Supermancon

The SuperMancon was the 1954 Eastercon, held June 5–6, 1954 (Whitsun weekend), at the Grosvenor Hotel in Manchester, UK. In his convention report, Walt Willis refers to John Russell Fearn as the guest of honour but he's not so described anywhere else. The convention was sponsored by the Nor'west Science Fantasy Club.

The souvenir book uses the form 'SuperMancon' so that should probably be canonical but subsequently people have tended to use the form Supermancon. It was the fifth convention in the Eastercon sequence, the first outside of London and the last to be held at Whitsun. It was also the second in the (loose) Mancon sequence. It had nothing to do with Superman.

Preparations[edit]

It's unclear how exactly Manchester was selected as the venue for the 1954 convention. At the 1952 convention, Dave Cohen had made a bid for 1953 using the name Supermancon. The Manchester fans were already planning an event for autumn 1952 to be called Mancon and the Supermancon name was supposedly chosen to preempt the inevitable Walt Willis pun. However, that bid was easily defeated by what became the Coroncon. Vin¢ Clarke said subsequently, writing in the Science Fantasy News convention supplement, that in the aftermath of the vote 'There was a general feeling that Manchester, who were second in the voting, should have some sort of official backing next year [i.e. 1954] in any case'. The NWSFC were certainly promoting the Supermancon as early as Space Times #11 (dated May 1953 but published after Coroncon), but Walt Willis, writing in Peri #3 (April 1954), quotes a letter from Fred Brown suggesting London fans were prepared to run the 1954 convention but 'if another town decides on a Convention site in Whitsun, 1954, we shall probably drop the idea of a Loncon'.

For whatever reason, the Supermancon became the 1954 convention. Membership of the Society was 2/6. Admittance on the Sunday at least was 6/-; Saturday was presumably the same. If any progress reports were issued they've not been traced. The convention was advertised in prozines and fanzines, notably Space Times.

One aspect of preparation, though, came from the London fans in the form of Operation Armageddon, 'A Plan To Brighten Up The Supermancon Without The Co-operation Of The Manchester Group'. Two bulletins were issued with ideas for disruptive acts, while a third, titled Operation Splash, was concerned with how the London contingent would complete the epic journey. A cynical observer might conclude that the journey from London to Manchester was far longer the journey from Manchester to London that Manchester fans had been routinely making for several years.

Venue[edit]

The Grosvenor Hotel occupied the corner of Deansgate and Victoria Bridge Street in Manchester. It hadn't been used before or since for a convention. The site was later occupied by the Renaissance Hotel and a multi-storey car park and as of 2024 seems to be empty.

Attendees[edit]

There are 133^[1] members of the 'Supermancon Society' listed in the combozine. Some of these didn't attend and in a few cases presumably never had any intention of doing so. For instance, it's almost certain that Rory Faulkner and Lynn Hickman weren't present because had they been then surely somebody would have mentioned it.

In the table below names marked (A) are known attendees, names marked (AN) are known attendees who are not on the membership list, and names marked (N) are members who are known to have not been present. The remainder may have attended. In many cases that's the limit of our knowledge about them and where this is the case there won't be a page for them until and unless we find out some more. Names to which this applies are in italics. Additionally names marked * are family members of attendees who likely weren't fans per se.

It is worth noting that Bert Campbell didn't attend. He tried to go but his motorbike broke down on the way and he never arrived. Some fans were given to believe that 'Pat Mahaffey', sister of Bea Mahaffey, was at the convention although this was a hoax for which see Connie Mackenzie above. In his report for Hyphen #9 (July 1954) Chuck Harris mentions a 'Cathy Ouverton', a name that appears nowhere else and so seems likely a mishearing of Cathie Youden. There were a number of overseas fans on the list. Margaret Finch and Gene Lees were definitely present and the others probably weren't.

While Vin¢ Clarke mentioned meeting Denny Cowen at this convention, it's unknown if the other members of the Kettering Astronautics Society (Joe Ayres, Reg Fieldhouse, Pete Fox, Al Lee and Bill Panter) were present. They were all members but aren't mentioned in any of the accounts and it seemed they only agreed to run the 1955 convention after the Supermancon. If they weren't present then they certainly weren't the last fans to set out to run a convention without having attended one.

Notable first-time convention attendees include Ron Bennett and Ethel Lindsay.

The convention[edit]

The official programme as printed in the SuperMancon Combozine bears little relation to what actually happened.

There was some kind of gathering at the Grosvenor on Friday evening including Ethel Lindsay down from Scotland, but the main London contingent didn't set off until around midnight.

Harry Turner declared the convention open at 11:30 on Saturday, mainly so it could be said to have started on time, although the hotel management almost immediately asked the convention to relocate to another room.

The first afternoon session was a talk on radioactivity by Frank Simpson, followed by a monologue from Geoff Lewis and a skit by Brian Lewis and Tony Thorne. The was followed by a radio play on tape, 'The Alien Arrives', written by Walt Willis and performed by the Liverpool Group. Then, as Willis explained:

there was a curious interlude when Cohen announced that the London Circle was now going to demonstrate how to put on a Convention. Nothing happened for a very long time and eventually most people got up and went out or stood around talking. Finally Ken Bulmer went to the microphone and announced calmly that 'The London Circle, having thoroughly organised this Convention, now hand over to the Manchester Group.' I didn't know quite what to make of this... whether it was deliberate sabotage or a piece of London Circle self-criticism^[9].

The Londoners then delivered some kind of skit followed by the auction orchestrated by Ted Tubb. After tea, there was a showing of Things To Come that seemingly went off without a hitch. The programme ended around 10pm to be followed by London and Liverpool parties, the latter featuring Pat Doolan and Ina Shorrock as Bergey Girls. 'Many interesting incidents occurred that night which I cannot report here because of my innate sense of decency and my respect for the English libel laws', Willis summarised.

Sunday began with a fan editors panel featuring Mal Ashworth, Eric Bentcliffe, Paul Enever, Ethel Lindsay, Fred Smith, Norman Shorrock, Tony Thorne, Harry Turner and Tom White. This was followed by a magic show from John Gunn and then an authors panel featuring Syd Bounds, Ken Bulmer, John Russell Fearn, E. R. James, Ted Tubb and James White although Eric Bentcliffe contended that 'With the exception of Tubb, the panel was never vivacious'.

'The Trial of H. J. Campbell' followed with a script written by Terry Jeeves and Campbell himself. Ron Buckmaster in a fake beard played the accused as Campbell hadn't arrived and in fact never did make it.

Ted Tubb chaired a business session although no proposals for 1955 emerged (see 'Future conventions' below). After various further announcements, there was another auction and final party organised by the Liverpool Group. Dave Newman said:

Everything went (or nearly everything) and, surprisingly enough, although there was a lot of serious, constructive drinking and general helling going on, the party was sufficiently quiet for those of us who were interested enough to be able to listen in on the surprisingly high standard fannish wit which was being bandied about. There was a natural preponderance of Londoners there but there were also sundry Mancunians, Liverpudlians, Irishmen and even one solitary Canadian present. The atmosphere of camaraderie was so much in evidence that some couples appeared to be existing in a symbiotic relationship – you know, drinking each other's bheer and all that!!!^[10]

Chuck Harris summarised the convention:

Northern Fandom was just about the biggest surprise of my life. They didn't have tails, they weren't morons, and – Ghod help us all – they didn't want to trample on me or spit in my eye. Liverpool fandom especially impressed me as a bunch of Trufans. I met John Roles, Norm and Ina Shorrock, and hordes of other Liverpudlians whose names have vanished along with the beer, and I found them all likeable friendly people who were a pleasure to meet and to talk to. I came away from Manchester strongly approving of Northern Fandom. It goes without saying that I approve of Southern Fandom^[11].

And Ethel Lindsay:

I didn't leave Manchester until Wednesday night, but I never succeeded in recapturing the enjoyment and fun of the weekend, Summing up the Con I would say it was a great social success. From my personal viewpoint I enjoyed every minute and wish it was not so long until the next time^[12].

And Walt Willis offered this analysis:

The Supermancon Committee deserve credit for other things than committing suicide. They booked an almost ideal hotel – not too respectable, only slightly too big, and above all with plenty of lounges where people could talk, in a sort of perpetual party. The Liverpool Group also deserve a bouquet for their tour de force in booking a lounge for a late night party – a completely new development in convention techniques. But the very success of the Supermancon as a social event poses, it seems to me, a new problem for British Convention organisers. If everyone is enjoying themselves the way they learned to do at the Mancon, who's going to put on the official programme? The Supermancon will go down in fan history as a success only because all the reports will be written by actifans. What about the neofen who turned up to see the sort of thing that was advertised in the promags and went away disgusted? Either we're going to have two Conventions, one for ourselves and one for the public, or we've got to let the pros take over the official programme, and run it as a commercial proposition^[13].

Publications[edit]

If there were any progress reports they haven't been traced and there was no post-convention souvenir. The SuperMancon Combozine was produced for the convention, the first such at a British convention. As well as the official programme and membership list it included special and usually brief issues of a number of British fanzines as well as a trail for the forthcoming Femizine and what purported to be an extract from the twentieth issue of Nirvana.

Future conventions[edit]

On the Sunday at a business session, Ted Tubb called for nominations for the 1955 convention and hearing none unilaterally decided it would be held in London and appointed Shirley Marriott to take memberships. It was only at some point after the convention that Denny Cowen volunteered himself and the Kettering Astronautics Society (or whatever they were called that week) to host the convention in Kettering.

A small detail is that after Supermancon the next Eastercon in Manchester was Mancon 5 in 1976, 22 years later. The intervening Thirdmancon and Chessmancon, while part of the Mancon sequence, were actually in Buxton and Chester respectively. After Mancon 5, the next Manchester Eastercon was Intuition in 1998, again a 22-year interval. Sadly, the organisers of Mancunicon in 2016 either couldn't count or had no sense of history – although had they stuck to the 22-year rotation plan then they'd have been running at Easter 2020 which would have introduced a whole new level of complexity.

Links

SuperMancon publications and photos on fanac.org.
Rob Hansen's page on the convention at fiawol.org.uk.
SuperMancon Combozine at fanac.org.
Links to reports at fiawol.org.uk.
Pictures at efanzines.

____

↑ Actually 135 but two appear to be duplicates.
↑ ... because she didn't exist.
↑ Oddly, the Dave Cohen on the membership list is an Australian and not the Dave Cohen who chaired the convention and who is not himself on the membership list.
↑ The membership list also includes A. Mercer who is presumably a duplicate.
↑ Listed twice on the membership list as S. Thomas.
↑ The assumption is that the 'M. Wallace' on the list is 'Mike Wallace'.
↑ An educated guess that this is Eddie White.
↑ Her name is given as 'Yonden' in the souvenir book.
↑ Hyphen #9 (July 1954).
↑ Eye #2 (October 1954).
↑ Ibid, Hyphen.
↑ Femizine #2 (Summer 1954).
↑ Ibid, Hyphen.

Coroncon	Eastercon	Cytricon I
Mancon	Mancon	Thirdmancon
	1954

This is a convention page. Please extend it by adding information about the convention, including dates, GoHs, convention chairman, locale, sponsoring organization, external links to convention pages, awards given, the program, notable events, anecdotes, pictures, scans of publications, pictures of T-shirts, con reports, etc.

[1] Actually 135 but two appear to be duplicates.

[2] ... because she didn't exist.

[3] Oddly, the Dave Cohen on the membership list is an Australian and not the Dave Cohen who chaired the convention and who is not himself on the membership list.

[4] The membership list also includes A. Mercer who is presumably a duplicate.

[5] Listed twice on the membership list as S. Thomas.

[6] The assumption is that the 'M. Wallace' on the list is 'Mike Wallace'.

[7] An educated guess that this is Eddie White.

[8] Her name is given as 'Yonden' in the souvenir book.

[9] Hyphen #9 (July 1954).

[10] Eye #2 (October 1954).

[11] Ibid, Hyphen.

[12] Femizine #2 (Summer 1954).

[13] Ibid, Hyphen.

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Supermancon

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Preparations[edit]

Venue[edit]

Attendees[edit]

The convention[edit]

Publications[edit]

Future conventions[edit]

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