Philcon II

The 1953 Worldcon held September 5-7 at the Bellevue-Strafford Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. The GoH was Willy Ley. It was chaired by Milton Rothman and Isaac Asimov was Toastmaster. It was officially known as "The 11th Worldcon", but it was popularly known as Philcon II and that's how it is remembered. Milton Rothman replaced James A. Williams, the original chairman, upon his death. Tom Clareson, PhD was Vice-Chairman.

PR 1 was edited by Dave Hammond and Alan E. Nourse, PRs 2 and 3 by Nourse and William J. Jenkins, PR 4 by Jenkins, and the Program Book by Dave Kyle. This seems to have been the first Worldcon with a convention newsletter.

Philcon II instituted the Hugos: See The First Hugos.

There was some ill-feeling at Chicon II when the spur-of-the-moment Philadelphia bid (see The Story Behind Philly in '53) beat a San Francisco bid for the con. This led to the adoption of the rotation plan. Other bidders were Cleveland in 1953, Indianapolis in '53, Queens SFL in '53, and Niagara Falls in '53. See 1953 Worldcon Site Selection for details.

Because so many fans felt that Philly had unfairly taken the 1953 Worldcon from San Francisco, they awarded them the 1954 Worldcon -- in spite of there being no San Francisco bid and only one San Francisco fan at the convention: and he was playing poker at the time! See 1954 Worldcon Site Selection.

Reviews:

• Milton A. Rothman's Philcon II reminiscence from the Noreascon Three PB
• Juanita Coulson's reminiscence of 1953
• Fantasy Times #183 p1

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TASFiC	Worldcon - Bidding - Hugos	SFCon
Philcon	Philcon	MilPhil
	1953

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