DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Memoirs of a Superfluous Fan, 1944

Transcribe
Translate

Memoirs of a Superfluous Fan, 1944

Page 24

as a very hard blow, and many a near-tear was to be seen in the eyes of the twelve attenders. I noted it all down in the minutes with a sense of foreboding, and for a while it looked as though I were right. Letters of protest and condolence began to flood Box 6475 from all over the fan field; and on the home front no one seemed to be getting over the shock. 

Finally, on November 3, 1938, "Madge's Prize Mss." was issued, the first bit of fan literature to come out of the LASFL since the crash. But at the same time attendance at the meetings was dropping. Members of the LASFS who imagine the club to be much more active now (late 1943) than formerly will be interested to note that in the minutes of November 17, 1938, it is seriously observed that the club was facing the startling ultimatum of DISBANDING since the attendance was down to only fifteen per meeting and showed no signs of getting better! Now, an attendance of 15 is considered better than average! A long discussion was held that night between the "faithful", which comprised Hodgkins, Ackerman, Morojo, Bradbury, Freehafer, and myself. It was pointed out that many of our active members, such as Mike and Corinne Ellesworth, Pogo, Wilbur Stimpson, Freehafer, Grady McMurtry, the Glendale group, etc., were not attending because of work and the distance involved. A representative of the Glendale bunch flatly told the assemblage that the club had been degenerated into a boring, uninteresting, tedium, and at the moment I feel he was right. (This was a long, long time before some of the more "loyal" members admitted the same thing themselves.) The absence of IMAGINATION!, the lack of new interests or active members, saw the Los Angeles Chapter of the Science Fiction League approaching the end of 1936 at a very low ebb. In fact, the next meeting, December 2, saw only eight, an all time low, in the Little Brown Room. Again, we decided to postpone disbandment until after the Christmas party two weeks hence. But it was a dreary occasion for the eight present. The Floor Manager for Clifton's kept peaking [sic] into the Brown Room and was highly annoyed at the sudden lack of food revenue which the group was not producing. The Brown Room was designed for thirty persons, and through the years we have just managed to hang onto it. Indeed, the scene was very black indeed.

One of the more interesting personalities of 1939 made his appearance during this year-end depression. That was Ray Foulkes, who made his first visit at this time, arriving from Seattle. Not noteworthy as a fan, he became for a short while another of the innumerable fascinating characters which have graced the LASFL and LASFS during their history. He dropped from the rolls as silently as he came, and for the life of me I can't remember a thing about him save that like many others, he was a diverting and unusual person to talk with. His part in the chapter will be detailed in the next volume.

Faith in scientifiction and Los Angeles fandom was again restored on December 15. Despite a rain which did some $25,000 (pre-war prices) worth of damage to the city and environs, twenty four old-timers turned up for the annual Christmas party. Gifts for the grab-box were in great profusion, and the sudden reappearance of our enlivening professional authors and their friends, plus the Glendale SFL, made everyone jubillant [sic]. Charlie Henderson conducted an auction which was hilariously funny, much discussion and feasting occured, from the middle of which Russ Hodgkins was called by his father to help push the family car out of a downtown mud-sink. This left me in charge of the whole affair.

When IMAGINATION! became the club organ, dues had been raised from 10 to 15¢, but with the demise of club publishing, Pogo had raised the motion that the levy be reduced to its former level. Settling this haggling was my first experience at the helm of the LASFL, a position which I have assumed on numerous subsequent

Saving...

as a very hard blow, and many a near-tear was to be seen in the eyes of the twelve attenders. I noted it all down in the minutes with a sense of foreboding, and for a while it looked as though I were right. Letters of protest and condolence began to flood Box 6475 from all over the fan field; and on the home front no one seemed to be getting over the shock. Finally, on November 3, 1938, "Madge's Prize Mss." was issued, the first bit of fan literature to come out of the LASFL since the crash. But at the same time attendance at the meetings was dropping. Members of the LASFS who imagine the club to be much more active now (late 1943) than formerly will be interested to note that in the minutes of November 17, 1938, it is seriously observed that the club was facing the startling ultimatum of DISBANDING since the attendance was down to only fifteen per meeting and showed no signs of getting better! Now, an attendance of 15 is considered better than average! A long discussion was held that night between the "faithful", which comprised Hodgkins, Ackerman, Morojo, Bradbury, Freehafer, and myself. It was pointed out that many of our active members, such as Mike and Corinne Ellesworth, Pogo, Wilbur Stimpson, Freehafer, Grady McMurtry, the Glendale group, etc., were not attending because of work and the distance involved. A representative of the Glendale bunch flatly told the assemblage that the club had been degenerated into a boring, uninteresting, tedium, and at the moment I feel he was right. (This was a long, long time before some of the more "loyal" members admitted the same thing themselves.) The absence of IMAGINATION!, the lack of new interests or active members, saw the Los Angeles Chapter of the Science Fiction League approaching the end of 1936 at a very low ebb. In fact, the next meeting, December 2, saw only eight, an all time low, in the Little Brown Room. Again, we decided to postpone disbandment until after the Christmas party two weeks hence. But it was a dreary occasion for the eight present. The Floor Manager for Clifton's kept peaking [sic] into the Brown Room and was highly annoyed at the sudden lack of food revenue which the group was not producing. The Brown Room was designed for thirty persons, and through the years we have just managed to hang onto it. Indeed, the scene was very black indeed. One of the more interesting personalities of 1939 made his appearance during this year-end depression. That was Ray Foulkes, who made his first visit at this time, arriving from Seattle. Not noteworthy as a fan, he became for a short while another of the innumerable fascinating characters which have graced the LASFL and LASFS during their history. He dropped from the rolls as silently as he came, and for the life of me I can't remember a thing about him save that like many others, he was a diverting and unusual person to talk with. His part in the chapter will be detailed in the next volume. Faith in scientifiction and Los Angeles fandom was again restored on December 15. Despite a rain which did some $25,000 (pre-war prices) worth of damage to the city and environs, twenty four old-timers turned up for the annual Christmas party. Gifts for the grab-box were in great profusion, and the sudden reappearance of our enlivening professional authors and their friends, plus the Glendale SFL, made everyone jubillant [sic]. Charlie Henderson conducted an auction which was hilariously funny, much discussion and feasting occured, from the middle of which Russ Hodgkins was called by his father to help push the family car out of a downtown mud-sink. This left me in charge of the whole affair. When IMAGINATION! became the club organ, dues had been raised from 10 to 15¢, but with the demise of club publishing, Pogo had raised the motion that the levy be reduced to its former level. Settling this haggling was my first experience at the helm of the LASFL, a position which I have assumed on numerous subsequent