Fanfarade

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Title:	Fanfarade
Creator:	Donald A. Wollheim
Date(s):	1930s-1940s
Medium:	Print
Fandom:	Science Fiction
Topic:	New Fandom, the Triumvirs, The Great Exclusion Act
External Links:	Hosted online by the Iowa Digital Library; The Science Fiction Fan #36, pp. 3-4. July 1939.
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Fanfarade was an occasional column by Donald A. Wollheim that was printed in The Science Fiction Fan.

March 1939

• The possibility of space travel
• The Spanish Civil War; the Science Committee Against Fascism gathering signatures for a resolution
• Robert A. W. Lowndes buying a duplicating machine for his zine Strange
• Fred Pohl and Leslie Perri's engagement
• Upcoming publication of Finnegans Wake (mistaken as Flanigan's Wake); Wollheim assures readers that James Joyce is of interest to fantasy fans based on Ulysses

July 1939

Subjects

• The New Fandom-Futurians feud
• The misdeeds of the Triumvirs
• Wollheim was originally chosen to be chairman of the first Worldcon; his former friend William S. Sykora tried to appoint a new committee at the Newark Convention after arguing with another Futurian, David A. Kyle. When this failed, he started New Fandom and maintained complete control over planning the con with Sam Moskowitz and James V. Taurasi.
• Wollheim omits the fact that he and his friends were the ones who impeached Taurasi from the GNYSFL
• The Great Exclusion Act
• Wollheim elides the fact that David A. Kyle was planning to distribute A Warning! even before the Futurians were kicked out, that Kyle was one of the Futurians himself, and moreover had played a key part in the Sykora-Futurians feud. However, Taurasi first stopped Wollheim's group of six Futurians at the door because of their pre-existing feud, and New Fandom had in fact discussed excluding them before the convention.
• The Futurians' mini-con that was held on the third day of the convention and attended by some other fans

Text

The "World" Science Fiction Convention has come and gone. For over two years the thought of it has occupied the minds of science fiction. Since your correspondent first conceived the idea and broached it at the Second Eastern S. F. Convention in February 1937, the plan has grown, changed forms, gone through conflicts, various schisms, etc. The rightful Convention Committee ,headed by myself, was forced out of action after a long series of onslaughts lead by William Sykora to satisfy his own personal vanity and petty ambition. He had lead an attack on it steadily not hesitating to use the most unscrupulous methods, never hesitating to make empty promises or to break his word in order to gain his end. He held one Convention in Newark in order only to appoint a new committee--appointing that committee he found that he dared not even trust his own appointees and never called a meeting of that. Finally he worked up an organization which he called "New Fandom" and which he ran without benefit of elections, constitution, open membership lists, etc. for the objective of gathering money from fandom to finance a convention. In connection with two henchmen, James Taurasi who had been impeached twice as Director of the GNYSFL for refusing democratic procedure, and Sam Moskowitz who had made himself the laughing stock of fandom by his blustering and empty writings, Sykora ran New Fandom towards the Convention.

The Convention has been and gone. According to the original plans as first worked out in 1937, it was to be a fan convention to discuss for the first time the problems of fandom, the problems of science fiction and the world. The opportunity of getting fans together across thousands of miles could not be let slip without solving the problems of fandom by discussion. But the New Fandom leadership never dared face open discussion. Their hands were too dirty, their record too shabby to face such things. So it was necessary for them to run the convention through dictatorially, threatening any opinion at variance with theirs and with rough-tactics, threats, and general hoodlum methods. They had boasted that they would get 1000 people to attend. The asininity of "New Fandom", the emptyness of their plans, the general bad-odor arising from their tactics kept dozens away. Though about a dozen British fans had promised to attend, due to what happened, none showed up. No national boundary was crossed. A total of perhaps 150 attended, the out-of-towners accounted for perhaps 25 or 30. The convention ran through all right. A few stock pat speeches, no resolutions, no debates, no discussions. Of course fans met and fans discussed things--but off the floor not on it. Hoodlum tactics and fraudulent reasoning barred entry to the floor to six supporters of science-fiction.

During the entire session as a result an element entirely new to stf occurred--underground activity. Where freedom of thought is supressed officially, it will grow unofficially. During the entire first session work went on from mouth to mouth to rally fans against the undemocratic actions of the cavorting trio in control of the rostrum. A printed pamphlet exposing them, which had been published by David A. Kyle for the Association for Democracy in Science Fiction Fandom, was sureptitiously circulated. Steadily pressure was kept up on the infamous trio to open the doors, fans, writers, editors, their wives all demanded the admittance of those barred. The answer by Syroka was that if they were admitted he would close the hall and turn everyone out in the street. When Kyle seized the floor towards the end and managed to bring the subject up mention of the names was greeted by prolonged applause by the overwhelming majority of those present. But it was to no avail.

The convention has come and gone. Many fans came to New York, a good time was definitely had by those who did in spite of the New Fandom infamies. The Futurians rallied magnificently and helped make the visit one to be remembered. On July 4th, there was an open meeting of the Futurian Society at which many out-of-towners attended. This was the only open forum held at the convention period. On the floor of the Futurians were threshed out such problems as the question of future fan organization, the next convention (it was decided to back the convention offer of the Chicagoans for July 1940), the question of michelism. Decisions reached at this Futurian meeting will in the long run outweigh anything that had gone before at the Convention proper (remembering that NO decisions or resolutions or any sort had come up before that body.

About the only things worth really recording at the convention was the showing of the motion picture Metropolis and the auction held in the evenings.

In afterthought, there can be no possible doubt that the convention could have been two or three times as big, could have been a rousing success in every way, could have rallied England, could have made lasting and permanent contributions to science-fiction had it been run democratically, in the open, and on the level. The failure to handle the affair openly cost it plenty. Many fans did not turn up because of the secrecy concerning the meeting place and the times. Others received no answers to their queries. Others received answers poorly written on poor mimeography that would discourage any but the hardiest. The whole difficulty in every case can be laid to the incompetance, self-seeking, and dishonorability of the trio who had usurped and twisted the convention. Practically every one who did attend is determined that it shall not happen that way again.

July 1940

Subjects:

• The hotly anticipated Chicon I, being planned by Mark Reinsberg and Bob Tucker of the Illini Fantasy Fictioneers; Reinsberg and Tucker's public letter to Sam Moskowitz and Will Sykora in the Fantasy Fictioneer
• "Does anyone know the present whereabouts of George Gallet, Maurice Hanson, and James Rathbone, all of whom are fans with the warring forces in France (or maybe once Belgium). Likewise what has happened to Heinrich Haussler, the LASFS tame Nazi, since the war began?"
• The failure of English fan Ted Carnell's fanzine New Worlds
• Under pressure from the post office, pro magazines Terror Tales and Horror Stories have been forced to stop printing anything containing "girl torture"; weird fiction "of a gory and fierce variety" still to be featured; Sinister Stories, Startling Mystery, Uncanny Tales and Mystery Tales all defunct for the same reason
• Membership of the Science Fictioneers approaching 300, membership in Futurian League over 75

• Robert Heinlein, E.E. Smith and Stanton A. Coblentz to visit New York; upcoming fans/pros visiting will be Walter Sullivan, C.L. Moore, Virginia Kidd, Louis Russell Chauvenet and Mary G. Byers
• Charles D. Hornig now on the West Coast advertising as a science fiction expert in writers' magazines; Science Fiction and Future Fiction receiving complaints for not paying their writers. Wollheim accuses Hornig of repeating the mistakes of Wonder Stories and Hugo Gernsback