Colorado Fantasy Society
After the Chicon, Olon F. Wiggins and several other fans had formed the Colorado Fantasy Society, AKA the CFS to sponsor the Denvention for which it published the CFS Review. For the convention, Wiggins was director, Lew Martin was secretary-treasurer, and Roy Hunt was artist and editor. Other members included Robert Peterson, and Chuck Hansen. Meetings were irregular, and the club was active until about the end of 1941 when the United States entered World War Two and many of the fans enlisted in the military.
The club revived after the war, and started holding meetings at members' homes; it kept going in this way through the 50s and into the 60s. Members during this time included Chuck Friedenthal, Stan Mullen, Bob Johnson, Paul O'Connor, Charles Schneeman, Ellis Mills, Emile Greenleaf, and Norm Metcalf. Robert A. Heinlein, who lived further south in Colorado Springs at the time, also associated with the club; Mullen even lived in Heinlein's house while Heinlein was on a trip around the world. The Alchemist was effectively its clubzine.
When D. B. Thompson visited Denver after the War, he judged the CFS to be one of the most pleasant clubs he'd known. (Remember that fandom was still very young and feuding was almost a way of life in many places. The CFS seems to have been quite feud-free.)
In the mid 60s, the club gained an important new member named Camille Cazadessus (also known as Caz) whose interests were in small press book publishing and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Caz was an influence on the CFS, but after some differences of opinion with other club members, was also mostly responsible for the creation of a new Denver-area fan club, the Denver Area Science Fiction Association, (DASFA).
| From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944 |
| The publicity organization for the Denvention. |
| Club |
| This is a club page. Please extend it by adding information about when and where the club met, when and by whom it was founded, how long it was active, notable accomplishments, well-known members, clubzines, any conventions it ran, external links to the club's website, other club pages, etc.
When there's a floreat (Fl.), this indicates the time or times for which we have found evidence that the club existed. This is probably not going to represent the club's full lifetime, so please update it if you can! |
