1938 Philadelphia Conference

The 1938 Philadelphia Conference was a convention chaired by Milton Rothman which was held in Philadelphia, PA, on Sunday, October 16, 1938. In some respects, this con was a major battle in the war between the Futurians and New Fandom. It was sponsored by New Fandom, and the Futurians had announced their intention to run a New York City "Fifth Eastern" convention on the same day in competition with the Philadelphia Conference. But a few weeks before the date, they called off their convention and announced plans to attend the Philadelphia convention en masse. In the event, the Futurians did not show up.

The convention attracted "a little over two dozen fans", including New Fandom delegates Sykora, Taurasi, Thomas S. Gardner, Robert G. Thompson, and Moskowitz, many members of PSFS, including John Baltadonis, Jack Agnew, Milt Rothman, Jack Johnson, Helen Cloukey, Milton Asquith, Lee Blatt, Thomas Whiteside, and Oswald Train. Other attendees included William Pearlman from Baltimore, Jack Speer from Washington, DC, pros John D. Clark, Otto Binder, David Vern and Mort Weisinger.

The program:

• A discussion of New Fandom and its plans for --world domination-- a World Science Fiction Convention
• A round-table discussion on the purpose of science-fiction.
• Reading a 700-word telegram from John W. Campbell, Jr. who had been unable to attend.
• A dinner
• A marionette show by Milt Rothman.

See also Early Conventions.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

From Conference – The PSFS Conference in October 1938, Philadelphia. It was attended by the fans who were launching New Fandom, a number of their backers among the pros, and others.

---

Third Convention	Philcon	Philcon 1939
	1938

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.