From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: As Others See Us
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 12:02:10 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 9:53 AM
Subject: [WSFA] As Others See Us

>
<http://www.riverfronttimes.com/issues/2004-10-20/news/feature_print.html>
>
> The headline:
>
> "Geeks Gone Wild
> If you can't get laid at a science-fiction convention, you can't get
> laid!
> BY MIKE SEELY"

"Owing largely to the tumultuous political terrain of the late '60s, the
St. Louis WorldCon proved to be a raucous event that saw thousands of
counterculture types overwhelm the posh Central West End hostelry and its
facilities.

""There was very little alcohol and huge quantities of pot and acid,"
recounts Brock "Dev" Hanke, a medieval enthusiast (and former Riverfront
Times contributor) in his fifties who attended the '69 debacle and recalls
thousands of participants camping out in Forest Park rather than booking
rooms. "The poor wedding parties at the Chase were trapped in their
ballrooms. They had no idea what was happening."

"Chase brass promptly swore to never again allow St. Louis' sci-fi
community to use its facilities. But thanks in no small part to an
appearance by Stephen King, the hotel played host to Archon 6 in 1982,
attracting a record 1,750 participants."

What nonsense!   St. Louis's 1969 Worldcon had an attendance of just over
1,500.   Ol' "Dev" must've been tripping his brains out, because his
memories are totally false.  And the 1980 Archon, which I attended, was
also in the Chase Park Plaza -- one of the most miserably uncomfortable
hotels I've ever been in.   I wrote a letter of complaint to its manager.
The maid staff short-sheeted the beds (bottom sheets stopped two thirds of
the way to the foot of the bed) and the "air-conditioning" was so humid
that it left the beds *damp*.   But then, when did reporters *ever* write
up SF cons accurately?

--Ted White