Midgicon
| From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944 |
| "Midget Chicon", a gathering of Tucker, Ashley, Liebscher, and other fen of the area in Chicago, IL in the spring of '43; they prowled the bookshops, and at a hotel-room gathering, the idea of a Slan Center was first presented. |
Al Ashley wrote a conrep in En Garde! 6, June 1943, pp. 10–12 (page images only, but Harry Warner, Jr., republished it in Horizons 152, Feb 1978, which is available OCRed). He gives the date just as "Easter Monday," which was exceptionally late that year, on April 26.
The eight participants were: Al and Abby Lu Ashley, Dal Coger and Earl and Helen Perry, from Battle Creek; Walt Liebscher from Joliet, IL; Frank Robinson, from Chicago; and Bob Tucker from Bloomington, IL.
At the Battle Creek station at an early hour, the Ashleys and Perrys met Coger, who "had been way up in the northern part of the state the day before. He wired his mother to meet him at the station in Jackson with some money and a clean shirt. When his train pulled in there, she handed the stuff through the window to him and he went on." In Chicago, they were expected by Liebscher, Robinson and Tucker. After a day of book buying and a bad restaurant, the visitors found a hotel and the idea of Slan Center was discussed in presence of all. This discussion was satirically recapped in Midgiconsensus (online here), a FAPA one-shot credited in a handwritten note to "Rooster."
Tuesday, the 27th, was spent in the Field Museum (except for Robinson, who mistakenly went to the Museum of Science and Industry instead), sightseeing, getting more books and a "cheap suitcase" for them, which promptly lost its handle and had to be repaired. Afterward, the Perrys had to return home, but the rest decided to visit Walt in Joliet. After "a swell spaghetti dinner" by his mother, they found another hotel and (without Abby Lu, who "was sleepy") "had a bull session. Conversation drifted around to things psychopathic," and "the gentle veil was stripped from Life to reveal it in all its shuddering reality" for Frank. In the morning, the Michifen "headed for home."
See Early Conventions, fan visits, fan gatherings.
| Convention | |
| 1943 |
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