THE BBC had a telefield-day with the BEMs and other-otherworldly characters present at the Masquerade Ball. So many costumed fans were crowded into one sardine-sized cubicle that hardly an extra terrestrial could be squeezed in, but the telecasters with their equipment rushed in where angels would have feared to trod but every other kind of critter from devils to Denebians did. Frank & Frau Dietz won a prize in the Fancy Dress Parade as did John Brunner & Marjorie Keller (as deCampian Krishnans), Norman Weedall, and extensively telefilmed Mr. and Mrs. Kyle as the' honeymooning space - couple from the Planet Xstacy.

Sam Moskowitz, Bob Madle and myself, who for years at Cons have been playing the private game of Stomp the Experts (trying to stomp each other out of existence with brain-burning questions) volunteered to come out in the open and try to short-circuit each other's cerebrums. Publicly posed were such killer questions as "What was the middle name of Epaminondas T. Snooks?" (and, "Alright, but how do you spell Thucydides?"); (Name every story Stanley Grauman Weinbaum ever had published in the sci-fi field"; "Name the first 10 stf imags in the chronological order of their issuance"; "Name all the FRANKENSTEIN films!"; and similar kindergartenishly simply queries. Each of us stubbed our toes (or tentacles) once.

Mad Productions showed us a couple of funny homemade fan and fantasy pictures, and the feature film of the Con was the Special Award Winner of the Venice Film Festival, Mr. Wonderbird.

A "Hugo" was awarded Science Fiction Times as Best Fanzine of the Year, and to the Tolkien trilogy LORD OF THE RINGS went the coveted International Fantasy Award. Based on his major opus in THE SCIENCE FICTION YEAR-BOOK for 1956, Sam Moskowitz gave an illuminating three-quarter of an hour discussion of his epochal and valuable Science Fiction Market Survey. Many eyebrow-raising statistics were analyzed.

John Campbell summarized the subject of Psionics and conducted a lively question and answer period.

The following week in Germany the first big 3-day Germanicon (officially the BIGGERCON) was held, Five of us Amerifans managed to make it. I was invited to be Guest of Honor, and I would like my 150 hosts to know that the reception I received impressed me like a hero's welcome. Surely my cup of egobrew was filled to overflowing with the constant requests for autographs, posed pictures with people, gifts, services, and the responses to my speeches (as attempted by myself in bro-ken Ger-man or expertly translated by Rainer Eisfeld). I did not know what was going on when I made my (truly) extemporaneous farewll speech and in addition to applauding they all stamped their feet; it was later explained to me this was their equivalent of the standing applause, the ultimate accolade, and for this expression of appreciation I shall always be grateful. Ernsting, Scheer, Fries, von Puttkamer, Scudla, Spiegl, Rohr, usw - danke!

At the German Convention they showed WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE CONQUEST OF SPACE and THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT. There was an especially interesting, imaginatively conceived and artistically arranged, sci-fi exhibit of artwork, book jackets, magazine covers, scienti-film stills and 3 dimensional objects such as a magnificent man-tall cutaway rocketship model, tabletop work of an alien landscape, etc. The Berlin group (27 strong in a chartered bus) brought a club-built robot, created from funds contributed a pfennig (about two and a half cents) - at a time. The modern Eurofan does not have much money, but he has a lot of fun; and the Gerfan of today has such prozines to elect from as Utopia, Uranus, Terra and Luna. Their correspondence club, the Science Fiction Club Deutschland, is approaching a thousand strong.

Rainer Eisfeld gave a detailed report on the Worldcon. Jesco von Puttkamer (a real Baron), who looked to as the literary writer most likely to bring Germah sci-fi to the attention of translation markets, gave a talk which evoked much laughter. Wolf Detlef Rohr and K. H. Scheer received awards for their outstanding space operas, and "Clark Darlton" (Walter Ernsting) was sent two Hugo-plaques by Hugo Gernsback himself in recognition of Ernsting's capture two years in a row of the Best German S.F. Novel popularity poll. Hans Fries, a John Drew Barrymore with beard, master-minded the loudest and funniest s.f. auction I have ever witnessed in any language.

The Gerfans took me utterly and completely by surprise when they presented me with the most exquisite alarm clock I have ever seen, a silver and gold replica of the globe that splits in half to reveal a gorgeous timepiece. A thing of beauty and a joy forever, that right now is ringing to remind me that two hours hence I have to depart for a fanquet to tell the local aficionados substantially the same story that I have just told you. Except that the real life story has a happy ending, whereas in the written version on the way back the Fantaplane flew into the 4th Dimension, never to be seen again, and this account was ghost written.

"Here I go, ready or not, to the 23rd Anniversary meeting of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, meeting number about 1050. Incidentally, South Gate (suburb of Los Angeles) got the bid for the 16th World Science Fiction Convention. LA. put on the Pacificon (4th Worldcon) in 1946, first worldcon to add a day to the previous 3-day schedules. 1958's big event will officially be nicknamed the Solacon, rhyming with the Nolacon of 1951. The latter was derived from New Orleans, La., while the Solacon recognizes the collaboration between South Gate and Los Angeles. The Convention will actually be held in LA over Labor Day; and memberships may now be obtained thru the mail at $1 apiece from Rick Sneary, Solacon Treasurer, 2962 Santa Ana St, South Gate, Calif. Whether or not you're sure you can attend, it's worthwhile to become a member at the earliest opportunity.

Worldcons forever! Worldcons are more fun than a barrel of money.

THE END