View source for Propeller Beanie

The '''propeller beanie''', originally '''helicopter beanie''', is the universal symbol of a [[fan]]. "I and other amateur cartoonists began drawing cartoons in which the propeller beanie was the symbol of [[science fiction]] the way the yarmulke is the symbol of the Orthodox [[Jews|Jew]]," its creator, [[SF]] [[author]] and [[fanartist]] [[Ray Nelson]], recalled. The [[traditional]] beanie is shaped like a yarmulke, with a propeller at its peak.

{{Chaz|file=DickSmithMimeo.jpeg|align=left|text='''Propeller beanie in place, [[Dick Smith]] cranks a [[Gestetner]] at [[Windycon 29]] in 2002.'''}} 
[[Ray Nelson|Ray]] invented the whimsical headgear while a high-school sophomore in Cadillac, [[Michigan]]. A group of young [[Michifans]] at a 1947 [[fan gathering]] at his house decided to take photos of each other in the style of [[pulp]] covers. They needed to improvise [[hall costume|costumes]].

Ray recalled:  "I said, 'Wait a second,' and I dashed up to my room. In a frenzy, I stapled together a little cap made of strips of plastic and affixed a model airplane propeller to it on a wire, putting a few beads on the wire first so the propeller could spin freely."

[[George Young]] donned the helicopter beanie for the photo shoot and later wore it to the [[Cinvention]], where [[Bob Bloch]] complained of the [[Beanie Brigade]]: "an army of [[goons]] wearing beanies, false beards and Buck Rogers blasters." 

[[File:HertzJohn2004.jpeg|thumb|'''[[John Hertz]] wearing a propeller beanie at [[Noreascon 4]], 2004.''' ]]
Nelson visited relatives in [[California]] around that time and won a contest with a design of a character wearing a propeller beanie. That was the origin of Bob Clampett's {{link | website=https://beanyandcecil.com/ | text=“Time for Beany”}} (with voices by Stan Freberg and Daws Butler). "I never bothered to patent it. I never made a dime off it," Ray said.

Meanwhile, Nelson drew numerous [[fanzine]] cartoons depicting fans wearing the beanie. Other cartoonists, including [[Bjo]], [[LeeH]], [[Dave Rike]], [[ATom]], [[Bill Rotsler]] and [[Trina Robbins]], picked it up.

Much later, [[Howard DeVore]] fashioned a giant propeller beanie from a construction hardhat and a wooden prop from an airplane.

{{fancy2|text=
 '''Helicopter Beanie''' 
The badge of a juvenile-type [[fan]], popularized several years ago when the propeller-topped hats were an adolescent fad. Actual helicopter beanies are a rare sight nowadays, but the stereotype of a juvenile [[fan]] is a wight wearing a helicopter beanie, carrying a [[zapgun]], and exclaiming [[goshwowboyoboy]] in his enthusiasm for [[stf]]. Ghak. 
}}

{{fancy2S|text=
'''Propbeanie''' 
Helicopter beanie. 
}}

=="Beanie Con"==
[[We]] admit that we made this name up, since the event didn’t seem to have one. 
In a [[loc]] to ''[[Habakkuk]]'' Vol. 3, No. 3 ([https://fanac.org/fanzines/Habakkuk/Habakkuk0303.pdf Spring 1994, p. 43]), Ray Nelson recalled:
 I think it was the summer of 1947 when I held what was [[fandom]]'s first [[Michigan]] [[regional]] [[convention]].<ref>The [[Michiconference]]s were earlier.</ref> I held it in the front room of my home in Cadillac. You could hold regional conventions in front rooms in those days, and nobody had to stand in line to pick up a [[badge]] or [[program book]]. [[Bem]]-inventor [[Martin Alger]] was there from up north, and all the gang from [[Saginaw]] and [[Detroit]] were there in force: [[Roscoe|beaver]]-worshiping [[Art Rapp]], [[Atheism|athiest]] [[Ben Singer]] (who has become a [[Canadian]] university professor), [[George Young]], [[Big-Hearted Howard DeVore]], [[Agnes Harook|Agnes Harrok]] and many more, some of whose names have faded from my aging memory.
 
 After the discussions and magazine trading we decided to end the festivities with a session of taking joke [[photographs]] depecting the cleches of current [[Prozine|science-fiction magazine covers]]. We quickly improvised most of the props we needed by raiding the kitchen, but found at last that we lacked one thing, a suitable headgear for the fearless spaceman who was to play a starring role in the snaps.
 
 I leaped upon my bicycle and zoomed down to the nearest hardware store where I bought some strips of plastic, a length of stiff wire, some beads and a propeller for a flying model airplane. Arriving home, I whipped out my trusty staple gun and stapled these items together in a terrible hurry.
 
 In the photos my friend [[Tom Kennedy]] and I took turns wearing it, depending on which of us was playing the role of space hero. When the photo session was over [[George Young|George]] took the beanie with him back to Detroit. Whether or not he stole it depends on your definition of theft. Suffice it to say that nobody made any great efforts to get it back, since nobody had the faintest notion the thing had any value.
 
 George began wearing it to meetings of the [[DSFL|Detroit Science-Fantasy League]] and I, as a partisan of a rival [[club]] called the [[Wolverine Insurgents]], began drawing [[fanzine]] [[cartoons]] of him with the beanie on. He wore it to small [[local cons]] and then to the [[Torcon|Worldcon in Toronto]].
 
 Other fans began to make similar headgear out of anything that could be stapled, glued or otherwise glued to the human head. It became clear that the beanie was no longer a symbol of George Young as an individual, but of any [[fan]] who possessed George's naive enthusiasm and energy, any fan who might reasonably be expected to greet the latest issue of [[Planet Stories|PLANET STORIES]] with a cry of "[[Goshwowboyoboy]]!"
 
 Other fan cartoonists picked up the beanie with this connotation, especially [[William Rotsler]] in [[LA]] and [[ATom|Arthur "Atom" Thomson]] in [[England]], not to mention the brilliant [[Trina Robbins]], who produced a female version with a pony tale who went "Squee".
 
 Around 1950 [[Bruce Sedley]], a [[fannish]] puppeteer in [[Oakland]], [[California]] made a George Young hand puppet and included it in his local television show, Sedley's Medleys, under the name Beanie Boy, teaming him up with a stocking with eyes named Cecil, the Seasick Sea Serpent.
 
 In the early fifties a Disney artist named Bob Clampet began producing an animated version of the show for national distribution entitled Beanie and Cecil. Following the time-honored traditions of the Disney studio, he did his best to conceal the existence of any prior Beanie creators. His version of George Young was, however, clearly recognizable as George, though a younger George than the puppet.
 
 The Clampet show was vastly successful, launching a flood of machine-made beaniecopters, dolls and other licensed products which no doubt greatly enriched him, but did nothing for the standard of living of Bruce Sedley, George Young, Bill Rotsler, Atom, Trina Robbins or me.
 
 Today several companies continue to manufacture beaniecopters though the fad has long since died away, including one entrepreneur in communist [[China]] whose propellers, predictbly, do not spin. The one and only producer of genuine, authorized Ray Nelson beanie copters is: Stacy Samules,<ref> [https://propellerheadhats.com/pages/about-us Stacy Samuels.]</ref> [https://propellerheadhats.com Interstellar Propeller,] 1600 Woolsey, Berkeley, GA 94703. His selection is awesome, and if you don't like what he has, he'll make one up for you special. Do me a favor and send for his catalog, and tell him I sent you.

* [https://s.hdnux.com/photos/10/64/15/2310996/7/628x471.jpg Photo] of [[Bruce Sedley]] in the “Helmetron,” an elaborate propeller beanie, The (San Francisco) Chronicle, September 11, 2010. 
* [https://todayinsci.com/Events/Patent/UltimatePropellerHead.htm “History of the Propeller Beanie and The Ultimate Propeller-Head Geek”] by Ian Ellis, ''Today in Science History''.
* *{{link | website=http://potrzebie.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-article-by-dale-killingbeck-ray.html | text=Blog post on Nelson and the propeller beanie}} by [[Bhob Stewart]],  April 18, 2010. 

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{{fanhistory|start=1947}}
[[Category:fanspeak]] 
[[Category:fancy2]]
[[Category:Notable]]