Michifen
(Did you mean The Michifan fanzine?)
Michigan is never a dull place to conduct your fan activity.
—Bob Tucker, Science Fiction News Letter (March 1952).
Michifen (Michigan fandom) have hosted Michicon, Detroit Triple Fan Fair, ConFusion, AutoClave, ConClave and Penguicon, plus a Worldcon, Detention, and a NASFiC, Detcon 1.
Detroit, Ann Arbor and Houghton have been its principal fan centers, with some activity, especially more media-centered groups, in Kalamazoo and Lansing. Battle Creek and Jackson, MI, were important in the 1940s, and Saginaw, home to Art Rapp, in the ’50s.
BEMs were first named in Michigan. Michifen coined “Fanspeak” and “Real Soon Now.” The propeller beanie was invented there, and the original Slan Shack was located there. The 1940s and ’50s were especially active, with the Misfits as a major force. Nydahl's Disease originated in the U.P.
See also: Midwest Fandom, Blowup.
| From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959 |
| Fans in Michigan, nacherly. Most of them live in or near Detroit, if you can call that living, tho formerly the MSFS blanketed the state. Their chief recent organization, the Detroit SFL, is a notorious example of how not to run a local fanclub.
The Detroit fans were visitors at the old Slan Shack in Battle Creek, but didn't form the Detroit Science Fictioneers till 1943. In 1945 they became the Hyperboreans, who discussed small amounts of stf and played a lot of chess. Ben Singer broke up the club by leaving atheistic pamphlets lying about the meeting-place (a public library) and by some atheistic tirades in public. When Art Rapp and Bill Groover met the remnants of the Hyperboreans 30 January 1948 the Michigan Science Fiction Society was formed, Singer doing most of the organization work. (George Young promptly formed the name "Misfits" for the group.) The uniqueness of the MSFS among Michifan groups lay in attempting to provide fan activities for everybody in the state, not just the Detroit area. During its two years of life MSFS members coined expressions (Fanspeak, Real Soon Now), pioneered in fannish publishing and philosophy (Spacewarp, Sexocracy), set fashions for the Microcosm ("Home of the Original Helicopter Beanie") and were involved in such antics as Singer's attempt to cross the Canadian border during a Red hunt carrying a prominently displayed copy of Banish Gods From the Skies and Capitalists from the Earth. After the Blowup and Rapp's resignation local Detroiters formed the DSFL, which existed in a fashion for several years, giving off splinter groups like the Morgan Botts Foundation. Return of some members from service after the Korean War led to a renascence in which the 1959 convention was held in the Motor City. What will come after your scholiast knows not. |
| From Fancyclopedia 2 Supplement, ca. 1960 |
| The actual title of the book Singer carried thru customs during that witch-hunt was The War Between Christianity and Communism. It was, however, decorated with a livid red jacket, and the outstanding blurb on this was the quoted "Banish Gods from the Skies and Capitalists from the Earth". |
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