Joe Gilbert
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Joe Gilbert |
| Alias(es): | |
| Type: | Editor, zine contributor |
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Joe Gilbert was an early science fiction fan. Fancyclopedia lists him and Harry Jenkins, Jr. as the first to use the word actifan in print. He was a charter member of the National Fantasy Fan Federation.[1]
Gilbert was a member of the Stranger Club, and wrote a column for its zine Fanfare called Slan!-der. He wasn't fond of the Futurians or the Triumvirs of New Fandom, but was one of the few voices in fandom to speak up in mild support for the Triumvirs after the Great Exclusion Act of 1939.[2]
Slan!-der
While on the subject of polls, it shouldn't be out of place to select there the year's outstanding fan stuff. Here goes:Best new fanmags: PLUTO and SNIDE.
Best fan art work: Widner's cover for August POLARIS
Best -- and least true -- motto: Fortier's VOMET WITH THE COMET
Best all around fanmag: SPACEWAYS.
Best fan articles: Rothman's SCIENCE FICTION IS ESCAPE LITERATURE, and Speer's WHEN A FONE POLE GOT IN THE WAY.
Most egotistical article: Jones' CONCERNING PROFESSOR JAMESON.
Most quoted quotation: Moskowitz's [description of Worldcon 1939 as] "Unendurable pleasure, indefinitely prolonged."
Most disliked editor: Ray Palmer.
Most consistently sloppy fanmags: SUNSPOTS and NEW FANDOM.
Lousiest fan articles: Gilbert's MAKINGS OF A MISOGYNIST and Gardner's CRITIQUE. There may be some argument over the first nine, but I doubt if there'll be much brawling over the last two.
Fanfare issue 5 pg. 13 (Dec. 1940)
Gilbert described in the same issue some "fan tags":
Damon Knight's trick of spelling his name with small letters.
Bob Tucker's "Cheerio Chum" and penchant for nekkid wimmin.
Ackerman's word slaughter, Esperanto, Technocracy, et cetera, far into the nyt. (Xept that 4e is no Technocrat.--eds)
Sam Moskowitz's overwhelming interest in the absorbing topic of Sam Moskowitz.
D. B. Thompson's letter headings, and monthly letters to the pros.
Leslie Perri's non-capitalization.
"The English language's command of Alan Roberts", to quot Bill Temple.
Jack Miske's affectation of disliking everything and everybody -- except Jack Miske.
Fred Shroyer's fondness for the infinite variations fo the farmer's daughter-travelling salesman classic, and deep belief in nothing at all.
Elmer Perdue's Jurgenish philosophy and long hair.
And remember T. O'Connor Sloane, and his "This letter speaks for itself"?
Fanfare issue 5 pg. 14 (Dec. 1940)
Seems rather strange doesn't it?---that motion pictures have not played a bigger part in fandom. Not pro productions, but amateur. Tucker and Roberds have been planning to make a 16mm fantasy since way back when, but the expense seems to have been prohibitive. It's been an item on the Queens SFL activity since Foo knows when, but outside of a few brief shots of members, nothing has ever come of it.FANTASITE (Phil Bronson's mag, and a darn good one...) reports tho, that the MINNEAPOLIS FANTASY SOCIETY is palnning a number of short pictures in the near future, the first being "A Day in the Life of a Fan," providing that Oliver Saari can be persuaded with anything less forcefully direct than a baseball bat, to play the lead role. These shorts may develop, in time, into a full-length feature.
Joe Gilbert: "Slan!-der". Fanfare #7 pg. 11, Aug. 1941.
Gilbert further suggested that a fan film be created at a convention, to be rented by fans for a small fee and shown again at the convention next year. He suggested Bob Tucker, Forrest J Ackerman, "the Feudurians" or Fred W. Fischer for the script, with the editor adding Art Gnaedinger; Bob Tucker as editor on the strength of Monsters of the Moon, a film he cut together for Chicon I; and Harry Warner, Jr. for composer. He also suggested that members of the LASFL be the ones to handle "fan dramas" to be filmed at cons: "Imagine Miske as a mad Russian; Widner as Giles Habibbula; Ackerman as a superman; Pogo or Trudy as the sweet young thing; old "Hiss and Tell" Koenig as the kindly old scientist with a bright word for everyone; and Tucker as the wily oriental; Bradbury as the dashing young hero. And Gilbert, of course, is a natural for the monster."
References
- ^ Joe Gilbert on Fancyclopedia.
- ^ Joe Gilbert: "The entire thing was entirely unpremeditated, where the New Fandom lads are concerned, I sincerely believe. But the behavior of the futuries was obvious deliberately designed towards sabotage....Then too, while all this childish uproar over fair play, was going on, what behaloed guardian, of the righteous, thought to ask Sam [Moskowitz] for his side of the affair? Not one damn person. That was a beautiful example of fair-mindedness, wasn't it?" Voice of the Imagi-Nation issue 5 pg. 8 (April 1940)