Alamo City Con
| Star Trek Convention | |
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| Name: | Alamo City Con |
| Dates: | November 13-20, 1977 (eight days?!) |
| Frequency: | |
| Location: | San Antonio, Texas |
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| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Alamo City Con took place in 1977 in San Antonio, Texas at the Tropicana Hotel.
Two of the guests of honor were Walter Koenig and Grace Lee Whitney. The fan guests of honor were Jean Lorrah and Jackie Lichtenberg.
It is unknown if it had other media focus, but there was a large Star Trek contingent, including a Kraith Affirmation Ceremony.
Con Report
By Dixie Owen in WXYZine #1:
There was no reason to believe this little Con would be any other than the usual standard Texas one ,with the giant dealers room a big tail wagging the tiny planned-program dog. So when I agreed to meet folks over there who lived a lot nearer, we all lugged along plenty of zines, scrap-books and slides to entertain each other, if it came to that. But somewhere along the way, to our delight, the planners had excellent fan input — and Alamo City Con became almost a fan-Con, with fan GoH writers Jean Lorrah and Jackie Lichtenberg putting on cost absorbing panels, and even an impressive Kraith Affirmation. This is not to say that there were not the usual attractions of cast guests, costume call, trivia contest, and even a dance Saturday night; but for the serious fen, having the guest-writers separated the sheep from the goats. Con-wise. Grace Lee Whitney and Walter Koenig were their usual low-key modest selves, mingling with the crowds and cheerily participating in everything they were asked to do ...this added to the feeling of one big happy ST family that was present in this gathering. It was hard to tell how many folks were in attendance, as although badges were seen to number above 1000 by Sunday, none of the film rooms held more than about 400, and I suspect that a lot of guests were coming day by day and regestering. It was held at the Tropicana Hotel, really more of a hotel, with rooms very comfortable and I thought reasonable, with Terry Martin's/my nice double going for $29.00 a night.
It was a ten-hour drive for me to S.A, on Thursday, but I had Terry 's company from Houston on, Jean Lorrah had written that she and Jackie would be arriving Thursday night, and the Con flyer premised the action would begin Friday (no registration time mentioned) , so we were all set to have a great time when we cade it to the desk for check-in about 6 pm. We thought. The desk told us no one connected with the Con was anywhere on the premises, and that only two other guests had arrived. We were told Jackie and Jean would be arriving shortly. So we opted to unpack, catch the local ST hour, and make our appearance at the hotel restaurant at a fashionable hour. We soon repaired to the lobby tc await the arrivals of friendly faces...or t-shirts, or Spock buttons...anything to indicate that we were not alone in suffering the curious stares of the normal hotel population. Bulletins kept arriving from the airport-planes delayed, connections missed, and it was not until after 9 that Jackie and Jean finally arrived, friendly and cheerful as always, but slowed by fatigue and bothered with all the delays. We fell on them with glad cries of joy, but it was clear that they needed not rap sessions, but good bed rest, so we saw them off to their rooms and gloomily returned to ours to read zinee and try fitfully to reach the one Con helper we knew, just to be in touch with somebody. To no avail, however, probably had her phone off the hook that night.
We did catch up with her the next doming, and established our room as a place where she and her friends could flop for a quick rest or zine-read in between their regular jobs. We also found out to our horror that registration would not begin until 4 p.m., and that no programming began until 6. This left another long day to be filled, with not even a program to study and plan from. Thanks to the ingenuity of our next door neighbor, however, by noon a program had been bootlegged for perusal — with the promise that it was on its way to Jackie and Jean's room. Which it was, but not before we had learned 14 hours of ST episodes were scheduled and numerous showings of the blooper reel, 12 old movies varying from
[much snipped, do to the inability to read the terrible mimeo, but there is a LOT about the Kraith Affirmation Ceremony led by Lichtenberg: includes filmy chiffon dresses, flickering candles, sunset, chalices, music, and sinking to the floor.]