This is SKYRACK Number 56, dated 16th July l963 and published for the last time from 13 Westcliffe Grove, Harrogate, Yorkshire by Ron Bennett. 6d per copy, 2/6d for six issues. 35cents for 6 issues (six issues sent airmail for 70cents) in the USA where subscriptions should be sent to Bob Pavlat, 6001-43rd Avenue, Hyattsville, Maryland. Cartoon and heading by Arthur "Atom" Thomson. Contributions this issue from Dick Schultz, Brian Aldiss, Burkhard Bluem, Tom Schluck, Hel Klemm, Colin Freeman, Ella Parker, Keith Otter. Contributions always welcome.
HARROGATE FAND0M LEAVES WESTCLIFFE GROVE ON FIRST AUGUST.
NOTE CHANGE OF ADDRESS
IL FESTIVALE INTERNAZIONALE DEL FILM DI FANTASCIENZA, The First International Festival of Science Fiction films was held in the Castle of San Giusto, Trieste, from 6th - 14th July. There has been surprisingly little coverage in the national press, but the Daily Express gave over half a column to the fact that few names appeared to be present. Reporter Peter Chambers asked “Where is Ray Milland? Where is the internationally acclaimed Bradbury?” but at the same time interviewed Kingsley Amis and mentioned meeting Harry Harrison and Brian Aldies. The main British entry for the Festival was reported to be a children’s serial, “Masters of Venus.” Colin Freeman, who sent the clipping, added the note, “Seems they had more pros at Peterborough.”
BRITAIN’S FIRST SF MUSICAL, The Perils of Scobie Prilt, starring Mike Sarne, didn’t get off the ground, being closed down a week before the scheduled opening. At the same time comes the news that the programmed Broadway musical, I Picked A Daisy, about a girl with esper skills, has been shelved. Alan Lerner and Richard Rodgers are reported as being unable to cope with one anothers’ methods of working.
THE SCIENCE FICTION CLUB OF LONDON made their annual trip to Whipsnade Zoo on 23rd June. Keith Otter, Dave Barber, Ted Forsyth, Jim Groves, Peter Mabey, Ella Parker, Ian & Betty Peters, Norman Sherlock, Ken & Joyce Slater and Brian and Frances Varley were the lucky trippers. Cameras were much in evidence and the East Anglian capitalists paid to take their cars into the Zoo grounds. Meanwhile, London’s shadow committee for the 1965 WorldCon has had its first meeting. If this committee is the size of that at the 1957 London WorldCon, this first meeting was probably so that any one member could learn all the names of the others. And I’m asked to ask readers how high you would be willing to go on hotel rates for a London WorldCon. Write Ella Parker or Ethel Lindsay.
BSFA NEWSLETTER has breathed its last. Smaller and more frequent Vectors from now.
Thanks for the card, Ken Cheslin (holidaying in Scotland) and Tom Schluck and Wolfie Thadewald (holidaying on coastal island of Norderney, Germany).
IN CASE YOU THINK THAT SKYRACK CAN’T KEEP A SECRET, ask Archie Mercer. The fact has leaked out in odd corners of fandom and as a disruption in Skyrack’s location is imminent, it appears that an official announcement can be made. On March 27th 1962, three weeks or so before the Harrogate Eastercon, Ron Bennett (Editor of Skyrack) and Miss Elizabeth Humbey (London Symposium attendee 1959) visited certain people in Knaresborough, Yorks., and returned to Harrogate Mr & Mrs Bennett. In case you didn’t read that the first time, Brian Burgess, Elizabeth and I were married secretly some sixteen months ago. My sincere apologies to Good People like Betty Kujawa and. Colin Freeman for not informing them of this previously but personal matters which are too lengthy to mention here have precluded a previous announcement. And many and sincere thanks to people like Archie Mercer, Ethel Lindsay, Ella Parker, Ron Ellik, Phil Rogers, Michael & Betty Rosenblum and Norman & Ina Shorrock who went along with our request not to broadcast the news. Certificate produced on request!
AS MENTIONED ABOVE, we’re moving. Mail just may be forwarded for a few odd weeks, but 13 Westcliffe Grove will cease to house Harrogate fandom on 1st August. Indeed, after that date, will there be a Harrogate fandom? Elizabeth and I take up residence in Liverpool in September and until that date our address will be c/o Ella Parker, 43 William Dunbar House, Albert Road, West Kilburn, London NW 6. Whilst we have a pretty good idea of what our Liverpool address will be, details of lease etc have not yet been finalised, so watch this space. We’ll be moving down to London from here. The Fates help Ella, with two Bennnetts on her hands now!
NEWS FROM GERMANY. A new fanzine, Exitus, is being published
by Helmut Struck, 3 Muelheim, Wallstr 9a @ 5/- per year. This will
be in apa form, with six contributing editors. The much heralded
apa RAPE came through its first mailing with banners flying. Six
of the seven members contributed 126 pages of which no fewer than
80 came from Rolf Gindorf with Karezza, stated as being the only
fanzine that Julian Parr will still write for. Rolf is also entering
into the news and chatterzine field with Kot d’Azure. And many thanks
for the postcard, attendees at Germany’s big con which was held
in Bielefeld. over Whitsun weekend. And oh yes! Helmut Klemm is
in the throes of moving, too. He’s one of eighty (out of over 700
applicants) German students who will be in the USA on exchange for
a year. It’s ironic though to me that this German actifan will be
resident in the middle of the great mid-western (fannish) desert
at Columbus, Nebraska.
(BB, TS, HK)
STATESIDE PRONEWS FROM EAGLE EYED DICK SCHULTZ. Best Stories of H G Wells reprinted for second time by Ballantine @ 75cents. The Currents of Space and The End of Eternity, both by Asimov are also out in pb @ 75 cents. Keith Woodcott’s New Worlds serial The Psionics Menace is now out in Ace Doubles, backed by a really superb Captives of the Flame by Samuel R Delany. Ken Bulmer’s The Wizard of the Starship Poseidon is also out in Ace, backed by Poul Anderson’s Let The Spacemen Beware. Reprints have included Pohl’s 1954 Star Short Novels. The seventh annual The Year’s Best SF by Judith Merrill is out in pb @ 75cents, as is, from Signet, Fred Hoyle’s Frontiers of Astronomy. Fredric Brown's The Lights in the Sky Are Stars is out from Bantam in a new pb form.
JOHN RAMSEY CAMPBELL writes from Liverpool that June’s SKYRACK stated that the film Maniac was a typical Hammer produotion but that no mention was made of the fact that The Damned was also a Hammer film. John also says “I can see that Maniac is sub-standard Hammer, but I still think it’s good. Maniac is in no sense typical Hammer as you suggest. To my knowledge they have made two other “modern horror” films and around twenty “Gothic” films, so how can you say that Maniac is typical?” A good point, but perhaps we were thinking in terms of quality.
HYPHEN 33 (June 63; 1/- or l5cents; Walt & Madeleine Willis, 170 Upper N’Ards Road, Belfast 4, N. Ireland) One thing I’ve often wondered about that Hyphen address is whether the post office accepts the abbreviation for the lengthy Newtownards. But of course Hyphen is a fanzine for controversy. This particular issue is notable for about four different things, one of which is the appearance of the Adverb Pun which was mentioned in the June Skyrack in connection with Scribble. As Hyphen appeared at virtually the same moment as the Skyrack was being posted it is hard to say just who, Willis or Freeman, is responsible for the initial introduction to fandom of this particular form. The Soaks of Peterborough by Brian Aldiss shows that Hyphen can turn out a topical convention report, and a lengthy and good one it is too. In a way, this is a Ken Potter appreciation issue, with a piece by Ken on London art galleries and Bob Shaw’s Glass Bushel being devoted to memories of a visit to Ken’s home in Lancaster. Letters make up the issue along with Atom cartoons, and the bacover quotes, the Eavesdroppings are contributed by Walter Breen.
LES SPINGE 11 (June 63;l/- or l5 cents; Dave Hale, 12 Belmont Road, Wollescote, Stourbridge, Worcs.) Again we are presented with a topical convention report, this time a multiple coverage in the traditional Spinge manner, by Val Purnell, Ken Cheslin and one of the best convention reporters in the country, Archie Mercer. There’s a wealth of worthwhile artwork here, including material by the not oft- seen Bill Harry, and articles are by Robert E Gilbert, Mike Moorcock, Jim Linwood and “Leon Collins.” There’s so much on which to comment in this issue of LS, that it is hard to know where to start. Packing and crating several thousand books and fanzines doesn’t really give me much time to do it, either. There are, incidentally, copies available of the con report in supplement form, at 6d a time, for collectors. Buck?
SHANGRI L’AFFAIRES 65 (May 63; 5 for 7/- from Archie Mercer, 70 Worrall Road, Bristol 8) Here is another good issue ot the Los Angeles SFS’s zine edited by Steve Tolliver. Contributors are Bjo & John Trimble, Al Lewis and Ron Ellik who winds up the report of his last year’s TAFF trip to Britain in his usual entertaining manner. Included with this issue is an art folio of original work by Poul Anderson for his forthcoming novel Three Hearts and Three Lions. Good stuff.
DOUBLE BILL 5 (June 63; Bill Bowers & Bill Malardi, 3271 Shellhart Rd., Barberton, Ohio, USA 20cents or 6 for $1) One of the newer zines and one which is making great strides in presenting something for everyone, fiction, a quiz, articles, columns and letters. Material is by Mike McQuown, Buck Coulson, Clay Hamlin, Mike Shupp and the editors. An excellent meaty fanzine.
CRY l68 (June 63; Wally Weber & F.M. and Elinor Busby, Box 92, 507 3rd Avenue, Seattle 4, Washington, USA: 5 for $1 or 25cents per) The mixture as before, with focal point and Hugo-winning quality material by John Berry, J.E. Pournelle and the editors, to say nothing of several million letter writers.
AXE 36 (The second anniversary issue), dated April 1963, rolled in a little late bit is still worth mentioning if only to show that the leading Stateside news- zine of two years ago is still appearing, Editors Larry & Noreen Shaw have recently moved back to the environs of New York, which possibly explains their erratic schedule, but we keep our tentacles and trunks crossed for the future. Meanwhile, congratulations on making the Second Birthday.
It occurs to me that some people possibly don’t know about STARSPINKLE, a reasonably new newssheet which has just seen its fifteenth issue. Published fortnightly by none less an expert in these matters than Ron Ellik, 1825 Greenfieid, Los Angeles 25, California 90025 (new American zip coding zone number) @ 3 for 25cents. Highly priced but worth it. Excellent quality and sent first class airmail.
CHANGES OF ADDRESS DEPT...and I’ll try to follow Starspinkle’s
excellent example and list these alphabetically:
Ron & Elizabeth
Bennett, c/o Parker, 43 William Dunbar House, Albert Road, West
Kilburn, London NW 6 (from 1 Aug)
Walter Breen, c/o Bashlow,
1240 Park Ave., New York 28, NY, USA (to Sept)
Helmut Klemm,
c/o Dr Beatty, 2716 - 14th St., Columbus, Nebraska, USA.
Andy
Main bem, 333 Ramona Ave., El Cerrito, Calif., USA (old address
completely ineffective)
Sam Moskowitz, 361 Roseville Avenue,
Newark 7, New Jersey, USA
Larry & Noreen Shaw, 32 Winfield
Ave., Mount Vernon, New York, USA.
THE FIFTEENTH ANNUAL WRITERS’ SUMMER SCHOOL will be held from 17th-23rd August at The Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire. It is understood that probable attendees will include John Boland, one time sf writer (White August), and one Tom Boardman Jr. SKYRACK’s secret spy at the gathering will be noting the item programmed for the evening of Wednesday 21st August: Short Story Writing, Pleasures & Profits by one Brian W. Aldiss. On the fact that this item is due to followed by informal dancing in the lounge no comment is made.
FOLLOWING JHIM LINWOOD’s recommendation I didn’t see The Damned, but I did ignore all good advice by going to see The Day of The Triffids. It only needed Howard Keel to burst into song to complete the impression that this was a completely original story. What was all that talk at Peterborough about sf progressing its image in the eye of the general public? Brian Aldiss’ recommendation that I see First Spaceship on Venus came just too late, but I may follow him up on Ray Milland’s Panic in The Year Zero which is in Harrogate with Poe’s Tales of Terror, which he describes as being possibly cribbed from Ward Moore’s Lot, but which still is a very tense and creditable film.
ALICE COHEN, of Ace Books, did meet London fandom. Mike Moorcock, Lang Jones, Ted Tubb, Bill Temple, Jimmy Groves, Brian & Fran Varley, Jim Linwood, Marion Lansdale, George Locke, Ted Forsyth, Keith Otter and Pat Kearney all got along to Ella’s to put on their own mini-con, and most on the same night, too (Fri 28). And close on Alice’s heels comes Washington fan and DisCon & FAPA Treasurer, Bill Evans, who will be in London 20th July. No details on hand. as to length of stay at the moment.