From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Iggy, was: Ship-Con and Camp-Con (was: Re:  [WSFA]Re:Balticon in ...
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 20:24:33 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 6:56 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Iggy, was: Ship-Con and Camp-Con (was: Re:
[WSFA]Re:Balticon in ...

> > twhite8 at cox.net 3/15/2005 6:26:40 PM >>>
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
> >To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
> >Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2005 2:53 PM
> >Subject: [WSFA] Re: Iggy, was: Ship-Con and Camp-Con (was: Re:
> >[WSFA] Re:
> >Balticon in ...
> >
> >> At 01:47 PM 3/15/05 EST, MarkLFischer at aol.com wrote:
> >>
> >> >At Aquacon in '81, the Disneyland Hotel decided, before the first
> >> >day was
> >> >over, that they didn't want us there anymore.  They wouldn't just
> >> >throw us  out,
> >> >as we hadn't paid them yet, but they went to outrageous lengths
> >> >to make us
> >> >leave under our own power.  Nobody slept that weekend.
> >>
> >> Didn't that happen at Westercon 19?  I think that's the one that
> >> "Bouncing  Potatoes" was written about, right?
> >
> >What year was Westercon 19?   I've been to a number of them, but I
> >don't recall their numbers, only their years.
>
> 1966 according to: http://www.westercon.org/list/

Aha!   Thought so.  I was there.  That one was held in San Diego at what
turned out to be a "hot bed" motel, with hookers hanging out in the lobby
and coffeeshop.  A basketball team had been there a week earlier, and one
wing was still busted up and unrentable.   For some reason, management
expected to make their money from Westercon via the hookers -- and was
quite disappointed.   (The hookers were mostly the wives of Navy men who
were at sea.)  But that didn't really put a crimp in the convention.  The
convention's problem was that its organizers had all evaporated by the end
of the first day of the con, leaving us attendees on our own.  We coped
wonderfully, putting together our own program.   (That program included the
Very First showing of a STAR TREK episode -- one by Sam Peeples -- as
arranged by Harlan Ellison.)

While I don't recall any "bouncing potatoes," I do recall Bill Rotsler
creating cartoon faces on fried eggs, which were then auctioned.

--Ted White