A HAPPY 1961 TO ALL FANS EVERYWHERE!
SCIENCE FICTION CLUB of LONDON held its
Xmas party Sunday 18th., at the home of Ella and
Fred Parker. Bruce Burn brought along a gift laden
Xmas tree. George Locke got a whacking great
chisel labelled ‘staple remover’, Brian Burgess
went to sleep after imbibing large orange juice.
Bill Temple was given instruction on how to use an
electric Gestetner and the evening was rounded off
by a lift home on Bruce’s scooter. Food and drink
were plentiful and turkey was the main dish of the
evening. Present were Ted Tubb, Pam & Ken
Bulmer, Sid Bounds, Bill Temple, Bruce Burn, Ted
Forsyth, Joe Patrizio, Jim Groves, George Locke,
Ethel Lindsay, Ken & Irene Potter, Brian
Burgess, Don Geldart. ...(EAP)
CHANGE OF ADDRESS Michael Evans, 76 Romney Dr.,
N.Harrow, Mdx.
EX-LEADING LIGHTS OF BRITISH FANDOM, Joy
& Sandy Sanderson say tht they’re withdrawing
from active fandom for 6-8 months because of
mundane commitments. They are soon to move into
their own apartment and Sandy is starting a
4-nights a week school course. Ape material which
would date is being returned to authors.
Resumption of publication intended for later in
year. ...(HPS)
BRIAN JORDAN (86 Piccadilly Rd, Burnley, Lancs)
wishes to contact a member of SFBC who doesn’t
wish to use the chance of taking the Dec bonus Lord
of the Rings. *** BSFA NEWSLETTER 5 is out, a neat
job from Jim Groves. *** Thanks, Betty Kujawa, for
Cinerama card from Pompano Beach, Florida. ***
South African Ellis Fasser due in this country
shortly.
TAFF The1961/62 Transatlantic Fan Fund is getting
nice and ready to collect money to bring over an
American fan to the 1962 British Convention.
Whilst nominations closed at the end of last
month, voting forms will not be ready until early
in the new year. As far as is known here there are
only two candidates, Dick Eney and Ron Ellik
(SKYRACK and Harrogate fandom supports Ellik),
which will probably mean that there will be one
place only to fill in on the voting form, We’ll
see next month, no doubt. Meanwhile, 1960 TAFF
delegate to the PittCon, Eric Bentcliffe, is
pressing on with publishing his trip report,
EPITAFF. Pre-publication orders from Eric at 47
Alldis St., Great Moor, Stockport, Cheshire @ 7/-.
or $1. Another report in preparation is my own
COLONIAL EXCURSION. All text is now on stencil and
several sheets have been run off. Art work will be
by Arthur Thomson and there should be, if plans
work out, two colour Gestetner duplicating and
photos scattered around the place. Indeed had
Kodak not taken over 6 weeks in turning colour
slides into b&w negatives, the report would now
be ready. Pre-publication price remains @ 5/- or
75cents (US orders to Bob Pavlat).
THE 1961 LXICON will take place over Easter
weekend at the New County Hotel, Southgate Street,
Gloucester. This is the West Country’s first
convention and the Cheltenham fans hope that
you’ll attend. I’ve already sent my booking....how
about you out there, hmm? Bob Parkinson ( 52 Mead
Rd, Cheltenham, Glos.) announces that the last date
for copy for the programme booklet adverts is 31st
January, so if you’re intending to advertise your
wares or/and greetings, get cracking on those
adverts NOW! Advertising rates are as follows:
Full page (10” x 8”) 10/-, Full page cut on own
stencil 7/6d, Full page, photostencilled 25/-,
Half page 5/-, Half page photostencilled l5/-,
Quarter page booster ads 2/6d. Keith Freeman asks
that when filling in your application form you
might indicate whether you’re willing to share a
room. Costs will be the same, but more fans will
be able to put up in the New County (Three other
hotels have been provisionally booked to take the
overflow of fans expected). Keith, who has
recently been promoted to the rank of sergeant
adds sorrowfully that he regrets there are no
female films stars available. And just to round
things off, Eric Jones sends a reminder that
whilst Keith’s address for convention items is 44
Barbridge Rd., Hesters Way, Cheltenham, Glos (and
applications for rooms must be sent to Keith
there), other mail for Keith should be sent to him
at his RAF posting. Note that Keith’s promotion
means that his address is ncw 4l87447 Sgt. Freeman
K., Sgts Mess, RAF Upavon, Pewsey, Wilts.
ERIC JONES also slipped in a couple of items to
keep us up with the comings and goings of the St.
Fantony home group. “This winter will be a warmer
one for Cheltenham members,” Eric writes,”who have
until recently been forced to wear overcoats and
blankets.” A kindly G.I. sold a Sears Roebuck Oil
Burning Heater before he returned home to the
States. Heat now supplied to the tune of 250,000
B.T.U (American rating) (Thinks: A.T.U.?). The
CSFC recently had a second outing to Stratford’s
Shakespeare Memorial Theatre to see “The Taming of
the Shrew.”.
ELDRITCH DREAMQUEST 1 (Nov 60 ; Peter Mansfield,
14 Whiteford Rd., Slough, Bucks.; 1/- ; 5/- or $1
for 5) I’m somewhat in doubt as to why Peter is
charging Stateside fen a buck for 5 issues. This
is DREAMQUEST with a new title and a new policy.
Jim Cawthorn has a cover here and Roy Morgans and
Mike Thompson contribute some good straight
artwork. Doc Weir writes on Tolkein, Peter writes
on Dunsany and Mike Moorcock contributes a short
story. If you’re interested in Dunsany, Tolkein or
the Conan branch of fantasy, this British AMRA is
obviously for you.
LES SPINGE 4 (Ken Cheslin, 18 New Farm Rd.,
Stourbridge, Worcs; 1/;40pp). In this latest
offering from the Stourbridge group’s one man
show, Doc Weir sets a Jeeves story in Harrogate and
Kettering, Rory Faulkner writes on the Mt. Wilson
Observatory, Dick Schultz rambles on about
Timoshenko, Jhim Linwood reviews fanzines and
various readers write letters. This is not vintage
Cheslin, who is virtually absent from the issue
but the overall atmosphere of wild. abandon is
refreshing.
ORION 26 (Ella A Parker, 151 Canterbury Rd., West
Kilburn, London NW 6; 1/; 81pp) is the best of the
British bunch to roll along this month, with its
excellent balance of fine reporting and worthwhile
reading. Layout and duplicating are of the usual
high standard, much credit for which is obviously
due to Arthur Thomson who produced the headings
and the cover for the letter supplement (ORION is
getting so bulky these days that Ella wears out
her staplers and so issues the letters as a
special supplement). The magazine cover is by Joe
Patrizio, a very worthy first time effort. The
zine kicks off with a lengthy Parker editorial,
the best piece of writing yet seen from Ella, and
one which is faithfull in word and spirit to the
wild and wonderful fannish summer I experienced in
London this year. Here are 12 pages of meaty
material no fan should be without. Thrown in as
bonus material are an article on ants by Jim
Groves, a short piece on children by Rory
Faulkner, the so far best and most analytical of
Ken Bulmer’s TAFF Tales, pages of fnz reviews by
Arthur Thomson (who combines sense with a light
touch), yet another highly readable Sergeant saga
from John Berry, the first part of Andy Young’s
European Pumble account, a piece on creative
writing by Harry Warner, instruction on how to
draw curly monsters from Atom, a lovely peice of
reporting by Fred Hunter (O's man on the spot) and
a column by Sid Birchby. There are millions of
letters and needless to say, praise for the zine
is virtually boundless. Highest recommendation.
Whilst recommending fanzines, there have been two
worthwhile zines in from the States during the
past month, namely DAFOE (John Koning, Pardee Hall,
Box 555, Case Institute of Technology, 10904
Euclid Avenue, Cleveland 6, Ohio, USA) which is
worth getting hold of for its humorous pokes at
life as we knew it (before reading DAFOE). DAFOE,
incidentally, stands for The Decline and Fall of
Everything. And HABAKKUK (Bill Donaho, 1441 8th
St., Berkeley 10, California, USA) which runs out
at 50cents a copy and is well worth the expense
reaching to 115 pages, the thickest fanzine for
years. HABAKKUK also knocks life, but is a little
more serious in tone than DAFOE. 115 pages! Gee!
I am still chasing photos taken during my
1958 TAFF trip to the USA. Some of these would fit
nicely into the COLONIAL EXCURSION report. I’ve
twice written to one west coast fan who took
photos at the SolaCon, but haven’t had a word from
him. Anyone else got pictures of Matheson and
Donaho at the SolaCon in particular?
I (and one or two other fans) loved that piece
about SKYRACK in a recent issue of Terry and Miri
Carr’s FANAC. Terry writes, "Bennett claims his
zine is better than FANAC, but admits that he
doesn’t opinionate on the news he prints.”. Well,
I’ll break a long standing habit this time and try
to explain that there is no “but” about it. That
refusal to opinionate, Terry, (he says, flicking
the ash from his his cigar) is precisely why SKY
is better than FANAC. You dig?
I AIM AT THE STARS, with Curt Jurgens playing von
Braun, hasn’t gone down too well. One paper’s
review ran, ”The wartime purveyor of mass death
becomes leader of America’s peacetime space
programme - to an accompaniment of a few tut-tuts
and forgiving cheers. Romance and palm court music
complete the atmosphere of phoniness.” Pity old
Errol Flynn wasn’t still with us when it was made.
NORMAN SHORROCK spent a week a month ago with Ella
and Fred Parker while down in London on business.
Each evening, Norman and Ella went off visiting
fans or seeing Cinerama or the like, and every
evening the Ferndale Road boys paid a surprise
visit. It was the Friday before they eventually
got to see Norman. Incidentally, there are two
tangential items leading from this. Bruce Burn has
now moved in with Ted Forsyth and Joe Patrizio at
11 Ferndale Rd., London SW 4. And it’s noted with
pleasure that Norman is now no longer the only fan
who gives away stamps with his wares; the Nov. FAPA
mailing sent its British members a copy each of
the 1957 46th Parliamentary Conference stamp. |