Last and First Fen

Last and First Fen was a tapera, an audio taped show, created by Liverpool’s MaD Productions, a subgroup of the LāSFāS. “Eighteen months in the making, and a quite fabulous thing,” according to Eric Bentcliffe in Waldo no. 1 (December 1959). The tape ran 45 minutes long and premiered at the 1956 Cytricon II.

Last and First Men is the 1930 bestselling novel by Olaf Stapledon about the far future of Earth. The tapera shows the 'history' of fandom from Ancient Rome through Robin Hood to a future revolution.

The script was published in Triode 7 (Summer 1956), taking up much of the issue (pp. 7–26 of 60). The opening / title page says: Script by Renee MacKay and John Owen; Tape edited by Norman Shorrock; Produced and directed by Stan Nuttall; Publicity art which adorned the con-hall at Kettering by Don MacKay.

The issue's ad for the next Eastercon also joked:

Don't delay, there are two kinds of Fen :- First and Last.
First Fen, get in on the spot... Last Fen may have to sleep in the Bloody Tower.

Jack Speer play

There was another, unrelated fannish play of the same title (sometimes mistakenly given with 'The'} by Jack Speer a decade earlier. Its script is available on eFanzines, having been published in Noreascon 4 Souvenir Book. It is partly in blank verse. Speer’s introduction:

A United Press story in 1945 quoted Major P. C. Calhoun, “head of the A.A.F. guided-missile branch,” as saying that they expected to be able to shoot a rocket to the moon within 18 months, and within five years “to have a rocket that will carry men outside the Earth’s atmosphere and return safely.” Some stefinists were not so sanguine: in Gerry de la Ree’s polls of SF readers, authors, and editors, the majority estimated a date of 1950 or sooner for manned flight to the moon or another planet.

I ran with that idea in the following. This is what’s now called faan fiction, i.e., fiction about sfans.

• The Captain is Arthur C. Clarke, who was nicknamed Ego.
• Starfasci is Larry Farsaci, who was stationed at Tule Lake during the war.
• Stuff is “Juffus.”
• Ole must be E. Everett Evans.
• One-Face is 4SJ (Ackerman), sometimes known as “#1 Face.”
• The Mad Scientist is Milton A. Rothman.
• Joke is Joe Kennedy.
• The Youngfans were not specific persons.
• Ninety-four is Al Ashley, AA-194 (his score on a test, which an excerpt in the NESFA Press book will explain).
• Gallop is Art Widner, the Poll Cat.
• BFSers would have been members of the British Fantasy Society.
• MFS is, of course, the Minneapolis Fantasy Society.
• The Nitrosynthetic (it was Nitrosyncretic in my manuscript) voice must have been Abby Lu Ashley, but I don’t remember why that word.
• Incidentally, it was X.J. “Joe” Kennedy, its original publisher, who named the play. I submitted it titleless.

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Show

1956

This is a show page for fannish plays and musicals. Please extend it by adding more information about who wrote it, who performed in it and where it was staged/screened.