Golden Gate Futurians

A club (not to be confused with the NYC Futurians) in the Bay Area, also known as the Golden Gate Futurian Society, GGF and the GGFS (pronounced and sometimes written as Gugfuss). It was formed in 1941. For a time in the late 1950s, it was called the Golden Gate Leprechauns (presumably a reference to the contemporary Little Men's) and even more briefly (ending in February 1960) as the Golden Gate Trolls.

In the early 1960s, it was still active -- it bid for and ran Baycon, the 1961 Westercon -- but by the mid-60s, it was only meeting sporadically. In March 1969, there was a last effort to revive the group. The meeting was attended by about 10 people and featured a sercon discussion of sf, but soon degenerated into games of Risk and Diplomacy.

Its clubzine was Starlight.

Members included Karen Anderson, D. Bruce Berry, Ray Bersi, Mel Brown, James Bush, Terry Carr, Jack Fields, Joe Fortier, Bob Franck, Peter Graham, Bertha Johnson, Helen Johnson, Bertha Jordan, Bob Jordan, Eugene Jorgensen, Nick Kenealy, James Kepner, Bill Knapheide, Donald Moore, Dave Rike, George Robson, Agnes Rundle, Roy Seiler, Boob Stewart and Tom Wright.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

From Bay Area – Just before the Korean War, the Golden Gate Futurian Society was in existence; it consisted, first, of Kepner, Mel Brown, Bill Knapheide, Donald Moore, D. Bruce Berry and others, a motley crew. This was a science fiction club pure and simple; in '51-'52 all but Knapheide disappeared and the ACC group took it over. "We couldn't run a really good stf-centered club", confesses Carr, but they didn't really want to; they wanted a faaanish one. Eventually the club got so very fannish that the meetings were set up as one-shot sessions only, but this brought on the folding of the club; since one-shot sessions could be held any old time anyway, a club organization was unnecessary.

From Fancyclopedia 2 Supplement, ca. 1960

A fan club dying and reviving, at irregular intervals, since the early '40s, in the San Francisco area. Its last incarnation "all started one day when Terry (Carr), Boob (Stewart), myself (Dave Rike), and maybe Pete (Graham) went over to a fringe-fan's place. He had a taper and since his parents owned a store, unlimited supplies of beer. We spent an afternoon of drinking-drinking-drinking and taping. Copies of fanzines we brot along and various fannish classics were dramatized...At the next GGFS meeting, the tape was played and we all thot it was the most. This started the tradition of having a beer bust after, before, or on off-nights, or at any time, and calling them GGFS meetings. One Roy Seiler was voted President because he was 21 and could, therefore, be purchasing agent for potables. The only GGFS oneshot was Sic which was put together at two meetings and after that the club was no more. Enough of us had turned 21 by that time and/or had friends who had, that there was no reason to continue meeting. The ol' GGFS was a club with a purpose, is one thing you can say."

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

San Francisco-Oakland local, and core of Starlight Publications. They plugged hard for the 1942 convention, even had a formal invitation from the mayor, but failed. With the real retirement (maybe) of Joe Fortier, they ceased to be much heard, but turned out in fairish number for the Staplecon.

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Club

1941—1969

This is a club page. Please extend it by adding information about when and where the club met, when and by whom it was founded, how long it was active, notable accomplishments, well-known members, clubzines, any conventions it ran, external links to the club's website, other club pages, etc. When there's a floreat (Fl.), this indicates the time or times for which we have found evidence that the club existed. This is probably not going to represent the club's full lifetime, so please update it if you can!