EclectiCon (California)

You may be looking for EclectiCon (New Jersey).

Convention
Name:	EclectiCon
Dates:	1987-1991
Frequency:
Location:	Sacramento, California
Type:
Focus:
Organization:
Founder:
Founding Date:
URL:
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EclectiCon was a science fiction and fantasy con in Sacramento.

1987

EclectiCon 1 ran from Feb. 13 to 15, 1987. The convention program book contains 28 pages and is 53.5x8.5 inches. One Guest of Honor was Stephen Goldin.

From staff member and attendee Kevin Standlee:

As I recall, the Eclecticon in question was held at "Red Lion's Sacramento Inn," a hotel in Sacramento near Cal Expo on the opposite side of Arden Way from the Red Lion Inn Sacramento. The Sacramento Inn was a rather haphazardly built hotel, with each of its seven wings built at different times and maybe even owners and thus in different styles. The seventh and final wing, built after it was rebranded a Red Lion and the function space remodeled to the Red Lion house style, was the only one that actually looked like the other Red Lions. The RL Sacramento Inn was also the overflow hotel for the last Sacramento Westercon (1985), which was in the "Big Red" on the other side of Arden Way. I stayed at the RLSI, and boy was it a hassle to get over to the main hotel. Arden Way is an eight-lane expressway!

1988

The convention program book contains 36 pages and is 53.5x8.5 inches.

1988 program book, artists: George Barr, Rick Sternbach and others

1990

This was the fourth convention and was held February 16–18. Two of the guests in 1990 were John Levene and Richard Chavez. A fan remembers that it was "small", and it was the convention that introduced her to fanzines.

A con report:

Well, yet another con has come and gone in the Bay Area, and yet another one

was horrible devoid of comic-related panels and guests. (Luckily, though, I know some on the Con Com people, so I'll suggest they contact the Eclipse crew, if no one else, for next year's con. Russian River is only an hour or

so north of Sacramento.)

Guest of Honor was Greg Bear. Toastmaster was John DeCles. Other guests of note were Fritz Leiber, Rick Sternbach, and Paul (sp?) Anderson.

Featured in the Masquerade was a very convincing Lobo.

A handful of furry hall costumes were present, including my Randy Puritan. Most (all?) were feline.

The best attended panel of the con (even more than Sternabach's ST:TNG Slide Show) was "Gender Benders" (or "This is the Panel Your Mother Warned You About") feturing John DeCles and Mary Mason (of "The John and Mary Sex Show"), one of the moderators of the Human Sexuality forums on Compu$erve, and three gender-benders (in drag): Peggy Cwick, Kayla Allen, and Randy Puritan. (Yeah, I was invited to be on the panel after Kayla's alter-ego saw my outfit at SiliCon. I didn't shave the moustache, though, making it more gender-f*ck than bent. For the curious, Randy is my personal furry, a dancer/performer who sometimes does drag, when it's called for. Randy was only in drag for the panel; he was "normal" on the previous day.)

(I was also on the Twin Peaks [R.I.P. B-(] panel, ostensibly as moderator. I supplied the damn fine doughnuts.)

The furry party (hosted by Yarf!, as usual for this area) was fairly well attended, with probably 15-20 people drifting in through the night. The party scene was quite small, with only two parties on Sunday night.}}

1991

This was the last ElectiCon held.

Some Photos

• 1991 Gender Bender panel participant, photo taken Kevin Standlee

Some Video

• EclectiCon 2 Dealers Room Footage, video taken by Mark Merlino
• ConFurence 1 Furry Room party at EclectiCon 2, video taken by Mark Merlino
• EclectiCon 1 Costume Presentation, video taken by Mark Merlino