Chicago Clubs

Chicago is another of those cities which has abounded with clubs over the years, many with confusingly similar names.

Chicago Science Fiction League

AKA

Chicago Science Fiction Club

fl. 1935-38

The CSFL (also known as TCSFL) was founded in 1935 as chapter #14 of the SFL, the club attracted members including founder Walter Dennis, Paul McDermott, Jack Darrow, Allen Kline, Arthur Hermann, Otto Binder, Earl Binder, Jack Binder, and William Dellenback. Sam Moskowitz called it "the outstanding chapter of the time."

Three of the members, Darrow, Binder, and Dellenback, planned to visit New York that summer to meet members of the New York chapter of the SFL. Charles D. Hornig planned a chapter meeting to take place at the offices of Wonder Stories, but the Chicago delegates arrived a day late and missed the meeting, instead visiting with Hornig, Mort Weissinger, and Julius Schwartz. Arguably, had this meeting happened, this would have been the first science fiction convention.

The club published the clubzine The Fourteen Leaflet from November 1935 through Spring 1937. In 1937, it severed its ties with the SFL and renamed itself the Chicago Science Fiction Club, but by the time the final issue was published, many club members had left Chicago and the club soon went dormant.

in the 1990, Las Vegas fans claimed control of the CSFL and this claim was not disputed. What they did with it is unknown.

The Chicago Science Fiction League (II) (below) is an entirely separate group.

Chicago Science Fictioneers

fl. 1930s

An early SF club in Chicago, formed by fan W. Lawrence Hamling, apparently to run Chicon I -- though this did not happen and it was run by the Illini Fantasy Fictioneers instead. Jack Darrow was also a member.

University of Chicago Science Fiction Club

AKA

University of Chicago Science Fiction Society

fl. 1950-1960s

A club at the University of Chicago founded in 1950 by Tom Seidman, George D'Asaro, and John Boardman. It published The Journal of Science Fiction and was part of CHIAC.

In its early years, club meetings were so informal as to be pretty chaotic -- though they weren't dull. Its 1952 Halloween party included an imitation black mass, which gained it unwelcome notice by the university's President. Earl Kemp became club President in 1953. Its faculty adviser was Nobel-Prize-winning chemist Harold Urey!

In 1963, the club split into two groups. By this time, none of the members were students at the University of Chicago, and many felt that the club had become stale. George Price, who had been doing the club's program and sending out meeting notices wanted a more sf-oriented group and began hosting a monthly meeting. Rosemary Hickey helped set up a monthly social group (including drinking) called the Chicago SF League. Template:Hyde Park group??

Chicago Science Fiction Society

AKA

Chicon II Society

fl. 1950-53

Chicago Science Fiction Society AKA Chicon II Society is the organization which ran Chicon II, which see.

Chicago Science Fiction League (II)

AKA

Chicago SF League

fl. 1962-??

When the University of Chicago Science Fiction Club fell apart, it broke into two entirely new clubs, one named the Chical SFL. It was formed around 1962 by Rosemary Hickey and held monthly meetings on the first Saturday night of each month (except in months when a convention took place) at the home of Rosemary Hickey at 2020 North Mohawk Street and later at the home of George Price.

At Chicon III in 1962, they sponsored an exhibition of the art of Richard M. Powers on the Saturday of the convention. The league compiled the exhibit separately from the con and paid rent on the room themselves, asking con-attendees for voluntary donations to offset the cost.

University of Chicago SF Society

fl. 1969-73 The University of Chicago SF Society was a new UofC club founded in April 1968 with Jerry Lapidus, Michael Jensen, Linda Kravinski and Charles Fuhrer as officers. By 1969, it was meeting in Ida Noyes Hall on campus. This club made a short-lived and unsuccessful bid for the 1973 Worldcon. See Chicago in '73.

Armchair Speculators of DePaul University

fl. 1970s

Founded in the early 70s, an active club which seems to have been a predecessor of General technics. See Armchair Speculators of DePaul University for a much longer article.

University of Illinois at Chicago Science Fiction Society

fl. 1970s

(See University of Illinois SF Society for the Champaign-Urbana club.)

The University of Illinois at Chicago Science Fiction Society, a club at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle campus, published a clubzine, Tesseract, and fed heavily into Chicago fandom and Thursday.

In the 1970s, members included Robin Beal, E. Michael Blake, John Donat, Cory Glaberson, Kathy Hoover, Joy King, Jim Kobrinetz, Doug Price and Doug Rice.

Thursday

fl. 1970s and 80s

Thursday was an informal social gathering of Chicago fans which met weekly on Thursday nights during the 1970s and '80s. See Thursday for much more.

ISFiC

fl 1973-present

ISFiC is probably the most durable of all the Chicago clubs. It is not a social club, but is the group that runs Windycon. See ISFiC for a long article on the organization.

Queen to Queen's Three

fl. 1979-present

A media SF club. Michael Jencevice has been its president since 1979.

West Suburban Science Fiction Society

fl. 1979-82

A club located in the western suburbs of Chicago. It was founded by Ken Mason. {Could this be related to the West Suburban Group?}

Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum

fl. 1989

An apparently short-lived Chicago club.

The Nite Group

fl. 1989

An apparently short-lived Chicago club.

West Suburban Group

fl. 1989

An apparently short-lived Chicago club.