Philcon I

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

The 1947 Worldcon, and first in Philadelphia, Philcon I was held August 30 to September 1 in the Penn-Sheraton Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. The GoH was John W. Campbell, Jr..

L. Jerome Stanton was Toastmaster and it was chaired by Milton Rothman. Attendance was about 160.

The convention was (nominally, anyway) put on by the Philcon Society which was an open membership group that existed for that sole purpose. The committee was: Oswald Train, Robert A. Madle, Jack Agnew, A. E. Waldo, James A. Williams, A. M. Phillips. Big Pond Fund: F. J. Ackerman, California Representative: James Hevelin, New York Representative: William S. Sykora.

A combozine, the Philcon Memory Book was published for the convention.

• Philcon I Program
• Milt Rothman's Philcon I Reminiscence
• Margaret Trebing's Philcon I Report
• Millennium Philcon PR 3
• Philcon I Membership List.

Philcon was just a bit rowdy. in All Our Yesterdays, Harry Warner reports that

Perhaps the first of the big drunken worldcon parties followed in the Hadley suite where Fantasy Press and Prime Press provided much liquor. Fans gaped in disbelief at Campbell sitting on the floor, helping Hubert Rogers and Benson Dooling to sing a variety of bawdy ditties. The hotel staff did not interrupt, because there was a Sigma Alpha Rho convention in the hotel and the kids got blamed for all the noise that the fans made. This demonstrated Emerson's philosophy about compensation, as applied to fandom, because at the Pacificon the other convention in the meeting place had been that of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Fireworks Furor

But that's not all! At some point during the drinking session in the Hadley suite, Jack Speer remembered that he had fireworks in his car, Quintessence of FooFoo, He, Al Lopez, Ron Christensen, and Chan Davis went down, retrieved the fireworks and started setting them off. After the police came by and warned them to stop, they returned to the hotel and started setting them off from the various fire escapes (in those days a hotel was frequently festooned with fire escapes). The police did not find this amusing and they paid $5.00 apiece for disturbing the peace. (It did not go entirely to waste because the Willy Ley used the fireworks to find his way to the hotel.)

There were two bids for the 1948 Worldcon, Toronto in 1948 and Milwaukee in 1948. See 1948 Worldcon Site Selection.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

from Convention PhilCon I produced by the Philadelphia SFS was loaded, chairman Rothman selfcriticizes, with too much heavy science on the program, but Speer and some friends managed to lighten things up a little with the Fireworks Furor.

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Pacificon I	Worldcon - Bidding - Hugos	Torcon I
first	Philcon	Philcon II
	1947

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