Costume Party

See also masquerade.

from Fancyclopedia 1 ca. 1944

Part of the formula for a World Science-Fiction Convention. Some costumery had previously taken place among the Futurians, and Ackerman and Morojo went to New York dressed for Things to Come. The bal masque idea originated at a visit of Speer and Rothman to Fredk A. Kummer, Jr., and was adopted by the Chicon committee. It was suggested that convention attendees bring costumes representing characters from weird or science fiction, or from fandom; and the costume geared to suit the wearer's character. Accordingly, Skylark Smith came as CLMoore's Northwest Smith, Clarissa ditto as the nurse Mac which she had inspired in her pappy's Lensman stories, Speer as Buddy Deering, Kornbluth as the Invisible Man (gloves, bandaged face, goggles), Tucker as Hoy Ping Pong, Pogo as Hi Priestess of FooFoo, Widner as Giles Habibula, usw, and the prize-winner, Dave Kyle's Ming the Merciless by leslie perri. However, there were too few in costume, and next year, at the Denvention, a better story was told. EEEvans was first-placer for Bird Man of Rhea; Walt Daugherty had second with a spaceman's costuming involving airplane parts that would have cost whew if he hadn't picked them up as scrap. 4e 3d for the Hunchback of something, with a frickful mask. Morojo was a BEM, Widner Slan's Granny, damon knight John Star, Bill Deutsch Dr. Pinero of the Lifeline, Lowndes a zombie with a cut and bleeding throat, Israelite Chet Cohen the First Prophet of the Heinlein history of the future and numerous others. Some efforts were made to use the costuming to get publicity, but the critics felt it was just as well we didn't receive any, outside the stef pros, ofcourse.