Zebra Con/1987

Zebra Con 7 (1987)

Zebra Con 7 was held October 10–13, 1987 in the Chicago area near the O'Hare airport. It was billed as the Starsky & Hutch/The Professionals convention.

There were 167 attendees and 23 supporting members.

Some of of it was videotaped and sold, but in October 1988, some fans were concerned that they'd not reviewed the tapes for which they had paid.

The con skit was "The Thousandth Goliath," a parody of two zines, The Thousandth Man and Goliath.

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  the flyer for Zebracon 7 from The Who Do We Trust Times #5, click to read

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  the 1987 program book

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  the fearless leaders

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  a "No Smoking" sign by Karen Eaton

In Case of TPTB Presence

From the program book: "Only members of ZEBRA CON are allowed in the dealers rooms. Should Dave Rogers and/or Brian Clemens wish to see the dealers rooms, a special time will be set aside and all dealers informed, so they can stay or close as they wish."

Art and Fiction Awards

See Huggy Awards.

Some Art Show Tidbits

The below is from the program book:

The erotic art had its own section.

Art subjects: "All artwork must be genre-related (cops, spys [sic], and agents). Other roles of the various actors and actresses are acceptable, but please exercise good judgement. There are other markets for SF, fantasy, etc."

Who's the boss? "[Jean C] is BOSS. All questions, suggestions, and complaints should be directed to her, and her decisions are final. ("When in doubt, the answer is 'no'.") Zebra Con reserves the right to change any or all of the following rules if the need arises."

From the program book: "The Art Show will, as usual, be videotaped. If you do not wish your work to be on the tape, please tell Jean when you check in."

As stated above, the auction will take place Sunday night at approximately 10:30 pm, and should take about 2 hours. Auction procedure will be explained at that time. Buyers may pick up their art on Monday morning from the Con Suite after 10:00 am. Come any earlier and we'll be nasty. (If you're leaving right after the auction, or at the crack of dawn on Monday, talk to Jean when the auction is over and she'll make special arrangements.) WE accept cash, checks, and traveler's checks - no plastic, sorry.

The erotica auction will take place at about 11:30. Once those pieces are done, we will continue with the regular auction. We will also have some Charity and Fan Fund items this year, which will be inter spersed with the rest of the artwork.

Contests

From the program book:

No doubt you have all noticed, by now, the eight large photos of Our Boys out at the Registration table...you have noticed, haven't you? We knew you were bright. Well, they're there for another reason besides being nice to look at - this is our Caption Contest.

The object being (obviously) to come up with the best caption for each photo. Winners will be read at the Awards on Sunday night, and the prizes will be the photos themselves. Just what you always wanted, right? Judging will be by the scrupulously fair Con Committee, who would never even think of taking bribes, no sir. Originality counts. So does legibility... anything that can make us laugh by this point of the con is bound to win.

That was the first contest - we have another. (We always have another...) This one is even sillier: a Bulwer-Lytton Contest! A what? you ask??? This is a contest to write the absolutely worst opening line to a fan story that you can think of. It can be S&H, S/H, B&D, B/D, or any combination thereof...just so long as it's awful. The worst one wins...and if any of you would like to be perverse and write the worst closing line for a story, we'll have a Lytton-Bulwer contest as well. Winning lines will be read at the Awards. It was a dark and stormy night... (that one's been done, darn it!) Lines from actual fan stories are not to be used - if we recognize it, it'll be disqualified.

We are also having a different sort of trivia con test this year - more like a game show. There is space for 12 contestants, and a sign-up sheet at Registration. Rounds 1 and 2 will be Saturday, with the Final Round on Sunday to determine the winner. Come and play studio audience if you'd rather watch than play.

One of the contests was a trivia contest (prize was a free membership to next year's con). A fan later congratulates another fan:

Maria, congratulations on winning the TRIVIA CONTEST for Starsky and Hutch. It wasn't meant to be a SH vs. PRO'S, but that's the way it ended up. Maria's winning was quite a feat by the way, since she didn't know ANY of the Professionals questions and had to pick up all of her points by answering the SH trivia questions. I think she May have missed all of three of the questions asked her. Her competition on the other hand had some SH knowledge and was well versed in the MISCELLANEOUS category as well. Good job, Maria. You definitely know your Starsky an Hutch trivia.

The Charity

From the program book:

CHARITY Our charity this year is the National Arbor Foundation we are planting a tree for fandom! Hopefully more than one - depending on how much we can raise. We figured we could pay Mother Nature back a bit for all the trees that have been made into the paper without which we would have no fandom...and zines would be awfully hard to read, too. Any items given to the Art Show for charity will have their hanging

fees waived. We will also be making a donation out of our profits, and of course all the money raised in the raffle will go directly to the charity. So buy a chance or 6 at George, our Delightful Dinosaur - and help Plant a Tree for Fandom!

Red Dot Equals Party

From the program book:

A red dot on your membership badge means you have signed up for the party. We will be checking badges at the door, so if you are not signed up, please do not try to get in during the hour from 7:30 to 8:30 on Sunday. At8:30 we will open the doors,and those members who did not attend the party can come in for the Awards, Entertainment, etc. portion of the evening. We will be keeping the cash bar up until 10:00 pm. so you may get drinks whether you have attended the party or not.

Never Say Never: The Fan Fund

The info below contradicts the fact that there were other fan funds and recipients at previous ZebraCons.

From the program book:

Yes, you're right, Zebra Con has never had a Fan Fund. We've never really wanted to do one, preferring to channel our altruistic energies into our charities. This year, however, through some extraordinary circumstances, we have a chance, not only to help a friend, but to show our affection for and gratitude to a lady who has given a lot to every fandom with which she has been involved.

This year, Ruth Kurz has been cursed with the worse sort of luck imaginable. (A lot of you know the story, so we're not going to go into it here.) In consideration of all the friendship and encouragement she's shown to so many of us - the letters (Ruth is one of the few people in these fandoms who regularly LoCs editors; this alone qualifies her for a permanent place in the fannish hall of fame!), the artwork, the stories; all she's given to fandom over the years - Zebra Con has agreed to include a Fan Fund Auction in the Art Show. We encourage any sort of contribution (no, it doesn't have to be art work, or even genre-related) and we are waiving all our fees for these items.

If you have something to donate, get it down to the Art Room ASAP, and if you have money to spend, take a little extra time to look over the Fan Fund items then budget accordingly. There should be some good stuff down there. And if you have neither, well...good wishes and positive thinking are usually appreciated, too. Thanks in advance to all of you. Ruth - We love you.

Programming

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Convention Reports

[one of the panel discussions, Gimme That Old Mid-Life Crisis]: Unfortunately the panel turned out to be a severe disappointment to me; the room was packed with seething PROS fans, and the single most illuminating question raised in the hour long discussion was whether or not Doyle would ever bother to get his front teeth capped...