Slan Shack

The term slan shack is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Deglerism, which came to mean any household with two or more unrelated fans (or, provided three or more fans were involved, could include married couples). An earlier name was science-fiction house.

Although many early New York fans, attempting to economize while seeking a pro career, shared apartments in the Big Apple, the venue officially dubbed the Slan Shack came into being in late 1943 in Battle Creek, Michigan; it lasted only two years, breaking up in September 1945 when its occupants moved to California, but gave its name to the practice. The best known fans residing in the "original" Slan Shack included E. E. Evans, Walt Liebscher, Jack Wiedenbeck and Al & Abby Lu Ashley.

They also called themselves the Galactic Roomers (see Fancy 1 article, below), a pun on the Galactic Roamers, an E. E. Smith-oriented club in Michigan.

Other slan shacks:

• The Booby Hatch
• Bozo Bus Building
• The Epicentre
• Fan Hilton
• The Flat
• Futurian House
• Galactic Roomers
• The Hill
• Hobbit Hole
• Ivory Tower
• The Labyrinth
• Labyrinth 3
• Labyrinth Duquesne
• Labyrinth of Valeron
• Little Jarnevon
• Smof Central

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

An ancient dream of fans (well, dating back to 1938, at least). The idea is to have a place where fans live together, sharing expenses and bumming off one another, and where they can decorate the walls and halls appropriately and scatter their collections all around. The first realization of this dream was the Flat, in London. It was soon followed by Futurian House and a long line of successors. In 1943 appeared Slan Shack itself, which gave its name to the idea (previously called by the more formal name of science-fiction house). Here dwelt the Ashleys, Liebscher, and Wiedenbeck, and later E. E. Evans; they moved en masse from the original Slan Shack in Battle Creek to another site on Bixel Street, Los Angeles, cheek by jowl with the LASFS clubroom. (It was the ground floor of a duplex next door. Its upper floor, "Slan Shack Annex", was rented occasionally to struggling fen and pros.) The place didn't break up till the building was torn down in March '48 to make room for an office building. Outgrowth of this was the idea of Slan Center, which Ashley conceived in early '43 as a whole block of slanshacks (to be built on the outskirts of LA) with central clubroom and publishing plant. Nothing came of this last notion. These establishments are more or less natural developments from the fraternity and nationalism of fandom, coupled with the rise of the average fan's age to self-supporting and home-leaving time. Up to half a dozen of them have existed at one time, such as Tendril Towers (Jacobs & Cox, in LA), The Ivory Birdbath (Youngs & Stark, in Cambridge), Granny's House (Kerkhof and others, in DC) and several others mentioned in other parts of this volume.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

A science-fiction house in Battle Creek, charter members being Al & Abby Lu Ashley, Walt Liebscher, and Jack Wiedenbeck. Acquired in the summer of '43, it wasn't occupied by the slans till the eve of the Michiconference. EEEvans joined a little later.

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

Galactic Roomers (Stanley) - The inhabitants of the Ashley apartment and later of Slan Shack, in Battle Creek.

See also Slan Center.

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Venue

1943—

This is a venue page, covering buildings from 4-star hotels to slan shacks. Please include only structures of major fannish significance. See Standards for Venues.

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