The 70s were just warming up. Local cons were as thick as flies after the fannish buck. Doug Wright was cranking up his Hollywood Film Expos and beginning his "Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy" Conventions.
In a mere three years, the Doug Wright cons would be keel hauling fandom and causing a rift between conmeisters, dealers and attendees that is still in evidence today. Ohhh, the sleepy days of pulp driven cons inhabited by desolute alcoholics and driven by sexual innuendo would be gone forever. Begun by Equicon and going where no fan had gone before: The mainstream, the crossover and forever skewering Rick Sneary's cogent observation: "It is a proud and lonely thing to be a fan".
THOSE STINKIN' BATCHES
Turns out you really do gotta show your stinkin' batches to somebody.
'Indeed, as every convention strove for its own identity (and to keep expenses down), there was an evolution in the name tag. Sure, I remember back at Worldcon in '68, for $5 extra you could get your name lettered on an oh so cool piece of refractive plastic. Everyone I knew paid for one, no one I knew (including myself) actually got the goods. The elderly among you may remember receiving a convention membership card along with your badge in a utilitarian plastic holder with a pin on the back. Then some radical free thinkers forgot the holder altogether and tried an adhesive badge. Nope didn't work. Inevitably cost saving measures switched to the practical yet elegant wristband.
Fabric adhesive badges>
Westercon 29 in 1976 for example had a membership badge printed in blue ink plus an extravagant membership card in red. Some might shout: "Overkill" and rightly so but somewhere in the future waits alligator clips, lanyards, bidding party stickers and ribbons. Thus, badges would reinvent themselves, not only as a means of identification, but display areas for socializing trophies and boredom endured.
As con-membership and guest lists grew (particularly the media cons), membership prices skyrocketed from the fan friendly $5 to $25 and up. Economical and utilitarian, wristbands> may be devoid of personality, but pay, get band = done saved not only time and manpower and with the growing use of copy machines, was eminently harder to duplicate. Today, they remain de rigueur at larger fan events.
OTHER STUFF
One place you didn't have to worry about your badge was "The Count Dracula Society" which was quickly being overshadowed by the increasingly popular and more socially acceptable "Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films". Magazine article on the Dracula Society Award Banquet with pics .
OK, I like to baking cakes. May not be any good at it, but it's good therapy. I was planning on having a screening of Metropolis at the apartment and thought I'd make a quick Robo-Cake to spice things up. Later that day, David Del Valle showed up and suggested, instead, we give it to Forry Ackerman. That gave us an excuse to visit the Ackermonster in his natural element and to spend the day eating cake.
Forry Finally Gets to Eat Maria!
Gayna & Dracula Statuette
A Malibu Day Trip
THROUGH TIME & SPACE WITH BOB BURNS
It's hard to think during George Pal's long and glorious career he only directed 5 feature films and certainly The Time Machine being most successful at lingering in the minds of fans everywhere. Since the soon to collapse Martinel Company purchased the Time Machine prop at the MGM auction in 1970, the machine had remained as elusive as Elvis Presley and the fact we hadn't seen the two of them together leads one to speculate.
But here we were in 1976; Bob Burns finally takes possession of this Holy Grail of movie props. In a tragic state to be sure, but Bob's Impossible Mission team finds nothing truly impossible. So everyone set about their various duties to return the machine to its former glory. My job was endlessly sanding one thing or another and relished the relief of joining Tom on trips to the lumber yard for more set making material.
Another Bob Burns Halloween Extravaganza was on the way! Outside of my playing a Morlock, I'll leave the details to a more interesting video source to be found HERE.
In the meantime, here's some fun pics:
Paula Christ assists me into official Morlock drag
Clash of the Time Machines with me and David Gerrold
Cast and crew with George Pal as the Time Traveler
With the Master of Morlocks, George Pal
It was the 18th issue of Starlog that chronicled the entire Bob Burns Halloween saga. Alas, this was my last show and the last time I saw the Time Machine.
But if you're a Time Machine fan, you'll love Time Machine: The Journey Back. It's now on Amazon Video on Demand: $2 to watch, $12 to own and available HERE.
