These are MADE of awesome! I love stuff like this!

(The comment has been removed)

farrandy June 5 2011, 17:29:28 UTC

Yeah, I can appreciate that, having put together several program books back in the day (before computers, when "Cut and Paste" literally meant CUT AND PASTE).

Oddly enough anonymous October 1 2012, 05:11:25 UTC

Tom Whitmore here. Fun stuff!

I just ran across the same two items in a box of older fanzines. Also included is a Westercon program book from Westercon 3, two year earlier, held in LA (though no actual location is given). That one was one day. While I can scan the cover for you (it's not very clear mimeo on green twiltone cardstock, so it's not going to be clear if I do!), scanning the inside would be difficult without damaging it. The program that year was only one day, however; it also featured Bradbury reading one of his stories (unpublished but unnamed); something titled "Who Goes There?" by Jean Cox; a speech by van Vogt; an auction, a round table, and a few speeches by various committee members. And other stuff. The program appears nowhere near as professional as the one two years later.

There's also progress reports from the Pacificon II (1963/4) and SolaCon (1958 combined Worldcon and Westercon). Those would hold up better, but have probably been reproduced by Joe Siclari.

Re: Oddly enough robinbailey October 1 2012, 06:19:48 UTC

Hi, Tom! Nice to know these older items have been preserved and can be made accessible. I think I also have the Pacificon II and SolaCon reports. Not sure about the Westercon 3 program card you mention.