MERV BINNS:
Just about fainting in the hot and constrictive costumes designed by John Breden,
and worn by John Foyster, George Turner and I, we suffered through nearly
four hours of pre-judging, photography, the parade, and then waiting for the
announcement of the winners. This was a bit much to take.
Norstrilia group: Merv Binns, Jeff Harris, David Grigg, Bruce Barnes,
John Foyster, Chris Johnson,
Sue Pagram (later Grigg) (dk)
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Much to the
disgust of the Scandinavian fans who are opposing our Australian bid for the
Worldcon in 1983, our presentation of characters from Cordwainer Smith's
'NORSTRILIA' series with the three Lords mentioned above, Justin Ackroyd and
Alex Wasiliew as Roman Soldier Robots, Sue Pagram as 'C'Mell', Chris Johnson
as 'Rod McBann', Cherry Wilder as 'Mother Hitten' with David Grigg and
Bruce Barnes as 'underpersons', got a great reception from the audience. After
carrying George Turner on in a hastily rigged sort of 'sedan chair', we
switched on his electronic gear. He rose and after nods of ascent from the
other two Lords, a banner was unfurled by the robots saying, 'OLD NORTH
AUSTRALIA IN '83'
Alex Wasiliew, George Turner, Justin Ackroyd (ch)
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George incidently, was more than once taken for a British author. This
again indicates that we need to blow our trumpet a lot more in Australia to let
SF people all around the world know we are here, and that we are a rapidly
growing force in the SF field.
Apparently, very little was known about our bid for 1983 before this
convention, and although we have to do a great deal more before we have any chance
of winning it, everybody knows after out presentation that WE ARE IN THE RACE FOR
1983. So the time, cost and effort put into the presentation was all worthwhile.
(Anybody want to buy some slightly used fancy [dress] costumes.)
John Foyster, Merv Binns, Adelaide fan Jeff Harris (dk)
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The Scandinavian contingent, in answer to our NORSTRILIA presentation, were the
last on, with what seemed a rather hurriedly put together act.
In the event the 1983 Worldcon was held in Baltimore, with Australia hosting it in 1985.
GEORGE PACZOLT:
The award for the most obnoxious group at the worldcon
has got to go to 'Scandinavia in '83's group, who put advertising
stickers over everything, including the hotel's paint and woodwork
(the mess really showed on Monday, when all the flyers were taken
down - no doubt the con committee really heard about that from the
hotel management), other committee's signs, bodies of anyone
walking past, and even had a person at the masquerade attempting to
stick stickers on the contestant's costumes! General undercurrent
that wafted by me was that they blew more goodwill than they made.
TERRY CARR:
Several of us decided to go up to the SFWA Suite to see what
was happening there; we found a large room filled with tables,
chairs, liquor and not too many people. We co-opted a table and
stayed for the night's partying, our table being, urn, chaired at
various times by Sid, Ted White, Susan Wood and Elinor Busby; Frank
Brunner, the artist, was there for a while, and Malcolm Edwards, etc.
Mainly, this was the night we began hearing of Brighton's contribution
to the tradition of closed-door pro parties: several publishers
had thrown parties to which only their authors were admitted, or at
best only people whose names were on a list held by a given public
relations person who guarded the door(s) like Cerberus. Some truly
startling tales reached our ears as one rejectee after another came
to the SFWA Suite. Joan Vinge, a Hugo winner, had been turned away
from the party of ore publisher who'd brought out two of her books:
someone had forgotten to put her name on The List. Ian Watson, no
slouch himself as a writer, had been refused admittance to the Omni
party; he protested that Ben Bova himself had invited him, but the
pr person muttered, "Who's Ben Bova?" as she shut the door. At
another party, several respected writers were turned away at the
door and the pr person was heard to grumble, "More American riffraff."
This led to quite a few people wearing name-tags thereafter with the
legend AMERICAN RIFF-RAFF.
Some heroes emerged from these encounters: people who left
such parties in protest (Jacqueline Lichtenberg was one of these),
and another, Norman Spinrad, who controlled his temper while he
tried to explain just who these people were who were being sent
away. In Norman's case, there was a somewhat happy ending because
the Cerberus involved apologized profusely the next day and insisted
on giving him a free ticket to the Banquet. I don’t think any
reparations were made to the rejected people, though.
Naturally we made Jokes like "Arthur C. who?" and such.
LINDA BUSHYAGER:
The rumour began with Karen Anderson not being admitted to the Omni
closed party at SeaCon, and being turned away with the charming phrase
"We don’t want you Yankee riff raff here."
Rumours quickly multiplied to include other authors excluded by secret parties,
particularly Vonda McIntyre. Freff than drew up a badge reading "Yankee Riff Raff",
copies of which were being worn at Novacon, two months later. The rumours were false,
however. Karen Anderson later said that she forgot her invitation, but that Ben
Bova saw her at the door and had her admitted. Vonda McIntyre denied she was kept
from parties either. British invitational parties being what they are, though, the
fact remains that some authors probably were excluded from some parties. The
phrase "Yankee Riff Raff", though, is unfortunately a mere invention. Along the
same lines, a mundane woman was preventing fans from entering an Aussie fan party,
apparently believing it was a part of the mundane party next door.
TERRY CARR:
I mock-proudly told everyone who’d listen that I hadn’t been thrown
out of a single party at the convention, mainly because I hadn’t
even heard of them. Some more strange rumours came down from the Gollancz
room party. Reportedly Brian Aldiss had grown enraged at Charles Platt
and chased him into another room, from which loud cries and thumpings
emerged; when this blew over, Jerry Pournelle suddenly heard Platt’s
name and he took off after Platt, crying, "You called me a fascist
in print! - I’m going to sue!" This encounter too was quieted
down, though Jerry was still threatening to sue. ("Fascist" is
evidently an actionable word in the United States, even in literary
criticism.)
PETER ROBERTS:
Parties later, but I'm easily befuddled and don't
remember where. I did get paid 1¢ to attend the Minneapolis in 73 bidding
party – that might have been Saturday.
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