Noreascon 3

The 47th Worldcon, and the third in Boston, N3 was held August 31 to September 4, 1989, at the Hynes Convention Center, Sheraton-Boston Hotel, Back Bay Hilton Hotel, and Boston Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, MA. The GoHs were Andre Norton (pro), Ian & Betty Ballantine (pro), The Stranger Club (fan).

The Stranger Club was the first SF club in Boston and sponsor of the early 40s series of five Boskones and the club was the Fan GoH of Noreascon 3. All of its known surviving members were invited to the convention as guests to represent the club and seven were located and attended: Art Widner, Chan Davis, Harry Stubbs (Hal Clement), Louis Russell Chauvenet, Timothy Orrok, Norman Stanley, and Robert D. Swisher.

It was chaired by Mark Olson. See also the Noreascon 3 Committee list. It was sponsored by MCFI.

Major special events at the convention included the 50th Anniversary Brunch, SF Tonight, the Concourse, and Boxboro Fandom's Louis Wu's Birthday Party.

The bidders for 1989 were Boston in '89 and New York in '89: see 1989 Worldcon Site Selection for more details. Because of the change from 2-year-in-advance site selection to three years in advance, there were two Worldcons selected in 1986, the conventions for 1988 and 1989. Since 1988 was a hotly contested race (see 1988 Worldcon Site Selection), the Boston committee could not select its pro GoHs until the winner of 1988 was known and its guests announced. Consequently, while Boston in '89 announced its Fan GoHs on winning, it waited until November 1986 to announce the pro GoHs.

Hugo Awards: The 1989 Hugos became somewhat scandalous due to the Affair of the Consecutively Numbered Money Orders (which see). The 1989 Hugo trophy was an Art Deco confection of Saturnian rings and metal balls which was perhaps the most stylish Hugo base ever made. Unfortunately, it was also one of the more fragile, having a particular problem with the balls which had been laboriously glued in place by convention staff...only to begin falling out about an hour after the ceremony. Gardner Dozois made observations about this having to do with certain portions of his anatomy (or was it his award?) falling off...

For details on the site selection conducted at Noreascon 3, see 1992 Worldcon Site Selection.

Noreascon 3 started the Pass-Along Funds process in which Worldcons sign up to pass on at least 50% of their surplus in exchange for receiving pass-along funds from its predecessors.

Links

• Noreascon 3 publications and photos on fanac.org
• File 770 66, p. 5 (The convention's hotel problems)

Concourse

(See Concourse for the Eastercon of that name and Con Course for the German convention.)

The Concourse (also known as the "mixing area") was created by Noreascon Three to turn Hall C of the Hynes Auditorium into a 30,000 sq ft fan lounge. This served the multiple purposes of providing a comfortable place for fans to connect with each other, providing a location for the very extensive exhibits at Noreascon Three, and, in the aftermath of the Boskone from Hell, reassuring the management of the Sheraton-Boston Hotel that the hotel would not be unduly crowded. It was open from before 9 am to 2 am each day.

The inspirations for the Concourse were the Discave created by Evan Phillips and the Fan Lounge at Conspiracy '87, both of which did an extraordinary job (though on a much smaller scale) of providing a place fans actually wanted to be. It was developed by Leslie Turek based on an idea by Mark Olson. Peggy Rae Pavlat helped develop the exhibits.

It included many exhibits, some of which were continued after Noreascon 3:

• 'Alice' Exhibit (Jane Jewell)
• Contemporary Fanzines Exhibit (Mike Glyer)
• European Fandom Exhibit (Kees van Toorn)
• History of Bidding Exhibit (Joe Siclari)
• History of Costuming (Janet Wilson Anderson)
• History of Fanzines (Nancy Atherton)
• History of Noreascon Three (Laura Paskman-Syms)
• History of Worldcons Exhibit (Bruce Pelz)
• SF & F Clubs (Tom Hanlon)
• The Pro Portrait Gallery (Christine Valada)
• Films Exhibit (Deb Geisler)
• World News (Laura Paskman-Syms)

The Concourse was so successful as to make a major combined exhibit/fan area of some sort a required part of subsequent Worldcons.

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Nolacon II	Worldcon - Bidding - Hugos	ConFiction
Noreascon Two	Noreascon	Noreascon 4
	1989

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