Chicago Clubs

Chicago is another of those cities which has abounded with clubs over the years, many with confusingly similar names. Here are the clubs we know about arranged (roughly) in order of the date they were founded. The Floreat dates (fl.) cover the range of dates for which we have evidence the club was active. (The ranges are doubtless narrower than actual due to lack of information.)

Corrections are very welcome!

International Scientific Association

fl. 1928-38

The ISA was a science club which resulted from the merger of a Chicago club and and Alabama club. It is unclear that in its earliest years it was an SF club, though it later morphed into something like one. See International Scientific Association for much more.

Chicago Science Fiction League

Chicago Science Fiction Club

fl. 1935-38

The CSFL (also known as TCSFL) was founded by Walter Dennis in 1935 as chapter #14 of the SFL. The club attracted members including founder Paul McDermott, Jack Darrow, Allen Kline, Arthur Hermann, Otto Binder, Earl Binder, Jack Binder, and William Dellenback. Sam Moskowitz called it "the outstanding chapter of the time."

Three of the members, Darrow, Binder, and Dellenback, planned to visit New York that summer to meet members of the New York chapter of the SFL. Charles D. Hornig planned a chapter meeting to take place at the offices of Wonder Stories, but the Chicago delegates arrived a day late and missed the meeting, instead visiting with Hornig, Mort Weissinger, and Julius Schwartz. Arguably, had this meeting happened, this would have been the first science fiction convention.

The club published the clubzine The Fourteen Leaflet from November 1935 through Spring 1937. In 1937, it severed its ties with the SFL and renamed itself the Chicago Science Fiction Club, but by the time the final issue was published, many club members had left Chicago and the club soon went dormant.

In 1990, Las Vegas fans claimed control of the CSFL and this claim was not disputed. What they did with it is unknown.

The Chicago Science Fiction League (II) (below) was an entirely separate group.

Chicago Science Fictioneers

fl. 1930s

The Fictioneers was an early SF club in Chicago, formed by fan W. Lawrence Hamling, apparently to run Chicon I -- though this did not happen and the Chicon was run by the Illini Fantasy Fictioneers instead. Jack Darrow was also a member.

Windy City Wampires

fl. early 40s

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

Informal name for the gang in Chicago; apparently they have no organizational setup.

University of Chicago Science Fiction Club

University of Chicago Science Fiction Society

fl. 1950-1960s

University of Chicago Science Fiction Club (Society) was founded in 1950 by Tom Seidman, George D'Asaro, and John Boardman. It published The Journal of Science Fiction and was part of CHIAC.

In its early years, club meetings were so informal as to be pretty chaotic -- though they weren't dull. Its 1952 Halloween party included an imitation black mass, which gained it unwelcome notice by the university's President. Earl Kemp became club President in 1953. Its faculty adviser was Nobel-Prize-winning chemist Harold Urey!

In 1963, the club split into two groups. By this time, none of the members were students at the University of Chicago, and many felt that the club had become stale. George Price, who had been doing the club's program and sending out meeting notices wanted a more sf-oriented group and began hosting a monthly meeting (see#George W. Price) and Rosemary Hickey helped set up a monthly social group (including drinking) called the Chicago SF League.

Along with the (second) Chicago Science Fiction League, it was part of CHIAC.

Chicago Science Fiction Society

Chicon II Society

fl. 1950-53

The Chicago Science Fiction Society AKA Chicon II Society was the organization which ran Chicon II, which see for more.

CHIAC

fl. 1950s and 60s Not properly a club at a,,, CHIAC was Chicago fandom in the 1950s and ’60s, consisting of the (second) Chicago Science Fiction League and the University of Chicago SF Club. They put on the fannish plays, The Purple Pastures by Carl Brandon and Requiem for a Fake Fan by James O'Meara, jointly with LASFS at Pittcon in 1960.

Chicago Science Fiction League (II)

Chicago SF League

fl. 1962-??

When the University of Chicago Science Fiction Club fell apart, it broke into two entirely new clubs, one called itself the Chicago Science Fiction League (unrelated to the old Chicago SFL which was long gone.) It was formed around 1962 by Rosemary Hickey and held monthly meetings on the first Saturday night of each month (except in months when a convention took place) at the home of Rosemary Hickey at 2020 North Mohawk Street and later at the home of George Price.

At Chicon III in 1962, they sponsored an exhibition of the art of Richard M. Powers on the Saturday of the convention. The league compiled the exhibit separately from the con and paid rent on the room themselves, asking con-attendees for voluntary donations to offset the cost.

Along with University of Chicago SF Club, it was part of CHIAC.

George W. Price

fl. 1965-1985

As attendance and activity at the #University of Chicago Science Fiction Club dropped off, beginning in 1965, George W. Price began hosting parties at his home at 1439 W. North Shore Drive on the third Saturday of each month, which continued for 20 years. Many Chicago fen found fandom at George’s.

Eventually, the attendance changed from members of the University of Chicago club to members of the University of Illinois at Chicago Science Fiction Society and Armchair Speculators of DePaul University.

University of Chicago SF Society

fl. 1969-73

The University of Chicago SF Society was a new UofC club founded in April 1968 with Jerry Lapidus, Michael Jensen, Linda Kravinski and Charles Fuhrer as officers. By 1969, it was meeting in Ida Noyes Hall on campus. This club made a short-lived and unsuccessful bid for the 1973 Worldcon. See Chicago in '73.

Armchair Speculators of DePaul University

fl. 1970s

Founded in the early 70s, an active club which seems to have been a predecessor of General Technics. See Armchair Speculators of DePaul University for a much longer article.

University of Illinois at Chicago Science Fiction Society

fl. 1970s

(See University of Illinois SF Society for the Champaign-Urbana club.)

The University of Illinois at Chicago Science Fiction Society, a club at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle campus, published a clubzine, Tesseract, and fed heavily into Chicago fandom and Thursday.

In the 1970s, members included Robin Beal, E. Michael Blake, John Donat, Cory Glaberson, Kathy Hoover, Joy King, Jim Kobrinetz, Doug Price and Doug Rice.

Thursday

fl. 1970s and 80s

Thursday was an informal social gathering of Chicago fans which met weekly on Thursday nights during the 1970s and '80s. See Thursday for much more.

ISFiC

fl 1973-present

ISFiC is probably the most durable of all the Chicago clubs. It is not a social club, but is the group that runs Windycon. See ISFiC for a long article on the organization.

SFFNCS

Sphinx

fl. 1970s and 80s

SFFNCS, initialese for Science Fiction Fans of the Northwest Chicago Suburbs, was an informal club, began in the early 1970s, when Betty Hull and George Fergus, who had been regulars at George Price’s parties in the city, each moved out to the Northwest ’burbs.

The name was George’s idea, according to Betty: “I said, ‘That’s unpronounceable.’ He said, ‘We’ll pronounce it “Sphinx.”’” So they did.

Regulars included Hull, Fergus, Gene Wolfe, Phyllis and Alex Eisenstein, among others. The group was still going in the mid-’80s, when Hull married Fred Pohl. Leah Zeldes and Dick Smith attended meetings about then, too.

American Hobbit Association

Minas Aeron

fl 1977-89

The American Hobbit Association was a national Tolkien club that grew out of a Chicago club, Minas Aeron, and remained centered there. See American Hobbit Association for more.

Queen to Queen's Three

fl. 1979-present

A media SF club. Michael Jencevice has been its president from its inception in 1979 until his death in 2016. The current status of the club is unclear.

West Suburban Science Fiction Society

fl. 1979-82

A club located in the western suburbs of Chicago. It was founded by Ken Mason. {Could this be related to the West Suburban Group?}

Phandemonium

fl. 1981-present

Phandemonium is the organization which runs Capricon. See Capricon and Phandemonium for more.

49th Ward Regular Science Fiction Organization, Inc.

fl. late 80s

An Illinois 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation created by Neil Rest to sponsor the Bermuda Triangle Bid for the 1988 Worldcon. Rest was President, Alexia Hebel was VP, and Hillarie Riley was Secretary.

The group’s name was a joking reference to the Chicago Democratic Party machine.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum

fl. 1989

An apparently short-lived Chicago club.

The Nite Group

fl. 1989

An apparently short-lived Chicago club.

West Suburban Group

fl. 1989

An apparently short-lived Chicago club.

{Could this be related to the West Suburban Science Fiction Society?}

Twilight Tales

Fl. 1993-2008

A weekly reading series created by Tina Jens following Halloween in 1993. Generally held at the Red Lion Pub on Lincoln Avenue, across from the Biograph Theatre where John Dillinger was shot, the series hosted more than 500 authors, both established and unpublished before it was forced to close when the pub underwent "renovation" in 2008 from which it never re-opened. Attempts to move the reading series elsewhere met with limited success.

Some of the authors who read at Twilight Tales included Max Allan Collins, Brian Lumley, Yvonne Navarro, Melanie Tem, Gahan Wilson, Robert Weinberg, Gene Wolfe, Algis Budrys, and Jay Bonansinga.

The group that ran Twilight Tales, which also included Andrea Dubnick, published several volumes of the stories ranging from chap books to trade paperbacks that were read at the events.

Dubnick and Jens received a 2000 Bram Stoker nomination for their work on the series.

Super-Con-Duck-Tivity

fl. 1993-2014 The organization that sponsored and ran DucKon and presents the Golden Duck Awards, which see for more. It was centered in DuPage County which covers Chicago's western suburbs.

Tuesday Funk

Fl. 2008-present

Tuesday Funk is a monthly reading series founded in 2008 by Connor Coyne (coincidentally arriving on the scene as Twilight Tales was dying). Each month features five authors and a poetry reading in the Hopleaf Bar, located on N. Clark Street. Over the years, the series had various hosts. In 2010, sf author William Shunn took over the series, bringing on Andrew Huff as co-host in April 2013. Despite moving to New York City in June 2013, Shunn continued to host the series until that December, when sf writer Eden Robins joined Huff as co-host.

Readers at Tuesday Funk include both genre and non-genre readers. Some of the genre readers have included Richard Chwedyk, Bradley Beaulieu, John Klima, Rae Carson, Maurice Broaddus, Wesley Chu, Brenda Cooper, Steven H Silver, Mary Robinette Kowal, Daniel Kraus, James Kennedy, and more.

Chicago Worldcon Bid

fl. 2005-present?

The organization that sponsored two Chicago Worldcon bids and Chicon 7. See Chicago Worldcon Bid for more.

Chicago Deep Dish Readings

fl. 2017-present

The Deep Dish Reading Series was founded in 2017 by Mary Anne Mohanraj and the Speculative Literature Foundation. It has taken place quarterly at Volumes Book Cafe in Chicago, although the last scheduled reading on March 14, 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19 and the series remains on hiatus pending the end of the COVID pandemic. Chris Bauer is also one of the event's organizers.

Readers at the series have included Mohanraj, Mary Robinette Kowal, Richard Chwesyk, Sue Burke, Steven H Silver, David D. Levine, Cory Doctorow, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.