Philcon Memory Book

Walter Kunkelberger; K Martin Carlson; John Cockroft (Illustrator)

Worldcon , 1947

28 cm.  Original fanzine newsletter from the 5th World Science Fiction Convention, held at the Penn-Sheraton Hotel in Philadelphia in 1947 (Philcon I).  Compiled by Walter Dunkelberger and K. Martin Carlson. Please note! *Our copy contains only the first 42 pages.*  Staple bound.  Additionally includes the original stamped mailing envelop with a Centaur (drawn again by William Rotsler) on the front from 1947 from The National Fantasy Fan which housed the Memory Book.  The envelope is addressed to D. A. MacInnes of Baltimore, MD (Fells Point).  

Joseph Campbell was the main speaker at the convention.  Other speakers include L. Sprague de Camp (speaking on the Occult) and the scientists Willy Ley and Thomas Gardner speaking about interplanetary travel.  Other noted attendees included: George O. Smith, Forest Ackerman, Fred Pohl, E. E. Smith, Lester del Rey, Wilson Tucker, Sam Moskowitz, A.E. van Vogt, and Lloyd Arthur Eshbach. 

An interesting stories abound about the convention:   In All Our Yesterdays, Harry Warner reports that: "Perhaps the first of the big drunken worldcon parties followed in the Hadley suite where Fantasy Press and Prime Press provided much liquor. Fans gaped in disbelief at Campbell sitting on the floor, helping Hubert Rogers and Benson Dooling to sing a variety of bawdy ditties. The hotel staff did not interrupt, because there was a Sigma Alpha Rho convention in the hotel and the kids got blamed for all the noise that the fans made. This demonstrated Emerson's philosophy about compensation, as applied to fandom, because at the Pacificon the other convention in the meeting place had been that of Alcoholics Anonymous."  "But that's not all! At some point during the drinking session in the Hadley suite, Jack Speer remembered that he had fireworks in his car, Quintessence of FooFoo, He, Al Lopez, Ron Christensen, and Chan Davis went down, retrieved the fireworks and started setting them off. After the police came by and warned them to stop, they returned to the hotel and started setting them off from the various fire escapes (in those days a hotel was frequently festooned with fire escapes). The police did not find this amusing and they paid $5.00 apiece for disturbing the peace. (It did not go entirely to waste because the Willy Ley used the fireworks to find his way to the hotel.)" - Margaret Trebing, Philcon 5th World Science Fiction Convention.