Supermancon
The SuperMancon was the 1954 Eastercon, held June 5–6, 1954 (Whitsun weekend), at the Grosvenor Hotel in Manchester, UK. The guest of honour was John Russell Fearn. It was sponsored by the Nor'west Science Fantasy Club.
The souvenir book uses the form 'SuperMancon' so this should probably be canonical but subsequently people have tended to use the form 'Supermancon'. It was the fifth convention in the Eastercon sequence, the first outside of London and the last to be held at Whitsun. It was also the second in the (loose) Mancon sequence. It had nothing to do with Superman
Preparations[edit]
Dave Cohen and Eric Bentcliffe had originally made a bid for a Manchester convention to be called Supermancon at the 1952 convention. On that occasion they were beaten by a London bid that became Coroncon.
Venue[edit]
The Grosvenor Hotel occupied the corner of Deansgate and Victoria Bridge Street. The site now seems to be empty.
Attendees[edit]
There are 133[1] members of the 'Supermancon Society' listed in the combozine. Some of these didn't attend and in a few cases never had any intention of doing so.
In the table below names marked (A) are known attendees, names marked (AN) are known attendees who are not on the membership list, and names marked (N) are members who are known to have not been present. The remainder may have attended. In many cases that's the limit of our knowledge about them and where this is the case there won't be a page for them until and unless we find out some more. Names to which this applies are in italics. Additionally names marked * are family members of attendees who likely weren't fans per se.
This list is a work in progress. Names below are being checked to see if they're here under variants.
- B. Almond
- Jim McArthur
- Norm Ashfield
- Mal Ashworth (A)
- Brian V. Avis
- Joe Ayres
- Peter Baillie (A)
- Alan Barclay (AN)
- Ron Bennett (A)
- Eric Bentcliffe (AN)
- Phil Best
- Sid Birchby
- Irene Boothroyd
- Syd Bounds (A)
- Robert Brandon
- John Brunner (A)
- Daphne Buckmaster (AN)
- Ron Buckmaster (AN)
- A. E. Bullock
- Ken Bulmer (A)
- Pam Bulmer (AN)
- Brian Burgess (AN)
- Phil J. Cakebread
- James Cameron
- Peter Campbell (A)
- John Carnell (A)
- Joan Carr (N)[2]
- George Charters (A)
- Vin¢ Clarke (A)
- Dave Cohen (AN)
- Dave Cohen[3]
- L. J. Conway
- A. Cook
- Basil P. Coukis
- Denny Cowen
- E. Cox
- S. R. Dalton (A)
- Jack Darlington (A)
- Ron Deacon (A)
- Pat Doolan (AN)
- Charles Duncombe
- Mrs Duncombe *
- D. Egan
- Paul Enever (AN)
- Cyril Evans
- Frances Evans (A)
- Rory Faulkner
- John Russell Fearn (AN)
- Reg Fieldhouse
- Margaret Finch (A)
- Cyril Fleisher (AN)
- Pete Fox
- A. Francis
- Dave Gardner (A)
- George Gibson
- Walter Gillings (A)
- Frances Glynn (AN)
- Joy Goodwin (A)
- Irene Gore (A)
- John Gregor
- John Gunn (A)
- John B. Hall
- Peter Hamilton (A)
- Paul Hammett (AN)
- Harry Hanlon (AN)
- Ernest Harmer
- C. A. Harper
- Chuck Harris (A)
- Bill Harrison (AN)
- Jerry Heydemann
- Lynn Hickman
- Arthur F. Hillman
- Mrs G. M. Hills
- Alf Hind (A)
- E. R. James (A)
- Jan Jansen
- Terry Jeeves (A)
- Leslie J. Johnson (AN)
- K. Johnstone
- Herbert Jones
- M. Kelly
- Colin Lane
- Al Lee
- Gene Lees (AN)
- Brian Lewis (A)
- Geoff Lewis (A)
- Ethel Lindsay (A)
- Nigel Lindsay
- Thomas L. MacDonald
- Connie Mackenzie (AN)
- Stuart Mackenzie (A)
- Shirley Marriott (A)
- Donald McCormick
- Ken McIntyre (A)
- Archie Mercer[4]
- Frank Milnes (A)
- Jim Mooney
- Eric Needham (A)
- Dave Newman (A)
- Stan Nuttall (AN)
- Cathy Overton (AN)
- Bill Panter
- Colin Parsons
- Alistair Paterson (A)
- J. N. Phillips
- Derek Pickles
- Marjorie Pickles
- Ken Potter (A)
- Robert Presslie
- Bill Price
- Fred Price
- Jim Ratigan (AN)
- Peter Reaney (AN)
- George Richards
- Fred Robinson (A)
- John Roles (A)
- J. Michael Rosenblum (A)
- D. A Rozier
- Sandy Sanderson (A)
- Bob Shaw (A)
- Sadie Shaw
- G. A. Shiel
- Ina Shorrock (A)
- Norman Shorrock (A)
- Dag Siggerud
- Frank Simpson (A)
- Ken Slater
- Jack Smillie (A)
- Fred Smith (A)
- K. E. Smith
- Les Swinburne
- G. B. Tait
- Arthur H. Tavinder
- Pete Taylor (A)
- Stan Thomas[5] (A)
- Tony Thorne (A)
- A. Tomlinson
- Ted Tubb (AN)
- Harry Turner (A)
- Brian Varley (AN)
- M. Wallace
- Norman Wansborough (A)
- Norman Weedall (AN)
- Betty White (AN)
- E. White[6]
- James White (A)
- Tom White (A)
- S. B. Whitehead
- A. Williams
- Taffy Williams
- Madeleine Willis (A)
- Walter A. Willis (A)
- Jack Wilson
- R. Wingfield
- Geoff Wingrove
- John A. Wiseman
- R. Yates
- Cathie Youden[7] (A)
It is worth noting that Bert Campbell didn't attend. He tried to go but his motorbike broke down on the way and he never arrived.
The convention[edit]
Publications[edit]
The SuperMancon Combozine was produced for the convention. It includes special issues of Space Times, Alpha, Medway Journal, BEM, Orbit, Zenith, Brennschluss and Space Diversions as well as trail for the forthcoming Femizine and what purported to be an extract from the twentieth issue of Nirvana, a fanzine where subscriptions were by invitation only.
- SuperMancon publications and photos on fanac.org.
- Pictures at efanzines.
- Article with pictures by Rob Hansen.
Future conventions[edit]
____
- ↑ Actually 135 but two appear to be duplicates.
- ↑ ... because she didn't exist.
- ↑ Oddly, the Dave Cohen on the membership list is an Australian and not the Dave Cohen who chaired the convention.
- ↑ The membership list also includes A. Mercer who is presumably a duplicate.
- ↑ Listed twice on the membership list as S. Thomas.
- ↑ The assumption is that this isn't Betty White as while Betty may be a diminutive for Elizabeth this person lived in Bimringham while the Whites lived in Bradford.
- ↑ Her name is given as 'Yonden' in the souvenir book.
Coroncon | Eastercon | Cytricon |
Mancon | Mancon | Thirdmancon |
1954 |
This is a convention page. Please extend it by adding information about the convention, including dates, GoHs, convention chairman, locale, sponsoring organization, external links to convention pages, awards given, the program, notable events, anecdotes, pictures, scans of publications, pictures of T-shirts, con reports, etc. |