34th World Science Fiction Convention
MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention | |
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Genre | 501(c)(3) non-profit |
The 34th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as MidAmeriCon (abbreviated "MAC"), was held on 2–6 September 1976 at the Radisson Muehlebach Hotel and nearby Phillips House hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, United States.
The convention committee was chaired by Ken Keller, who had also chaired the "KC in '76" bid.
Participants
Attendance was 3,014, out of 4,200 paid memberships.
Guests of Honor
The Professional Guest of Honor at the convention was former Kansas Citian,
Longtime fan artist George Barr was the convention's Fan Guest of Honor. He created MidAmeriCon's official black-and-white logo artwork and painted the full-color, wrap-around dust jacket artwork used on the convention's 8.5″ × 11″ hardcover program book. Barr's hardcover art book, Upon the Winds of Yesterday from Donald F. Grant, Publisher, also made its debut at MidAmeriCon. It collects many examples of Barr's color and black-and-white fantasy and science fiction illustration.
Well known, long time fan and fan writer and professional science fiction and mystery writer Wilson Tucker (aka Bob Tucker) served as the convention's Toastmaster.
Programming and events
The Star Wars display
Listed in the MidAmeriCon pocket program was "The Star Wars Display" in Muehlebach Towers meeting room 364 (aka The Chapel). Charles Lippincott,
The Star Wars slide presentation
At 1:30 pm, on Saturday afternoon 4 September 1976, an hour-long presentation made up of
Forbidden Planet soundtrack and screening
The "electronic tonalities" soundtrack for the classic
First Hugo Losers party
For MidAmeriCon, science fiction and fantasy author George R. R. Martin, along with his good friend Gardner Dozois, organized the first-ever Hugo Losers Party. They first gathered together all the leftover but previously unfinished and opened bottles of wine and liquor, and all unopened beer, and all left-over snack foods from Sunday evening's many open room parties. This was for a uniquely themed "dead dog" party: It was to be a gathering spot for all past Hugo losers (and friends and family), set to happen Monday evening after the "official" closing ceremonies for MidAmeriCon that afternoon. Martin and Dozois had planned to host this open party should Martin lose either Hugo for which he had been nominated. He became the party's undisputed host when he lost in both MidAmeriCon Hugo Awards categories: for the novelette "...and Seven Times Never Kill Man" and the novella The Storms of Windhaven, written with Lisa Tuttle.
Whenever a past or current Hugo loser entered, Martin, standing atop his three-drawer-high room dresser, would take a swig directly from a liquor bottle, and in a loud voice announce, "Looooose," as his other arm, held on high, made a wide, sweeping downward arc, all to the delight of the assembled party goers. A little later at the party, writer Larry Niven was presented with a replacement Hugo Award by convention chairman Ken Keller. As Niven entered, from atop his dresser, Martin announced in a well-lubricated voice, "There's another loser, he broke his new Hugo". Niven had dropped and broken the award in a backstage stairwell shortly after winning it while rushing back to his auditorium seat. Niven quickly departed after receiving a loud round of good-natured boos and catcalls in response to Keller's presentation. In the years and decades that followed, the Hugo Losers Party became an annual event and evolved into one of the largest social gatherings held annually at every Worldcon.
First hardcover program and souvenir book
The convention also produced another first: a highly collectible hardcover 172 page program and souvenir book, edited and designed by Tom Reamy. The book contained articles, essays, an artists' portfolio illustrating scenes from the novels of Guest of Honor Robert A. Heinlein, fiction by Harlan Ellison and Howard Waldrop, as well as convention-related items like guest biographies, detailed film program notes, a membership list, and paid advertising. Only two other hardcovers have subsequently been done, one by the 45th World Science Fiction Convention and one by the 63rd World Science Fiction Convention.
Awards
The World Science Fiction Society administers and presents the Hugo Awards,[4] the oldest and most noteworthy award for science fiction. Selection of the recipients is by vote of the Worldcon members. Categories include novels and short fiction, artwork, dramatic presentations, and various professional and fandom activities.[4][5]
Other awards may be presented at Worldcon at the discretion of the individual convention committee. This has often included the national SF awards of the host country, such as the Japanese
Change of ceremony and format
At MidAmeriCon, the 22nd Annual Science Fiction Achievement Awards, the Hugos, were held for the very first time as a stand-alone, separate event and not given out during a traditional combined guests of honor speeches and awards banquet in the Radisson Muehlebach Hotel. Instead, Sunday evening of the convention, they were presented in the nearby 2600-seat Music Hall of Kansas City's Art Deco Municipal Auditorium complex, in keeping with MidAmeriCon's theme, "Science Fiction and the Arts".
As convention members entered the Art Deco opulence of the Music Hall to take their seats, they were greeted by a variety of popular 1930's show tunes playing from the auditorium's speakers. The house lights slowly fading to black announced the start of the Hugo ceremony. Multiple super trooper spotlights began quickly panning the curtained stage area, just as
Bob Tucker was assisted on stage throughout the ceremony by MAC committee member Pat Cadigan and Hugo Awards committee member India Boone. Cadigan brought each nominee envelope onstage to Tucker and Boone brought out each Hugo Award after he read each category's nominees and announced a recipient. Each came up on stage from a special reserved nominee's seating area at the center front of the Music Hall.
Following a brief intermission after the Hugo Awards presentation, Guest of Honor Robert A. Heinlein was given a lengthy introduction by Tucker. After coming onstage to a huge round of applause, he gave his guest of honor address to the assembled audience. This was followed by Tucker's concluding remarks and the close of the ceremony.
1976 Hugo Awards
- Best Novel: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
- Best Novella: "Home Is the Hangman" by Roger Zelazny
- Best Novelette: "The Borderland of Sol" by Larry Niven
- Best Short Story: "Catch That Zeppelin!" by Fritz Leiber
- Best Dramatic Presentation: A Boy and His Dog
- Best Professional Editor: Ben Bova
- Frank Kelly Freas
- Best Fanzine: Locus, edited by Charles N. Brown and Dena Brown
- Best Fan Writer: Richard E. Geis
- Best Fan Artist: Tim Kirk
First "themed" Hugo base
MidAmeriCon also presented another Worldcon first, a "themed" base used for the Hugo Award: "The Dragon and the Rocket". Instead of being made out of finished wood in square or angled stacked shapes, as in the past, all bases were cast from flexible molds using a marbled effect achieved by combining contrasting tinted porcelain powder layers with resin and a hardener. When cured, a low-luster clear outer finish was then applied. Each example featured a sculpted, just-hatched dragon (representing the fantasy genre) wrapped half-way around each round 4.5" tall base. The traditional 13" tall, four-finned Hugo rocket (representing science fiction) was John Millard's newer 1973 design; a dozen examples had been machined from billet aluminum stock and then finished with an overall semi-gloss clear outer coat. The flat top of each base had a 4-inch diameter, quarter-inch thick, sand-blasted aluminum "transition" disk that each rocket sat upon. The rocket and disc where then friction tightened to the base through its center using a long threaded bolt and nut; each base's round, flat bottom was then covered with adhesive-backed dark brown felt to hide the recessed attachment point. A curved black-and-silver engraved Hugo information plate was affixed by two screws to the front of each base (opposite the wrapped dragon). The overall base design concept was by convention chairman Ken Keller, with the final finished design and casting master sculpted by three-time Hugo Award-winning fan artist Tim Kirk (who went on to win his fourth Hugo in the same category that year).
Other awards
- Worldcon Special Achievement Award: James E. Gunn for Alternate Worlds, The Illustrated History of Science Fiction[8]
- Gandalf Grand Master Award: L. Sprague de Camp
- The E. Everett Evans Memorial "Big Heart" Award: Ronald E. Graham
- Harry Bates
See also
- Hugo Award
- Science fiction
- Speculative fiction
- World Science Fiction Society
- Worldcon
References
- ^ ""34th World Science Fiction Convention"". 1976.
- ^ As part of Heinlein's speech at the Hugo awards ceremony, he cautioned the audience to be prepared for the next war, which was coming. He didn't specify an enemy, just promoting the idea of preparation for an inevitable event. Coming just a couple of years after the end of the war in Viet Nam, this was an unwelcome message for many of the people in the audience, and he received some boos from people tired of war.
- ^ From Dennis Lynch, who was in the audience for that speech and was surprised at the audience response to his favorite author at the time.
- ^ a b "Article 3: Hugo Awards". WSFS Constitution. World Science Fiction Society. 2008. Archived from the original on May 20, 2011. Retrieved April 5, 2009.
- ^ Franklin, Jon (October 30, 1977). "Star roars: this year's champs in science fiction". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore, MD. p. D5. Archived from the original on March 8, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2011.
- ^ a b "Awards". Nippon2007: 65th World Science Fiction Convention. Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. Retrieved March 15, 2009.
- ^
"1976 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the originalon 2011-05-07. Retrieved 2013-08-17.
- ^ a b "The Long List of Hugo Awards, 1976". New England Science Fiction Association. 1976. Retrieved 2013-08-17.