A Brief History of the LASFS

by Fred Patten

 A Brief History of the LASFS

This year, as always, Loscon is brought to you by the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society.  Celebrating its 78th anniversary this October 27th, it is the world's oldest living science fiction club.  However, the LASFS did not form spontaneously from a vacuum.  It required the support of an organized science fiction fandom.

The Start of Organized SF Fandom

The pioneering science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, began monthly publication in April 1926.  It printed opinions and criticisms from its readers, along with their full addresses, in a "Discussions" column.  Rejoicing in their newfound kindred, many early fans, most of high school and college age, began writing to each other.  Within a few years, a group of two or three hundred of these pen pals around North America and Britain had formed a loose social association.  Some organized more formally.  A Science Correspondence Club was started during 1928, and began publishing a club magazine, The Comet, in May 1930.  By the early 1930s several of the more literate fans, individually or in collaboration, started their own amateur magazines in emulation of the professional SF magazines.  The prevailing attitude and sense of purpose of these early fans and fanzines was the serious advancement of science fiction. 

The earliest localized SF club was The Scienceers in New York City, which first met on December 11, 1929.  Its fanzine, The Planet, began in July 1930.  In addition to amateur fiction and popular science articles, it reported on the meetings and social activities of the club.  Copies of The Planet were mailed throughout the fledgling SF fandom, and encouraged many fans to start similar clubs in their cities.  These clubs usually drifted apart after a few months or years as their adolescent members developed other interests, but there were always some SF clubs to inspire new fans to create or join local clubs.

In May 1934, Wonder Stories announced the creation of the Science Fiction League, an international SF club which was to be coordinated through a column in the magazine.  Members living in the same city were encouraged to get together and start a local SFL chapter.  The first SFL chapters were on the East Coast, but on Saturday, October 27, 1934, seven Los Angeles SFL members and two guests met in the garage of member E. C. Reynolds.  These nine fans sent a letter to Wonder Stories asking to become an SFL chapter.  The Los Angeles Science Fiction League (LASFL) was granted a charter dated November 13, 1934 as the club's fourth chapter.

The LASFL met irregularly during its first year.  This changed when Forrest J Ackerman, a hyper-enthusiastic L.A. fan who was in college in San Francisco at the time, returned home at the beginning of 1936 and quickly became the club's most active member.  Bolstered by Forry's efforts, LASFL began meeting regularly every other Thursday in February 1936, increasing to the first four Thursdays of the month in January 1939 and every Thursday in July 1942.  He became the nucleus of a group of similarly enthusiastic young fans such as Walter Daugherty, T. Bruce Yerke, Paul Freehafer, Ray Bradbury, and Ray Harryhausen who transformed the LASFL from a tiny literary discussion club into a lively social group.  They invited all SF authors visiting or living in Los Angeles to come to the LASFL.  Arthur J. Burks, Robert A. Heinlein, Jack Williamson, Henry Kuttner, and other celebrities accepted the invitation.

Ackerman was particularly active in helping the LASFL publish its own mimeographed fanzines.  They were full of humorous, pun-filled reviews and parodies of current SF, as well as discussions of the LASFL's picnics, holiday parties and group outings to scientific lectures at Cal Tech or the local planetarium in addition to the club meetings.  These soon established the LASFL's reputation throughout budding SF fandom as "Shangri-L.A."; a paradise for young SF fans.  This reputation helped L.A. fandom win the World Science Fiction Convention for 1942 (postponed until 1946 due to World War II).

The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society

When the parent Science Fiction League began to fall apart in the late 1930s, Forry aided the club in staying alive by declaring its independence on March 27, 1940 as the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society.  Forry remained active in the club for the next two decades.  He seldom held a formal club office, but he was always there to keep things moving while others came and went.  Forrest Ackerman was Mr. LASFS for thirty years.  By the time he stopped participating regularly in the mid-1960s, he left a firmly established club behind him.

The LASFS went through some drastic personality changes before settling down into its current self.  SF fandom in the Thirties was dominated by intellectual young men who gave the original LASFL the atmosphere of a college fraternity.  During the early Forties, the club almost self-destructed due to fannish politics.  Cliques and factions battled, attempting to impeach club officers, arguing endlessly over trivial differences of opinion, and setting up rival local SF clubs.  At the same time, with World War II in progress and most SF fans over 18 in the Armed Services, the LASFS took on the atmosphere of a fannish USO.  Los Angeles was a major embarkation center for soldiers and sailors shipping out into the Pacific, and LASFS members were always ready to stop fighting long enough to greet and play host to fans in uniform passing through L.A. to the front.

Perhaps in reaction, as soon as the war ended the club swung to the opposite extreme, shunning most fannish activities as irresponsible.  The attitude was encouraged that fans should aspire to become professional SF authors, and several local writers including A. E. van Vogt, Ross Rocklynne and L. Ron Hubbard became regular participants.  The LASFS instituted a "Fanquet", an annual banquet honoring those members who made their first professional SF sale.  Several members did sell one or two short stories, and one, E. Everett Evans (for whom the Evans-Freehafer Award is co-named, with Paul Freehafer; see separate section), became a minor popular author during the 1950s until his death in 1958.

A major accomplishment of the LASFS in the late 1940s was the creation of the annual West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (Westercon).  At this time the only SF conventions were in the New York/Pennsylvania/New Jersey area, plus the annual World Science Fiction Convention that had come to Los Angeles in 1946 but was usually held in a city East of the Mississippi.  Two LASFS members, Walter Daugherty and Dave Fox, felt that the fans in Western cities deserved their own annual convention.  In 1948 the LASFS started the Westercon in emulation of the Worldcon.  Los Angeles-area fans held the first three Westercons until the convention was well-enough established that fan clubs in such cities as San Diego and San Francisco were ready to host it.  Today the Westercon is over sixty years old, and has met in cities ranging from Vancouver, BC to Honolulu, HI to Boise, ID to El Paso, TX.  The Westercon's Bylaws specify the LASFS as the archive of Westercon business and the default administrator in the case of the failure of any individual Westercon (which has never happened).  Westercon 55 in 2002 returned to Los Angeles for the first time in eight years.  The 2007 Westercon was in San Mateo, 2008 was in Las Vegas, 2009 was in Tempe, 2010 was in Pasadena, 2011 was in San Jose, 2012 was in Seattle, and Westercon 66 in 2013 will be in Sacramento.

By the early 1960s the LASFS had worked through its extremes to become the casual, open-to-all interests club that it is today.  There are always some SF authors and artists in residence, from Fritz Leiber in the late Fifties to Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and John DeChancie today, including (alphabetically) Steven Barnes, George Barr, John Dalmas, Alan Dean Foster, Rick Foss, David Gerrold, Stephen Goldin, Tim Kirk, William Rotsler, and Norman Spinrad, among others.  Some were well-established when they moved to Los Angeles and others became authors while they were fans in the club.  But there is no longer pressure for members to write if they prefer to remain fans. 

In the Sixties the LASFS regained the lively spirit of its beginnings, with the additional benefit of a growing female presence in SF fandom.  The club became more family oriented, with several marriages between members during the Sixties and Seventies including Bjo & John Trimble, Len & June Moffatt, and Bruce & Elayne Pelz.

LASFS, Inc.

Fans began to specialize into sub-groups, devoting themselves to hard-science SF, Tolkienish high fantasy, SF movies, comic books, specific movie and TV series including Star Trek and Dr. Who, roleplaying games, mystery/detective fiction, computer groups, even cliffhanger serials and old Westerns through the efforts of Charles Lee Jackson II.  The Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, the first Japanese anime fan club, held its first meeting at the LASFS in May 1977.  Despite this fragmentation, the LASFS counted them all as part of All Things Fannish, encouraging a strong spirit of camaraderie and family.  The LASFS began to build this spirit during the 1960s, determining to buy its own clubhouse and incorporating in 1968 as a non-profit educational organization.  Due to property prices, the club moved from the central Los Angeles area into San Fernando Valley, becoming the first SF club to buy its own property, at 11360 Ventura Boulevard, Studio City in 1973.  In 1977 the LASFS replaced it with a larger clubhouse at 11513 Burbank Boulevard in North Hollywood.  The club acquired its first computer, an Altair, that year as a donation by Larry & Fuzzy (Marilyn) Niven; it was made a member as Altair Niven.  In 1993 the club completed renovations to its front building, remodeling and doubling the size of its SF library which now contains over 20,000 volumes.  The LASFS went online with its own website in 1997.  In 2011, after 34 increasingly cramped years at its Burbank Blvd. home, the LASFS moved into a larger clubhouse at its current address in Van Nuys.

In December 1975 the Society presented LA 2000, a special convention to celebrate the club's 2,000th meeting.  More a relaxicon than a convention in the traditional sense (such as featuring guests of honor or holding a formal program), the event was so enjoyable that it was repeated in 1976, moving to October to honor the club's anniversary and calling itself Loscon for the first time.  The Loscon was held twice in 1977, the second that year being the first with an official guest of honor, Jerry Pournelle.  By 1978 it had settled into an annual November affair, the Los Angeles Regional Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, and starting with Loscon 9 in 1982 the Thanksgiving weekend has become traditional.  Loscon 7 in 1980 was the first to top 1,000 members, and attendance has not dropped below a thousand since 1984.  The Loscon was held in Pasadena from 1983 through 1989, in Burbank from 1993 through 2003, and in 2004 it returned to Los Angeles itself.

In the last quarter of the 20th century the LASFS began to blend and expand its social and literary activities.  The annual Fanquet metamorphed through a LASFS Showcase into the LaLaCon in 1995 (to 2007); a two-day "Spring Fling relaxicon, social gathering and open house" held at Freehafer Hall.  Attendance was limited to 150; the venue's maximum capacity.  Traditional LaLaCon events included a Plutonium Chili Cookoff on Saturday at noon; an Intergalactic Ice Cream Social on Saturday evening; and a Banquet on Sunday.  In 1964 the LASFS began APA-L, an unofficial weekly fanzine assembled at each club meeting consisting of individual contributions by members who find it convenient to communicate through "paper conversations" of usually two to four pages; some contributing by mail who cannot attend the club's meetings.  APA-L has had contributors from throughout North America and Europe.  In 1976 the similar monthly LASFAPA was started.  During 2011-12 APA-L has averaged about twenty-five pages from fifteen contributors per week.  Several of the unofficial sub-groups have grown into technically independent clubs which traditionally meet at Freehafer Hall on an established weekend each month, including the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization and Cinema Anime (anime clubs), the Time Meddlers (Dr. Who), and TRIPE, FWEMS and the Estrogen Zone (movie-watching clubs).  Members of these clubs are also the organizers of the annual Los Angeles-area Gallifrey One (Dr. Who) convention, and the new Animé L.A. convention beginning in 2005.

For legal reasons, LASFS members incorporated a separate California non-profit organization in 1982, the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, Inc. (SCIFI), to be the sponsor and organizer of Worldcons, Westercons, and similar major events within the science-fiction community that are not a part of the LASFS.  SCIFI organized the 1984, 1996, and recent 2006 Los Angeles Worldcons, the 1999 North American Science Fiction Convention (NASFiC) and the 1989, 1994 and 2002 Westercons.  In 1997 SCIFI created the Fan Gallery, a growing gallery of portrait photographs of prominent SF authors and fans funded from the "Benefit to Fandom" money left over from the 1996 Worldcon surplus.  The Fan Gallery was first exhibited at Loscon in 1997 and has become a regular display at Worldcons, Loscons and other conventions since then.

The LASFS has survived some traumatic shocks.  The April 1992 Los Angeles Riots occurred on a Thursday, which almost caused the club to cancel its weekly meeting for the first time since the early 1940s.  (That meeting was attended by only a few fans who adjourned early to get home before the martial-law curfew.)  After the January 1994 6.7 Richter Northridge Earthquake, and again during the October-November 2003 Southern California wildfires, the LASFS became an information center for fans to keep in touch with each other and offer help.  A smaller tragedy has become common due to the "graying" of fandom; LASFS regular attendees for decades have started dying or becoming confined to their homes due to the infirmities of old age.  In March 2002 Bruce Pelz proposed the establishment of a status known as 'Pillar of the LASFS.'  In order to qualify as a Pillar, the member must be dead.  The member's estate, or friends, would then make a large, lump-sum donation to the LASFS, in an amount to be determined by the club.  The proposal was being discussed when Pelz unexpectedly died in May of a pulmonary embolism.  The creation of the Pillar of the LASFS Award was approved in June with the donation set at $4,000, and donations to make Pelz himself the first Pillar of the LASFS were raised within two months at the 2002 Westercon and Worldcon.

Fortunately, the LASFS is constantly adding young and enthusiastic SF fans to replace the departed.  Some major LASFS events during 2004 included the club's 70th anniversary meeting and the 40th anniversary distribution of APA-L (#2058), both in October.  The participants of both ranged from their founders to newcomers who only joined during 2004.  The 2006 Worldcon, L.A.con IV, was held in Los Angeles (Anaheim), and many newcomers discovered the club through that Worldcon.  The club celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2009.

LASFS's regular Thursday night meetings, starting around 7:00 p.m., usually boast sixty to one hundred fans of all ages.  About half the attendees participate in the formal meeting and program, which may include a speaker, an SF movie, a panel, or auctions of SF items.  The rest are present to use the club's library (a trove of SF books, magazines, audio and video tapes, available to all members), or to gather in informal groups in various spots around the clubhouse to socialize, pursue their special interests, or work on individual club projects.  (The LASFS has organized SF exhibits for local public and university libraries, and a committee has been publishing an annually updated "LASFS Recommended Reading List for Young Readers" since 1997, which has been requested by librarians across the country.  The LASFS maintains social contact with other major SF clubs throughout America.)  The clubhouse is also open every Friday night for more informal socializing and open gaming.  In addition, on the Second Sunday of each month the LASFS hosts an open house for gaming fans.  The LASFS ran a SF exhibition booth at the annual UCLA Festival of Books for many years, moving to the West Hollywood Book Fair in 2007.

There is something for every SF enthusiast at the LASFS!  For more information call us on Thursday nights (or leave a message) at (818) 904-9544; or stop by the new clubhouse at 6012 Tyrone Avenue, Van Nuys on Thursday or Friday evenings.  Or check out the LASFS' website:  http://www.lasfs.org/lasfs/3

A Brief History of Loscon

The following is a guide to the history of the Los Angeles Regional Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention (Loscon).  The numbers in parentheses indicate total members followed by actual attending members.  Convention themes are also named for those conventions that had themes.

LA 2000
December 5 - 7, 1975
International Hotel, Los Angeles
GoH: None
Chair: Milt Stevens
(199 / 196)

Loscon 2
October 15 - 17, 1976
Pacifica Hotel, Culver City
GoH: None
Chair: Ron Bounds
(??? / 175)

Loscon 3
April 1 - 3, 1977
Quality Inn Airport, Los Angeles
GoH: None
Chairs:  Ed Finkelstein & Mike Glyer
(163 / 149)

Loscon 4
November 4 - 6, 1977
Quality Inn Airport, Los Angeles
GoH: Jerry Pournelle
Chair: Marty Massoglia
(279 / 253)

Loscon 5
November 3 - 5, 1978
Huntington Sheraton, Pasadena
GoH: Robert Bloch
Chair: Susan Fox
(383 / 347)

Loscon 6
November 10 - 12, 1979
Airport Park Hotel, Inglewood
GoH: A. E. van Vogt
Chair: Alan P. Winston
(732 / 691)

Loscon 7
November 28 - 30, 1980
Anaheim Sheraton, Anaheim
GoH: Larry Niven
Fan GoH: Alva Rogers
Media GoH: Jack Arnold
Chair: Mike Shupp
(1120 / 1055)

Loscon 8
November 6 - 8, 1981
Huntington Sheraton, Pasadena
GoH: William Rotsler
Fan GoH: Len & June Moffatt
Chair: George Jumper
(1016 / 968)

Loscon 9
November 26 - 28, 1982
Universal Sheraton, Universal City
GoH: Poul Anderson
Fan GoH: Milt Stevens
Chair: Dan Deckert
(1390 / 1345)

Loscon 10
November 25 - 27, 1983
Pasadena Hilton, Pasadena
GoH: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Fan GoH: Fuzzy Pink Niven
Special GoH: John Myers Myers
Chair: Bruce Pelz
(1048 / 1009)

Loscon Eleven
November 23 - 25, 1984
Pasadena Hilton, Pasadena
GoH: Curt Siodmak
Fan GoH: Forrest J Ackerman
LASFS GoH: Bill Warren
Chair: Charles Lee Jackson, II
(1002 / 959)

Loscon 12
November 29 - December 1, 1985
Pasadena Hilton, Pasadena
GoH: Robert Silverberg
Fan GoH: Terry Carr
In Absentia GoH: Daniel Pinkwater
Chair: Craig Miller
(1387 / 1318)

Loscon the 13th
November 28 - 30, 1986
Pasadena Hilton, Pasadena
GoH: John Brunner
Fan GoH: Bruce & Elayne Pelz
Chair: Danise Deckert
(1343 / 1282)

Loscon XIV
November 27 - 29, 1987
Pasadena Hilton, Pasadena
"Galactic Empires"
GoH: C. J. Cherryh
Fan GoH: Tom Whitmore
Chair: Fred Patten
(1359 / 1330)

Loscon Fifteen
November 25 - 27, 1988
Pasadena Hilton, Pasadena
"South Gate in 'Eighty-eight"
GoH: Vonda McIntyre
Fan GoH: Stan Woolston
Artist GoH: Patricia Davis
Chair: Rick Young
(1250 / 1000)

Loscon Sixteen
November 24 - 26, 1989
Pasadena Hilton, Pasadena
"Where Anything Can Happen"
GoH: Spider & Jeanne Robinson
Artist GoH: Erin McKee
Fan GoH: John & Bjo Trimble
Chair: Richard Foss
(1221 / 1098)

Loscon 17
November 23 - 25, 1990
Buena Park Hotel, Buena Park
GoH: Barry B. Longyear
Artist GoH: Reed Waller & Kate Worley
Fan GoH: Ben Yalow
LASFS GoH: George Alec Effinger
Chair: Robbie Cantor
(1107 / 1040)

Loscon 18
November 29 - December 1, 1991
Hyatt Regency, Long Beach
"Robotics & Computers in SF / Fantasy"
GoH: Mike Resnick
Artist GoH: Brad Foster
Fan GoH: Allan Rothstein
Chair: Rick Young
(1064 / 1019)

Loscon 19
November 27 - 29, 1992
Airport Marriott, Los Angeles
"Into the 21st Century on a Sturdy Broom"
GoH: Barbara Hambly
Artist GoH: Don Maitz
Editor GoH: David Hartwell
Fan GoH: Mike Glyer
Chairs: Christian B. McGuire & Shaun Lyon
(1285 / 1241)

Loscon 20
November 26 - 28, 1993
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"Take This Con and Stuffie It!"
GoH: Roger Zelazny
Artist GoH: Rick Sternbach
Fan GoH: Paul Turner
Chair: Chocolate Moose (with Elayne Pelz)
(1204 / 1187)

Loscon 21
November 25 - 27, 1994
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"The Changing Face of Science Fiction"
GoH: Lois McMaster Bujold
Artist GoH: Alicia Austin
Editor GoH: Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Fan GoH: Robbie Cantor
Special GoH: "Superguest" Julius Schwartz
Chairs: Shaun Lyon & Christian B. McGuire
(1173 / 1155)

Loscon 22
November 24 - 26, 1995
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"The World of SF"
GoH: Bob Shaw
Artist GoH: Lubov
Fan GoH: Larry Stewart
Chair: Robbie Cantor
(1124 / 1098)

Loscon XXIII
November 29 - December 1, 1996
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"Relax in the Company of Friends"
GoH: Harry Turtledove
Artist GoH: Vincent DiFate
Fan GoH: Bob Null
Chair: Christian B. McGuire
(1127 / 1117)

Loscon xxiv
November 28 - 30, 1997
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
GoH: S. M. Stirling
Artist GoH: Mitchell Davidson Bentley
Fan GoH: Geri Sullivan
Media GoH: J. Michael Straczynski
Chair: Ed Green
(1376 / 1296)
"Dedicated to the Memory of William Rotsler"

Loscon 25
November 27 - 29, 1998
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"Twenty Five Years of a Good Thing"
GoH: David Brin
Artist GoH: Sue Dawe
Fan GoH: Marjii Ellers
Chair: Kimberlee Marks Brown
(1206 / 1141)

Loscon XXVI
November 26 - 28, 1999
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"It's the End of the World as We Know It...and We Feel Fine"
GoH: Connie Willis
Artist GoH: Alex Ross
Fan GoH: Joe Siclari
Chair: Liz Mortensen
(1386 / 1204)

Loscon 27
November 25 - 27, 2000
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"The Dawn of a New Millennium"
GoH: Orson Scott Card
Artist GoH: Bob Eggleton
Special GoHs: Harry Knowles, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Frank Kelly Freas
Fan GoH: Craig Miller & Genny Dazzo
Chairs: Shaun Lyon & Christian B. McGuire
(1375 / 1317) 

Loscon 28
November 23 - 25, 2001
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"Education - Building the future one mind at a time"
GoH: Patricia C. Wrede
Artist GoH: Chris Butler
Fan GoH: Lynn Gold
Chair: Chaz Boston Baden
(1322 / 1187)

Loscon 29
November 29 - December 1, 2002
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"Planet Loscon: The World of Science Fiction & Fantasy"
Writer GoH: David Weber
Artist GoH: Nene Thomas
Fan GoH: Patty Wells
Chair: Tadao Tomomatsu
(1383 / 1308)

Loscon 30
November 28 - 30, 2003
Burbank Airport Hilton, Burbank
"Navigating the WORLDS of Science Fiction"
Author GoH: Fred Saberhagen
Artist GoH: Teddy Harvia
Fan GoH: Jack L. Chalker
Chair:  Michael Mason
(1229 / 1177)

Loscon 31
November 26 - 29, 2004
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"Escape To LA!"
Author GoH: Tim Powers
Artist GoH: Wendy Pini
Fan GoHs: James Stanley Daugherty & Kathryn Daugherty
LASFS GoH: David Gerrold
Chair:  Ed Green
(1265 / 1197)

Loscon 32
November 25 – 27, 2005
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"2005: A Space Operetta"
Author GoH:  Steven Brust
Artist GoH:  Rowena Morrill
Fan GoH:  Bruce Farr
Chair:  Karl Lembke
(1222 / 1183)

Loscon 33
November 24 – 26, 2006
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"Exploring the Golden Ages of Science Fiction"
Writer GoH:  William Tenn
Artist GoH:  Bernie Wrightson
Fan GoH:  Fred Patten
Chair:  Scott Beckstead
(1146 / 1084)

LOSCON 34
November 23 – 25, 2007
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"The Dig: Excavating the Worlds of Science Fiction"
Writer GoH:  Robert J. Sawyer
Artist GoH:  Theresa Mather
Fan GoH:  Capt. David West Reynolds
Music GoH:  Dr. James Robinson (formerly known as Dr. Jane)
Chair:  Dr. Susan "Arizona" Gleason
(1199 / 1132)

Loscon XXXV
November 28 – 30, 2008
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Loscon"
Author GoH:  John Scalzi
Artist GoH:  Gary Lippincott
Fan: GoH:  Michael Siladi
Chairs:  Joyce Hooper & Cathy Beckstead
(1190 / 1112)

LosCon 36
November 27 – 29, 2009
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"But WAIT…There's MORE!"
Author GoHs:  Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes
Artist GoH:  Tim Rickard
Fan GoH:  Christian B. McGuire
Chair:  Marcia Minsky
(1185 / 1094)

Loscon 37
November 26 – 28, 2010
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"Dark Loscon"
Writer GoH:  Emma Bull
Artist GoH:  Phil Foglio
Fan GoHs:  Kim and Jordan Brown
Chair:  Scott Beckstead & Sherri Benoun
(1094 / 1015)

Loscon 38
November 25 – 27, 2011
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"Where's My Flying Car?"
Writer GoH:  John DeChancie
Science GoH:  Rick Searfoss
Artist GoH:  Aldo Spadoni
Fan GoH:  John Hertz
Chair:  Arlene Satin
(1086 / 1000)

Loscon 39
November 23 - 25, 2012
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"The Zombies are Attacking the 
Steampunks at Loscon This Year. And That's the Way We Like It."
Writer GoH: Vernor Vinge
Artist GoH:  Alan White
Costume GoH:  Mela Hoyt-Heydon
Fan GoHs:  Lloyd & Yvonne Penny
Chair:  Christian B. McGuire
(     /    )

Loscon 40
November 29 – December 1, 2013
LAX Marriott Hotel, Los Angeles
"Let's Do the Time Warp Again!"
Chair:  Cathy Beckstead & Christian B. McGuire

LASFS Awards

The Forry Award

Award for service to the science fiction community

Each year since 1966, the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society has presented the Forry Award for Lifetime Achievement in the field of Science Fiction.  Named after long-time fan and "Mr. LASFS", Forrest J Ackerman, the award is chosen by members of the club during a meeting usually in the mid- to late Fall of each year, and announced at the Loscon.  In 2002, over thirty-five years after the award's establishment, the club felt that it was high time that Forry himself receive the award with his name.

Forry Award Recipients

The Evans-Freehafer Award

Award for service to the LASFS

The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society began to honor its own in 1959 with the creation of the Evans-Freehafer Award, named after two of the club's most influential and popular members, E. Everett Evans and Paul Freehafer.

E. Everett Evans -- "Triple-E" or "Tripoli" -- was one of the first LASFSians to become a successful professional author during his active membership in the club, with over a dozen short stories and novels published during the 1950s before his death in 1958.

Paul Freehafer was only 27 when he died of a rheumatic heart in 1944, but it was his cheerful enthusiasm for carrying club projects to completion that made the LASFS one of the leading SF clubs of the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The Evans-Freehafer Award is presented at each Loscon to that year's recipient.  The award is decided by a special committee made up of the three previous years' recipients, and the winner is a closely-guarded secret until the announcement.  The award is presented for service to the LASFS, recognizing hard work and dedication to the club.  Only four people, Bruce Pelz, Elayne Pelz, Bob Null and Mike Donahue, have received this award more than once.

In 1972, rather than present the award to a currently active member, the decision was made to give the award to Forrest J Ackerman, retroactively all the way back to 1942, for his years of service to the club.

Michael Mason, the LASFS' Librarian, died during the New Year 2004-2005 weekend.  It was decided to retroactively extend the 2004 award to both Christian B. McGuire and Michael Mason.

Evans-Freehafer Award Recipients

The Rotsler Award

Award for lifetime work of outstanding fan artists.

Bill Rotsler (1926-1997) knew everyone and did everything.  He located the fossils, crystals, and stones for the Nebula Award trophies of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA).  He went house-hunting with Marilyn Monroe.  He wrote science fiction.  He sculpted with welded steel rods.  He celebrated the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference (Westercon) as his birthday

In the s-f community he was best known for graphic art.  As a fanartist his cartoons were deft, his serious drawing fine, his fluency downright breathtaking.  He won four Hugo Awards, twenty years apart, in 1975 and 1979, 1996 (when he also won the Retro-Hugo for 1946) and 1997; a remarkable span.

The Rotsler Award was created by the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, Inc. (SCIFI, Inc.) in his memory in 1997, to honor the lifetime work of outstanding fanzine artists.  It is awarded yearly by a specially appointed panel (the current judges are Claire Brialey, Mike Glyer, and John Hertz) and, by arrangement with the LASFS, it is presented at the Loscon.  Its recipients receive a $300 honorarium and a plaque.  Traditionally there is an exhibit of the current recipient's work in the Loscon Art Show.  There is a website at www.scifiinc.org/rotsler.

Rotsler Award Recipients

1998        Steve Stiles
1999        Grant Canfield
2000        Arthur Thomson (ATom) [posthumous]
2001        Brad Foster
2002        Kurt Erichsen
2003        Ray Nelson
2004        Harry Bell
2005        Marc Schirmeister
2006        Alexis Gilliland
2007        Terry Jeeves        
2008        Taral Wayne
2009        Dan Steffan
2010        Stu Shiffman
2011        D. West [declined; recorded as "no award given"]
2012        C. Ross Chamberlain