Last and First Fen

From Fancyclopedia 3
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Last and First Fen was a tapera, an audio taped show, created by Liverpool’s MaD Productions in 1956, based (we think) on a script by Jack Speer. “Eighteen months in the making, and a quite fabulous thing,” according to Eric Bentcliffe in Waldo no. 1 (December 1959). The tape ran 45 minutes long and premiered at Cytricon II.

Last and First Men is the title of a 1930 novel by Olaf Stapledon. And we could be totally wrong, and the LāSFāS fans may have written their own parody instead of using Speer’s by then 10-year-old fannish play.

Jack Speer’s script can be found online here. Speer’s introduction:

A United Press story in 1945 quoted Major P. C. Calhoun, “head of the A.A.F. guided-missile branch,” as saying that they expected to be able to shoot a rocket to the moon within 18 months, and within five years “to have a rocket that will carry men outside the Earth’s atmosphere and return safely.” Some stefinists were not so sanguine: in Gerry de la Ree’s polls of SF readers, authors, and editors, the majority estimated a date of 1950 or sooner for manned flight to the moon or another planet.

I ran with that idea in the following. This is what’s now called faan fiction, i.e., fiction about sfans.

___

  1. Nitrosyncretic Lab” was the name of the kitchen in Abby Lu Ashley’s house, the original Slan Shack.



Show 1956
This is a show page for fannish plays and musicals. Please extend it by adding more information about who wrote it, who performed in it and where it was staged/screened.