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 that 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]

It's unclear how exactly Manchester was selected as the venue for the 1954 convention. At the 1952 convention, Dave Cohen had made a bid for 1953 using the name Supermancon. The Manchester fans were already planning an event for autumn 1952 to be called Mancon and the Supermancon name was supposedly chosen to preempt the inevitable Walt Willis pun. However, that bid was easily defeated by what became the Coroncon although after the 1952 convention, Vin¢ Clarke, writing in the Science Fantasy News convention supplement, said 'There was a general feeling that Manchester, who were second in the voting, should have some sort of official backing next year [i.e. 1954] in any case'. The NWSFC's Space Times #11 (dated May 1953 but published after Coroncon) certainly assumed that the next convention would be the Supermancon, but Walt Willis, writing in Peri #3 (April 1954) quotes a letter from Fred Brown suggesting London fans were prepared to run the 1954 convention but 'if another town decides on a Convention site in Whitsun, 1954, we shall probably drop the idea of a Loncon'.

For whatever reason, the Supermancon became the 1954 convention. Memberships were 2/6. If any progress reports were issued they've not been traced. The convention was advertised in prozines and fanzines, notably Space Times.

One aspect of preparation, though, came from the London fans in the form of Operation Armageddon, 'A Plan To Brighten Up The Supermancon Without The Co-operation Of The Manchester Group'. Two bulletins were issued with ideas for disruptive acts, while a third, titled Operation Splash, was concerned with how the London contingent would complete the epic journey.

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.

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. Some fans were given to believe that 'Pat Mahaffey', sister of Bea Mahaffey, was at the convention although this was a hoax for which see Connie Mackenzie above. In his report for Hyphen #9 (July 1954) Chuck Harris mentions a 'Cathy Ouverton', a name that appears nowhere else and so seems likely a mishearing of Cathie Youden.

Notable first-time convention attendees include Ron Bennett and Ethel Lindsay.

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.

Future conventions[edit]

On the Sunday at a business session, Ted Tubb called for nominations for the 1955 convention and hearing none unilaterally decided it would be held in London and appointed Shirley Marriott to take memberships. It was only at some point after the convention that Denny Cowen volunteered himself and the Kettering Astronautics Society (or whatever they were called that week) to host the convention in Kettering.

A small detail is that after Supermancon the next Eastercon in Manchester was Mancon 5 in 1976, 22 years later (the intervening Thirdmancon and Chessmancon, while part of the Mancon sequence, were actually in Buxton and Chester respectively). After Mancon 5, the next Manchester Eastercon was Intuition in 1998, again a 22-year interval. Sadly, the organisers of Mancunicon in 2016 either couldn't count or had no sense of history – although had they stuck to the 22-year rotation plan then they'd have been at Easter 2020 which would have introduced a whole new level of complexity.

Links

SuperMancon publications and photos on fanac.org.
Pictures at efanzines.
Article with pictures by Rob Hansen.

____

↑ 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 and who is not himself on the membership list.
↑ 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 the 'M. Wallace' on the list is 'Mike Wallace'.
↑ The assumption is that this isn't Betty White as while Betty may be a diminutive for Elizabeth this person lived in Birmingham 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.

[1] Actually 135 but two appear to be duplicates.

[2] ... because she didn't exist.

[3] Oddly, the Dave Cohen on the membership list is an Australian and not the Dave Cohen who chaired the convention and who is not himself on the membership list.

[4] The membership list also includes A. Mercer who is presumably a duplicate.

[5] Listed twice on the membership list as S. Thomas.

[6] The assumption is that the 'M. Wallace' on the list is 'Mike Wallace'.

[7] The assumption is that this isn't Betty White as while Betty may be a diminutive for Elizabeth this person lived in Birmingham while the Whites lived in Bradford.

[8] Her name is given as 'Yonden' in the souvenir book.

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Supermancon

Contents

Preparations[edit]

Venue[edit]

Attendees[edit]

The convention[edit]

Publications[edit]

Future conventions[edit]

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