Oklacon I

The first Oklacon was a convention held September 5, 1953, at the Williams Television store at 1100 W. Main in Oklahoma City.

Conrep from Nite Cry 1:

        THE OAKLACON REPORT or WHEN DO WE EAT? 
                    by Don Chappell

I arrived at the Williams Television Agency, site of OKLACON I, bright and early, a little after 9 A. M. Saturday, September 5th. (Bright describes the day, early describes me) There I was met by Kent Corey the chairman of OKLACON I.

To give credit where it is due, the OKLACON was almost entire­ly the effort of Kent with the assistance of Carl Williams, who kindly let us use his television store to hold the con. 

Kent introduced me to the guest of honor, Orville Mosher of Project Fan Club fame, Orville was a beaming bundle of enthusiasm which seemed to be the attitude of the con as a whole.

Registration was to have been from 8 til 9, but was extended to 10 due to waiting for the Tulsa delegation to arrive. The Tulsa group fail to show. It was learned that Sam Martines, editor of SHADOWLAND from Tulsa ... and one of the speakers, had broken his leg and the rest did not have transportation.

We started off with annoucements and introductions. Then Orville Mosher gave the main address of the con, followed by a speech from Carl Williams.

The scheduled panel debate turned out to be a question and an­swer period on the subject of fandom with most of the answering be­ing done by Mr. Mosher and Dan McPhail.

It was during this period that Dan(McPhail gave a short talk on previous cons in Oklahoma. The first to his knowledge took place in 1939 at the Huckins Hotel in Oklahoma City. There were five persons in attendance of whom Dan was one.

By now it was past noon and the battle cry of ‘When do we eat’ was heard from all sides.

A Bar-B-Q had been planned but some how these plans had been fouled up. I never did discover what happened. 

We decided, to adjourn for a while to let everyone stretch their legs and the late comers see the exhibits. There were draw­ings from Universe SF sent by Ray Palmer, who had just bought half interest. (RAP now edits Science Stories, Universe and Mystic all bi­-monthlies. Other Worlds has folded). There was a first edition of Amazing, several fanzines and the prozines and books that were to be auctioned also on exhibits.

When do we eat? It ws now almost 3 PM and still no plans for eating. 

It was decided to go ahead with the auction and in the absence of Sam Martinez, I acted as auctioneer. We made between $70 and $100. I lost count when we went over $70.

I was disappointed in the low prices paid for some of the articals. The art work brought the largest bids though I was practi­cally held up on the prices I paid for a few prozines I bid on, because it was generally known I was after them to fill gaps in my collection. 

The auction took two and half hours with many cries of ‘when do we eat?’ throughout this time.

A drawing of door prize was made. I do not remember who re­ceived the prizes which were art work. 

It was now 5:30 and we were finally going to eat so we piled into cars for the much needed food. 

At 7:30 we met again to view three film, which were all of a scientific nature. The first was on our solar system followed by one on gravitation and another on the working of the television tube.

It was decided by all that OKLACON II would be held again in Oklahoma City, Saturday, September 4, 1954.

A presentation of awards was made. Kent Corey presented Carl Williams with a cigarette lighter and Kent was given a small dagger. (Whether this dagger is to open letters or a hint that Kent should cut his throat is unknown. I do have my own opnion.) The meeting was then adjourned until 1954.

                        THE END