EARLY COSPLAY: 1960s and 1970s | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
At the 1960 Eastercon (UK National Convention), held that year in London,
preparation had clearly gone into some costumes while other were pretty
ad hoc. Importantly, since everyone is on a stage in this photo this
would appear to be the first non-Worldcon UK convention at which the Fancy
Dress was an actual event rather than part of a party:
Then there was the 1960 Worldcon, photos by James O'Meara from Earl Kemp albums:
At the 1961 Eastercon there was a joust, hence the medieval costumes, that involved enthusiastic swordfights using wooden swords but with no quarter given. Surprisingly, few serious injuries resulted from this:
Pro authors were happy to join in at this point, too, as witness these two photos taken at the 1962 Worldcon (photographer unknown):
At the 1963 Eastercon - held that year in Peterborough - they decided to take the fancy dress out onto the streets to the evident bemusement of the locals. That's Charles Partington in the striped costume, others unknown. All photos are by Terry Jeeves:
In 1965 the Worldcon came to London for the second time. Photos by Peter Mabey:
Here's a link to a gallery of more Masquerade photos on the part of this site devoted to the 1965 Worldcon:
One development as cosplay progressed was the making of ever more accurate copies of the costumes worn by characters from TV and movies, or depicted in comic books. Fans of the original series of Star Trek had long managed to produce these, but then those uniforms were fairly simple and easy to copy. When it came to more involved costumes it took a while to get to the point where these were almost always accurate copies. Before this things could be a little more hit and miss, not least because while some took their costuming seriously it was still just a bit of fun for others. Take, for example, these worn for the fancy dress at the 1977 Eastercon - Beth Hallam as Supergirl, Jackie Wright(?) as Wonder Woman, and Helen McCarthy as Valkyrie (photos by Lars Olov-Strandberg):
Oddly, Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser *did* actually meet one of these superheroes in the pages of a comic book, as witness the middle image in the triptych of covers above. This was during Wonder Woman's depowered 'Emma Peel' period and, surprisingly, the story was scripted by SF writer Samuel R. Delany. Helen McCarthy - a leading candidate for UK queen of cosplay during the mid 1970s - did not confine her costuming to conventions. Here she is at a party celebrating her birthday in 1976 cosplaying Red Sonja (photo from her collection):
As for book covers, this photo from the 1979 Worldcon in Brighton, England, shows a friend in costume as Avluela from Robert Silverberg's NIGHTWINGS, specifically the image of Avluela on the cover of the contemporary UK edition, also shown. And, yes, the photo is used here with my friend's permission though without her name attached because this is the Internet. Although the photo doesn't show this, the wings were as long as those depicted on the cover, which meant a couple of attendants were required to support them. I really should have taken a longer shot. I'm not sure how much earlier you could have got away with such a costume - or if you'd want to chance it at some much more recent conventions given reports of the harassment female cosplayers have been encountering.
Finally this image, taken at the 1977 Worldcon Masquerade, depicts the 'Slave Boys of Gor' and was done with obvious political/satirical intent. Costuming critiquing particular works of SF was pretty new back then. However, the satiric intent may have been lost on several guys who sidled up to Avedon after the Masquerade, hinting at their interest in S&M. So it goes.
Other 1970s fancy dress/masquerades currently covered on this site:
.........17 Nov 2013/ 8 Oct 2022.
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