Clevention
The 13th Worldcon, the second in Ohio, was held September 2–5, 1955, at the Manger Hotel in Cleveland, OH. GoH: Isaac Asimov, FGoH: Sam Moskowitz (mystery GoH). Anthony Boucher was Toastmaster.
- Co-chairmen: Nick Falasca and Noreen Falasca.
- Treasurer: Ben P. Jason
- General Services: Stephen F. Schultheis
- Secretary: Honey Wood
- Banquet Chairman: Frank S. Andrasovsky
- And "any and all members of the Terrans"
The Special Mystery Guest was chosen by a poll of convention members -- right on the Hugo ballot, there was an extra line to nominate a Mystery Guest. The winner of the Special Mystery Guest was not revealed (even to the honoree) until the first night of the convention. The Program book noted that "Mr. Boucher [the Toastmaster] will make the presentation of the Achievement Awards and identify the Mystery Guest." (Many people still feel the Moskowitz deserved a full Fan Guest of Honorship rather than this bit of honor at the end of the convention.)
The Program featured a short play, A Science Fiction Carol.
The Clevention claimed a "first" by being the first Worldcon to have custom souvenirs, a commissioned Virgil Finlay drawing. In addition, a rotation plan, discussed in PR 3, was proposed to the WSFS Business Meeting. Clevention members selected NyCon II to be the 1956 Worldcon. See 1956 Site Selection for details.
This was also the year when the Hugos (still called the "Achievement Awards") were resurrected after the 1954 Worldcon, SFCon, had declined to run them. There was an expansive article on them in PR 2. See 1955 Hugos.
Cleveland in '55 seems to have been unopposed. See 1955 Site Selection.
The Flagpole rose here.
| From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959 |
| from Convention CleVention occurred after the 7th Fandomites had been kneed in the groin by the mad dogs and hotel relations (with the Manger, in Cleveland Ohio) were wonderful. One unusual aftereffect of the con, not previously observed, was a justification of the last paragraph under "con"; meetings of Lee Hoffman and Larry Shaw, and Rog Phillips and Honey Wood, were followed at no long interval by marriages. The Terrans, who produced the con this year, were already an incorporated group, so that question didn't arise this time. |
| SFCon | Worldcon - Bidding - Hugos | NyCon 2 |
| Cinvention | Ohio Worldcons | Tricon |
| 1955 |
| This is a convention page. Please extend it by adding information about the convention, including dates, GoHs, convention chairman, locale, sponsoring organization, external links to convention pages, awards given, the program, notable events, anecdotes, pictures, scans of publications, pictures of T-shirts, con reports, etc. |
