Carl Joshua Brandon was a hoax fan created by BArea fans Terry Carr, Ron Ellik, Pete Graham and Dave Rike. “Carl Brandon” started out as just a pen name but evolved into a full-fledged hoax, engaging in fan activities and putting out fanzines ostensibly all his own.
Not long after "Carl's" name was put on the FAPA waiting list, a conservative member posed the hypothetical question of what, if anything, FAPA might do if a Negro applied for membership. "Carl" wrote to say that it wasn't a hypothetical question –- he was black, but hadn't thought to mention it because he didn't consider it important. FAPA didn't either. Nor fandom. (No one's ever been thrown out of fandom, so even bigots are "accepted"; they're just not welcomed, or liked, and often leave on their own, no doubt feeling more than a bit harassed.)
Carl's wit and writing prowess elevated him to early BNFdom, and most fans were sincerely disappointed when he turned out to be a hoax; he was perhaps best known for writing full-fledged near word-for-word parodies of well-known works (the majority of his writing was done by Terry Carr with some by Ron Ellik), so that by the time the hoax became known his published parodies included The Catcher of the Rye, On the Road, My Fair Femmefan and The BNF of Iz, among others.
His back yard was the supposed site of the Tower of Bheer Cans to the Moon. Whenever fans visited the BArea, Carl was always “visiting his grandmother in Oakland.“ He succeeded Terry Carr as Official Arbiter of The Cult, where he and Terry “debated” Descartes –- Carl arguing that cogito ergo sum was little more than a parlor trick that proved nothing. Carl held that existence simply could not be proven: “Hell,” he write, “I can’t even prove I exist.” The hoax was revealed at the 1958 Worldcon, the Solacon –- Terry Carr, who was sitting right next to Ted White, signed a quote cards which was being passed around, and after signing it he handed it to Ted -– who immediately recognized, beneath Terry’s signature, the signature of Carl Brandon, with whom he had corresponded.
Contributors: Dr. Gafia
| from Fancyclopedia 2 ca. 1959 |
| The name of a reputed Berkeley fan for several years; a Bay Area fandom hoax up until the SoLACon, and after that a sort of house name for Berkeley Fandom. Carl's first name appeared in a letter, February 1953, but he did not really become an actifan till the middle of 1956. From that time up to the revelation of the hoax during the SoLACon he was one of the most popular writers in fandom. (His specialty, rather appropriately, was parody.) About 75% of Brandon was the work of Terry Carr, with Rike, Graham, Ellik and Stewart seconding him or using the name independently from time to time. A mythos gradually was built up; Carl was a Negro, a Moldy Fig [traditionalist jazz fan] in musical tastes, ktp. In 1958, Carl even established a false identity for himself (!!) as "Norman Sanfield Harris" a sercon-fuggheaded type. And when the gaff was blown Carl was well ahead in the voting race for FAPA OE, after having been drafted to serve as OA of the Cult. Comparison with the Joan Carr and John A Bristol hoaxes gives Carl Brandon honors for the most successful hoax of all fan history; neither of the others successfully ran for office in a national/international fan group; Bristol, tho living in fanhabited territory, was not notably active; JoCa, tho hyperactive as a writer and publisher, "lived" in the Middle East (with the British forces there). Brandonhaus [he used the addresses of inactive local fans] was located in a very hotbed of actifandom and specialized in crifanac, yet the hoax remained unrevealed for over two years. There actually was a Carl Brandon at one time; a small black cat owned by Pete Graham. He died, and Pete got another cat named Josh Brandon. |
