Evelyn Paige Gold
(July 5, 1920 – May 11, 2009)
Evelyn Paige Gold (née Stein, later Spencer) was an assistant editor for Galaxy Science Fiction. She sometimes used Evelyn Paige professionally. Fans called her “Goldie” and “Goldilocks.”
In the early 1950s, she was a regular at Worldcon and Midwestcon. She was often on panels as the “Face” of Galaxy. She sometimes wrote for fanzines, such as Grue.
She had been a dancer and an actress. In the 1940s, in New York, she wrote for radio shows including “The Kate Smith Hour” and “The Shadow,” and then television, including “Robert Montgomery Presents.” She helped create the Children's Art Carnival at the Museum of Modern Art in 1941.
Evelyn married H. L. Gold in 1939. They had a son, E. J. Gold, in 1941. Horace Gold became Galaxy’s founding editor in 1950, and Evelyn worked with him. Horace was afflicted with agoraphobia, so they worked from home, and did a lot of entertaining there, including famous people from both the art and sf worlds and meetings of the Hydra Club.
In 1955, after making a memorable appearance at the Clevention, Evelyn moved to Los Angeles, and the couple divorced in 1957; although briefly part of L.A. fandom, she seems to have left the sf field a few years later. She married Paul Donner Spencer (a great-great-grandson of George Donner, who led the ill-fated Donner party across the Sierra Nevadas) in April 1961. Then known as Eve Paige Spencer, she became a modernist artist, working in enamels. The couple published A Treasury of Trivia (Doneve Designs, 1978).
In 1986, while Eve was recovering from cancer surgery, the couple won the $15.22-million grand prize in the California Lottery, the biggest “instant game” payoff in lottery history.
Donner Spencer died in 2008; Eve died on May 11, 2009.
- Photo at TASFiC.
- A Treasury of Trivia by Donner and Eve Paige Spencer, 1978.
- Short video bio.
- “$15.22-Million Winner Breaks ‘Big Spin’ Jinx,” LA Times, June 22, 1986.
| Person | 1920—2009 |
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