Philcon II

(For other "Philcons" see Philcon (Disambiguation).)

The 1953 Worldcon, held September 5–7 at the Bellevue-Strafford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 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, Ph.D., 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.

Reports:

• Milt Rothman's Philcon II Reminiscence
• Juanita Coulson's reminiscence of 1953
• Fantasy Times #183 p1

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

from Convention PhilCon II saw an incredibly lengthy auction session managed by L Sprague deCamp but was fannishly marked by the irruption of the 7th Fandom faction, organized earlier in the summer. Early mutterings of the advisability of incorporating were heard and the rotation plan, which regularized the idea of holding cons in Eastern, Central, and Western locations successively ("orderly progression westward") was adopted.

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Chicon II	Worldcon - Bidding - Hugos	SFCon
Philcon	Philcon	MilPhil
	1953

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