[This is a text-only version of the Minicon 10 program book, created in 2009. It does not attempt to reproduce the formatting of the original (except when doing so is trivial), but rather is meant to be as accessible to people and computer programs as possible. This file does not contain the text of advertisements. Errors may have been made in transcription, others are lovingly reproduced from the original. Check the scans if it matters to you which are which.] MINICON TEN APRIL 18.19.20:1975 HOLIDAY INN DOWNTOWN MPLS MINN GUEST OF HONOR POUL ANDERSON Minicon 19 NOTES ON THE CON Because of the huge size of this Minicon, and due to the extremely expensive equipment here, we are forced to require all convention members to either wear their nametags for show their registration cards in order to enter any convention function or meeting room. We apologize for this inconvenience, but it is absolutely essential. PLEASE -- WEAR YOUR NAMETAG. BANQUET: Banquet tickets cost $6.25; this purchase entitles you to Centauran Chicken a la Xlqr, Transylvanian Gernc, plus assorted Tellurian Vegetables. A ticket also assures you the best seat in the house for the Guest of Honor speechifying to follow. The public is invited to attend the speeches even if they do not buy a banquet ticket, of course, and speechifying starts at 7:30 Saturday night. PARKING: You are guaranteed free parking if you are a convention member. If you are staying in the hotel, check your parking stubs at the hotel desk when you check out. If you are not rooming at the hotel, you must show your registration card or convention nametag to the hotel desk in order to have your parking stub validated. COMPLAINTS, INFORMATION AND SUCH: If you wish to volunteer to help the convention, or if you have any queries or complaints, please go to the Convention Registration Room (1169). A bulletin board for those wishing to leave messages, requests for rides or room-mates, is to be found here. VIDEO-TAPING: We will be video-taping large portions of the convention program, including the costume ball. For the use of the video equipment, we are immensely indebted to Blumberg Photo-Sound of Minneapolis, and to Scott Imes who acted as liaison between the convention and the Blumberg people. IMPORTANT: If you do not wish to be taped, you must contact the convention committee in the Registration Room. MASQUERADE BALL INFORMATION: All convention members are invited to attend this event, whether or not they are in costume. However, only those who are costumed may participate in the costume competition. If you wish to be in the competition, you must contact Bev Swanson before 5:00 PM Saturday, in the Registration Room (1169). DUFF AUCTION: The Saturday Auction (in the Hall of Satellites, 3:30 PM) will feature special materials in an auction for the Down Under Fan Fund (DUFF). Proceeds from this special auction go to send fans from Australia to American conventions and back, and American fans to Australian conventions and back again. SWIMMING POOL REGULATIONS: The Swimming Pool may be used by any convention member. It's open from Noon to 10 PM every day. Finally, it's a standing policy of the Minnesota Science Fiction Society to give one year's free subscription to the RUNE to all convention members. The RUNE is the club's amateur magazine. For this reason you must be sure to print your name, address and zipcode clearly when you register with the convention. If you don't give us your address and zipcode, we can't send you our fanzine. Hotel Agreement Letter of Agreement Between Minicon 10 and the Holiday Inn Downtown 1. Minicon 10 science fiction convention will be held at the Holiday Inn Downtown, 1313 Nicollet Ave,, Minneapolis, Minn,. on April 18-20, 1975. 2. All members of Minicon 10, whether registered guests of the Holiday Inn or not, will be able to park for free in the Holiday Inn parking deck, and will be able to use the swimming pool. 3. Guest room rates for members of Minicon 10 will be $19.00 per night for singles, $23.00 per night for doubles, $3.50 per additional person. 4. The Holiday Inn will provide Minicon 10 with a free parlor suite if 50 guest rooms are rented by members of Minicon 10. The Holiday Inn will also provide Minicon 10 with a free guest room for each additional 25 guest rooms rented by members of Minicon 10. 5. The Holiday Inn will assign guest rooms in such a manner that members of Minicon 10 are together as much as practical and non-members will be separate from Minicon 10 members as much as practical. 6. Check-out time for members of Minicon 10 will be extended on Sunday, April 20, 1975, to 5:00 p.m. 7. Minicon 10 will hold a banquet at the Holiday Inn on Saturday, April 19, 1975. Prices will be according to the schedule guaranteed to Minicon 10 on January 2, 1975. 8. The Holiday Inn will provide free of charge the Arcade Ballroom, the Hall of Avenues, and the Hall of Satellites for April 18-20, 1975. The locks for these rooms will be changed so that only the chairman of Minicon 10 and the engineer of the Holiday Inn can unlock these rooms. The Holiday Inn will also provide free of charge space in the Hall of Flags on Saturday, April 19, 1975, for the banquet. 9. There will be no time limit on Minicon 10 parties as long as they are not disorderly. 10. Minicon 10 will be allowed to bring into the Holiday Inn any liquor or other party supplies for consumption in suites or guest rooms of the Holiday Inn. The Holiday Inn will supply ice for the Minicon 10 hospitality suite free of charge. 11. Minicon 10 will not be responsible for the bills of any members of Minicon 10 except in cases where Minicon 10 notifies the Holiday Inn otherwise in writing. Minicon 10 will not be responsible for any damages done by members of Minicon 10 or by persons unknown during April 18-20, 1975. 12. Representatives of Minicon 10 will be allowed to attend a Holiday Inn staff meeting before April 17, 1975, to explain the needs of Minicon 10 to the appropriate staff members. SIGNED: Don Blyly (for Minicon 10), Marilyn Jennings (for Holiday Inn) Parrot WHO OWNS THE PARROT? Five computer programmers live in adjoining houses on the west side of Fortran Lane. Their street numbers are 101, 103, 105, 107, and 109, from left to right. Each man is a different nationality and has a different make of automobile, kind of pet, and favorite beverage. Each house is of a different color. The Irish programmer lives in the red house. The Greek owns the dog Coffee is drunk in the green house. The Swiss drinks beer. The green house is just to the right of the white house. The man in the middle house drinks gin. The Ford driver owns the cat. The Chevrolet driver lives in the yellow house. The Dan lives in the first house on the left. The Dodge driver's house is next to the turtle owner's house. The rabbit lives next door to the Chevrolet driver. The Buick driver drinks wine. The Frenchman drives a Rolls Royce. The blue house is next door to the Danish man's house. Try to answer the following questions: 1. Who owns the parrot? 2. Who drinks rum? 3. Which house, color, nationality, automobile, pet, and beverage corresponds to each of the five street numbers? (Answers will appear in the Minicon 11 Program Book.) Program WHERE IT'S AT: MEETING ROOM LOCATIONS ARTSHOW: Hall of Satellites (14th Floor) HUCKSTERS' ROOM: Hall of Avenues (Basement) PANELS AND MOVIES: Arcade Ballroom (Basement) BANQUET, GUEST OF HONOR SPEECHES: Forum Ballroom (Main level) REGISTRATION: Room 1169 PARTY SUITE: Rooms 1167-1169 FRIDAY 18 APRIL 1975 Noon : Registration, Artshow, Hucksters' Room opens 5:30 PM : Artshow closes 6:00 : AUTOGRAPH SESSION (Arcade Ballroom) 6:30 : MINNEAPOLIS FANTASY SOCIETY REVISITED Poul Anderson, Redd Boggs, E. Manson Brackney, Gordon Dickson Grace Riger, Oliver Saari, Clifford, Bob Tucker 7:30 : THE MATTER OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY Poul Anderson, Gordon Dickson, Jim Young (8:30) : Huckster's room closes (9:00) : Party Suite opens 7:45 : FILMS Short Subjects: "Zeppelin Race" (10 minutes), "The Foreign Press Awards" (6 minutes), "Universe" (28 minutes) 8:35 : "Alexander Nevsky" (110 minutes) 10:35 : "K-9000; a Space Oddity" (10 minutes) 10:45 : "The Bed-Sitting Room" (90 minutes) SATURDAY 19 APRIL 1975 Noon : Registration, Artshow, Hucksters' Room open 12:30 PM: FASTER THAN A SPEEDING PHOTON: A DISCUSSION OF EXOTIC SPACECRAFT (Arcade Ballroom) Poul Anderson, Flieg Hollander, Gary Hudson, Al Kuhfeld, Jim Young 1:30 : THE SF MARKET Judy Lynn del Rey, Gordon Dickson, Harry Harrison, Sharon Jarvis, Don Wollheim 2:30 : CREATING FANTASY WORLDS Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson, Lester del Rey, Philip Farmer, Philip Klass, Clifford Simak 3:30 : AUCTION (Hall of Satellites, 14th floor) 4:00 : ARTSHOW closes 5:00 : COCKTAIL HOUR begins (Forum Lobby, main level), REGISTRATION, AUCTION end 5:30 : HUCKSTER'S ROOM closes 6:00 : BANQUET (Forum Ballroom) 7:30 : GUESTS OF HONOR SPEAK (Forum Ballroom opens to the public) 9:00 : MASQUERADE BALL (Arcade Ballroom) 11:00 : PARTY SUITE opens Midnight: MASQUERADE concludes SUNDAY 20 APRIL 1975 Noon : Registration, Artshow, Huckster's rooms open 1:00 PM : AUCTION (Hall of Satellites, 14th floor) 2:00 : WORLDCON NEWS Rusty Hevelin, Ken Keller, Peggy Pavlat, Jim Young 2:30 : ARTIST'S PANEL Dave Egge, Ken Fletcher, Rich Sternbach, Reed Waller, and a Cast of Thousands.... 3:30 : HOW TO IMPROVE MINICONS Don Blyly, Jim Young 4:00 : REGISTRATION, ARTSHOW, HUCKSTER'S ROOMS --and the convention-- come to their final reward for 1975. That's all folks! Poul Anderson introduced by Gordy Dickson A Tower Named Poul Poul Anderson, Scandinavian of ancestry. Pennsylvanian of birth. Danish, Texan, and Minnesotan of residence thereafter. Californian of residence, ultimately. "I am," he says, "an old-fashioned storyteller." But story-telling of the sort he does has been the backbone of western literature for some thousands of years. It produces a narrative handcrafted by a master from the truest and finest materials, painted with all the colors of poetry, and sent forth to sing itself to the inner ear of the reader. In fact, both poetry and story-telling have been part of him from the start. He was born on a 25th of November; and the proper pronunciation of his first name falls about midway between "Pole" and "Powl." But in fact, he answers to both these pronunciations and any variant between. His connection with Minnesota dates back to circa World War II. At the University of Minnesota he majored in physics, minored in chemistry and mathematics, graduating with honors in 1948. He was a member of the Minneapolis Fantasy Society through its immediate post-war years, and started selling science fiction to the magazines while still at the university. When he graduated, the market for physics degrees was less than it was to be later in the technological upswing of the fifties. He decided to write "for awhile." That while, as he says, has stretched itself out into a lifetime; and in 1952 he met and married Karen, herself a writer. In due course their daughter Astrid was born and they settled down in the San Francisco area. In the years since, Poul's productivity and his influence on the science-fiction field have been continuous and awesome--a productivity and influence he shared with Karen, as they have shared a multitude of other interests involving travel, sailing, mountaineering, poker, and the Society for Creative Anachronism, with which both of them have been closely identified from the beginning. This Minicon being a science-fictional occasion, we will not mention his mystery books and shorter pieces, for one of which (novel) he won the Cock Robin Award. And something over a quarter century of this has changed him hardly at all. You will see him, here and now, looking remarkably like the man who lived in an adjoining room to me in a rooming house in north Minneapolis in the late nineteen-forties. A tall man, a broad-shouldered man. A man whose hair still goes straight up. A man wearing horn-rimmed glasses who is fascinating to talk to on the subjects of writing, other countries, mountain climbing, poker, medieval matters, astronomy, physics, chemistry, sailing, Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, mystery stories, politics, been Scandinavian history and legend, fandom, Science Fiction Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, publishing, space flight, how to build a planet. . . . There is no point in going on; the list is infinite. He is a tower of a human being in many and many areas. Regard him for yourself. Gordon R. Dickson introduced by Denny Lien A Trio Named Gordy Gordon R. Dickson--better known as "Gordy"--is a little bit younger than the early Weird Tales, a little bit older than the Gernsback Amazing Stories, and quite a bit more fun than either. Strange legends filter down from his native city--demon-haunted Edmonton, Alberta--of the birth of an eldritch multi-minded being (all of whose minds read science fiction). These personalities were eventually defined as Gordy the Man, Gordy the Fan, and Gordy the Pro. Together they formed a Gordy-gestalt of awesome powers--with abilities to outdrink fans, to outtalk editors, and even to bend typewriters to his will with his bare hands. Frightened by this Legend in His Own Time having shown up in _their_ time, the Secret Masters of Canada enacted their notorious harsh Puberty Laws, in reaction to which the thirteen-year-old Gordy-gestalt fled his native clime for the steaming tropical jungle of Minneapolis. After taking a few years off to stop steaming, Gordy enrolled in the University of Minnesota, a fictitious institution created by H.P. Lovecraft in an obscure folksong to supply a rhyme for "Miskatonic". (The fact that "University of Minnesota" does _not_ rhyme with "Miskatonic" only proves that the folksong was not Lovecraft's forte; Gordy could have given him pointers. But I digress.) The International Anti-Science-Fictional Conspiracy, becoming alarmed at the latent powers sleeping within several of Gordy's minds, at this point hit upon a clever ploy: The Great Staple War. Since Gordy failed to become properly distracted over the doings of Great Staples, they next pulled out all the stops and started World War II, in which Gordy Dickson served from 1943 to 1946. At some point in 1946, Gordy happened to notice that World War II was over and stopped his first-hand research into Dorsai techniques, cleverly disguising himself instead as a civilian and re-entering the University of Minnesota, which graduated him with a degree in Creative Writing in 1948. Unlike most Creative Writing majors, Gordy went on to actually write creatively--and successfully--selling his first story in 1950 and some thirty-five books (plus many shorter pieces) over the next twenty-five years--years which were also marked with two terms as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America (1969-1971), a Hugo Award in 1965, and a Nebula Award in 1966. Thus awoke the gestalt-mind of Gordy the Pro. Its brother-mind, Gordy the Fan, had already achieved self-directed evolution from exposure to the rays emitted by the primordial life-essence bubbling in the yeast-permeated vats hidden deep within the cavernous monolithic structures called in the tongue of the Elder Races "Grain Belt Brewery". Thus strengthened, relays within Gordy's fannish mind clicked into position, tendrils sprouted from his lower lobes, and mental energy exuded from the transmogrified grey cells belted out the message--"Arise, oh Minneapolis Fantasy Society!"--said group thus springing back into life (or what is even better, into fandom) and immediately resuming such fannish activities as meeting, reading, drinking, publishing, and making sacrifices to the Northern Gods of virgin gophers on altars make of runestones. Meanwhile, Gordy the Man was also enjoying the fannish activities of Gordy the Fan and the professional activities of Gordy the Pro--the infectious sense of fun of the one and the equally infectious sense of dedication of the other; the quantities that make him on the one hand the life of any party lucky enough to contain him, and on the other hand enable him to bring to life such creations as the Dorsai and the worlds they move among in the minds of any readers lucky enough to encounter him. The story of Gordy the Man has no great Awakening to be related--but it needs none. He's been here all along. Gordon R. Dickson is officially our "Fan" Guest of Honor, but we all know that's just a party of it. The Man and the Pro are intertwined, included with him and within him. We are pleased to be able to honor all three. Committee Don Blyly, Co-chairman :: Jim Young, Co-Chairman Bev Swanson, Registration and Costume Ball Jan Applebaum, Treasurer :: Denny Lien, Auction Dick Tatge and Ken Fletcher, Artshow Jerry Stearns and Al Kuhfeld, Party Supplies Gerry Wassenaar, Huckster's Room Chuck Holst, Films :: Margie Lessinger, Recorder Scott Imes, Video-taping & Equipment Procurement Fred Haskell, Official Happy Deadwood Dave Wixon, Interfloor Communications Officer And supported by the Minnesota Science Fiction Society History Though this is the tenth Minicon, it is not the tenth annual such gathering. Occasionally Minneapolis fandom has been fannishly mad enough to throw more than one Minicon annually, you see, and This Explains It All. We list the dates, guests of honor and approximate attendance of the conventions below. Number Date Guests of Honor Approximate Attendance 1 1968 Dickson, De Vet, Simak 60 2 1969 " " " 102 3 1970 Anderson, Dickson, Simak 130 4 1971 Lin Carter 150 5 1971 Volsted Gridban 100 6 1972 Ruth Berman 175 7 1973 Niven (pro), Hevelin (fan) 220 8 1974 Freas (pro), Tucker (fan) 350 9 1974 Judy Lynn & Lester del Rey 190 [Map] This program book has been produced for the most part by Ken Fletcher Denny Lien Jim Young The cover is by James Odbert Thanks to Bert Neilsen & Bob Pirro ---------------------------------------------------------------------------