The Fanzines of Trek -- in situ

[Kelso]

This is all fascinating. They you for posting it.

 

[Neopeius]

On a different topic, last night we read the January 1967 issue of Vulcanalia, the very first Trekzine, to our two gatherings (East and West Coast).

It's just two pages long, and you can see the first page at Fanlore.

As you can see from the front, it's put out by a Brooklyn club that has at least two members. Treasurer Elyse Pines was active in New York fandom though I don't know if that fandom predated her Trek involvement. I know she and Vulcanian Enterprises Preisdent Dana L. Fries both went to Nycon (Worldcon) '67, just seven months from now. (time travel tense is fun!)

The second page is particularly interesting. It has both a biography of Leonard Nimoy and one of Mr. Spock:


"Mister Spock is the science officer and first officer on the USS Enterprise.

His mother was an earth space scientist who traveled to the planet Vulcan on a research mission. There she met, worked with and married,Spock's father, a Vulcan native.

Vulcan is a hot, arid planet larger than earth. Because of its greater gravity, Vulcans are extremely powerful and agile.Their blood is green and assimilates oxygen at an extremely rapid rate.Their hearing is super-sensitive, and their knowledge of the human mind and body is so scientifically advanced as to be uncanny. Spock can actually render a man unconscious la: applying fine pressure to various nerve centers.

[our young Trek initiate with a Spock crush was most gleeful when she read this passage...]

Emotionally the Vulcans are stoics. In ages past, they were a fierce, warring race.For self-preservation,emotional control became necessary and was gradually accomplished.It is considered bad taste and illogical for a Vulcan to show his feelings.

Spock is, of course, caught between two worlds,being half alien to earth and half earthling to the Vulcan. Not being fully at ease in either society, he chose the space service and science as a way of life."


I do not know where this info came from as it includes stuff not in the show as of January: Since Friese and Pines also had pictures of Leonard Nimoy, perhaps this stuff came straight from the horse's mouth (or his agent)?

 

[Noname Given]

On a different topic, last night we read the January 1967 issue of Vulcanalia, the very first Trekzine, to our two gatherings (East and West Coast).

It's just two pages long, and you can see the first page at Fanlore.

As you can see from the front, it's put out by a Brooklyn club that has at least two members. Treasurer Elyse Pines was active in New York fandom though I don't know if that fandom predated her Trek involvement. I know she and Vulcanian Enterprises Preisdent Dana L. Fries both went to Nycon (Worldcon) '67, just seven months from now. (time travel tense is fun!)

The second page is particularly interesting. It has both a biography of Leonard Nimoy and one of Mr. Spock:


"Mister Spock is the science officer and first officer on the USS Enterprise.

His mother was an earth space scientist who traveled to the planet Vulcan on a research mission. There she met, worked with and married,Spock's father, a Vulcan native.

Vulcan is a hot, arid planet larger than earth. Because of its greater gravity, Vulcans are extremely powerful and agile.Their blood is green and assimilates oxygen at an extremely rapid rate.Their hearing is super-sensitive, and their knowledge of the human mind and body is so scientifically advanced as to be uncanny. Spock can actually render a man unconscious la: applying fine pressure to various nerve centers.

[our young Trek initiate with a Spock crush was most gleeful when she read this passage...]

Emotionally the Vulcans are stoics. In ages past, they were a fierce, warring race.For self-preservation,emotional control became necessary and was gradually accomplished.It is considered bad taste and illogical for a Vulcan to show his feelings.

Spock is, of course, caught between two worlds,being half alien to earth and half earthling to the Vulcan. Not being fully at ease in either society, he chose the space service and science as a way of life."


I do not know where this info came from as it includes stuff not in the show as of January: Since Friese and Pines also had pictures of Leonard Nimoy, perhaps this stuff came straight from the horse's mouth (or his agent)?

Or maybe they just made it up/extrapolated it from what they had seen of Mr. Spock to this point. That wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for fans of that period

 

[Neopeius]

Or maybe they just made it up Splash/extrapolated it from what they had seen of Mr. Spock to this point. That wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for fans of that period

Perhaps, though I find it unlikely. The information regarding Vulcan, that Vulcans are called Vulcans (Vuilcanian was still being used, though not exclusively), their sensitive hearing, those would all make it into the canon eventually.

Also, their biography of Nimoy had to come from somewhere. Perhaps culled from clippings and magazines, but it also might have been another gift from Nimoy or his agent.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Perhaps, though I find it unlikely. The information regarding Vulcan, that Vulcans are called Vulcans (Vuilcanian was still being used, though not exclusively), their sensitive hearing, those would all make it into the canon eventually.

Also, their biography of Spock had to come from somewhere. Perhaps culled from clippings and magazines, but it also might have been another gift from Nimoy or his agent.

The very first Trek fanzines were going to be "connected" IMHO. If you wrote a good enough fan letter early enough, like the night the show premiered, you'd get an amazing reply from a high level, like from Nimoy, Fontana, or Roddenberry. And it might include backstory, plus the suggestion that you start a newsletter. That's what I think.

 

[Neopeius]

I'm sure everyone's sick of this by now, but here's my wrap-up post on the first "Save Star Trek" campaign. @Harvey and @Maurice, let me know if you think my math is seriously off:

Here's an interesting article about the second effort. It's clear it was much more of a "pull out the stops" effort than the first. Bjo would know since she was around for the first one.

This article is useful as it corroborates the number of letters gotten by the second campaign: 12K to 115K depending on who you ask (I think the latter number is plausible, and it's more documented).

Given that the first campaign was necessarily smaller than the first (shorter length, less effort made to reach the fans directly, less of an organized Trek fandom), It's safe to say the turnout was well under 100,000. ~4000, the average for letter campaigns (q.v. the second piece), is probably accurate.

As for the size of the fan community, again, its upper limit is ~250,000, and that's folks who do nothing more than read a monthly magazine or pick up a book. Looking through the fanac archives gives one an idea of how many monthly 'zines there were (10-15, though there might have been as many as 2x that; if you read the fanzines that are reviews of other fanzines, you'll discover ones that aren't archived). Each 'zine, based on reading them, represents ~20-100 people. That's an estimate. No, I have not gone through every 'zine in existence and built a database of every fan ever. I hereby nominate someone else for the task.

So I'd go as high as 10,000 fans active in fanac in late '66. And I'd even say that three quarters of them would be interested in saving Trek. And that, of them, maybe a tenth would hear about the campaign and be motivated to write. If you've ever been in politics or sales, you know that's actually a pretty good percentage.

That makes 750 fans writing letters. Let's say they all write five apiece, that puts us at 3750. Right around the 4000 mark that is standard for letter campaigns.

Would I stake my life on these numbers? No. But I think my reasoning is sound.

 

[ChallengerHK]

Also, their biography of Spock had to come from somewhere.

That somewhere could have been their imaginations, however. My experience with fan publications, which would date to, say, 20 years after the period you're describing, was that about 75% of the pieces were largely made up by the authors. Their tack was "you don't know that it DIDN'T happen this way, so..." I, on the other hand, spent significant time actually researching my pieces. James Van Hise took one of my articles, produced by me sweating over VHS tapes for weeks, and edited it together with three others, all of whom just guessed what the thought reality would be. I was pissed.

 

[Neopeius]

That somewhere could have been their imaginations, however. My experience with fan publications, which would date to, say, 20 years after the period you're describing, was that about 75% of the pieces were largely made up by the authors. Their tack was "you don't know that it DIDN'T happen this way, so..." I, on the other hand, spent significant time actually researching my pieces. James Van Hise took one of my articles, produced by me sweating over VHS tapes for weeks, and edited it together with three others, all of whom just guessed what the thought reality would be. I was pissed.

I'm sorry to hear that. It must have been really annoying for you.

Thank you for catching my error -- I meant their biography of Nimoy had to come from somewhere. I don't imagine that was spun from whole cloth.

 

[Commishsleer]

I don't thjink "true" science fiction fans care for Star Trek or most televised versions of science fiction. I was actually a fan of scence fiction before I was a fan of Star Trek so I can understand the snobbery.
I live in acity of over $2 million people in Australia and the two specialist science fiction bookshops we have don't have Star Trek books. They have Star Wars (limited). I asked about this and one owner told me politly we don't have the business but I suspect they are "true" scifi fans.

How were fanzines distributed anyway? In the 80s I saw some for sale in my other city science fiction bookshop (Star Trek, Dr Who, Blakes 7 I think) ? This was in Australia though

 

[Neopeius]

I don't thjink "true" science fiction fans care for Star Trek or most televised versions of science fiction. I was actually a fan of scence fiction before I was a fan of Star Trek so I can understand the snobbery.
I live in acity of over $2 million people in Australia and the two specialist science fiction bookshops we have don't have Star Trek books. They have Star Wars (limited). I asked about this and one owner told me politly we don't have the business but I suspect they are "true" scifi fans.

How were fanzines distributed anyway? In the 80s I saw some for sale in my other city science fiction bookshop (Star Trek, Dr Who, Blakes 7 I think) ? This was in Australia though

You got on a mailing list. You either sent money to cover postage, or you contributed a piece, or you were A Good Fellow. If you read the fanzines from the time, check the last page and you'll see there's often a checklist of reasons you might be getting the 'zine, one of which will actually be marked off.

Before the 8th Age of Fandom (i.e. before the mid-50s), each age had a physical center of fandom, and that center was a fanzine and the circle that created it. By the late 50s, fandom had many centers and didn't revolve around zines quite so much.

As for "true" SF fans might looking down on Star Trek (including at least one of the Journey's staff, who shall remain nameless, but he's John Boston), there's still quite a lot of crossover. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Worldcon after Trek's debut had double the number of attendees...

 

[Daddy Todd]

Gideon, I hope you’re planning on writing a book on the true history of early Star Trek fandom. I enjoyed Verba’s history of Trek fanzines, but she was there almost right from the start, which might color her viewpoint. I definitely think there’s room for an outsider view, written half a century after the fact. And, if you have access to the ‘zines, you’ve got the primary research materials.

I hope I’m not the only one who would read the HELL out of such a book!

 

[Neopeius]

Gideon, I hope you’re planning on writing a book on the true history of early Star Trek fandom. I enjoyed Verba’s history of Trek fanzines, but she was there almost right from the start, which might color her viewpoint. I definitely think there’s room for an outsider view, written half a century after the fact. And, if you have access to the ‘zines, you’ve got the primary research materials.

I hope I’m not the only one who would read the HELL out of such a book!

Thanks, Todd! And thank you very much for not using the dreaded words "you should"!

We shall see. Right now, I'm concentrating on my science fiction books. I'll keep updating these threads with my findings though.

You might enjoy Galactic Journey. We put up a new article every other day, and we cover far more than just Trek (indeed, one gains a greater appreciation for Trek in context, I've found).

 

[BK613]

Good. Sounds like we agree that a million is too high. That's something!

As I posted before, on Jan 7:

So have fans over the years just conflated a dubious number originally applied to that Committee campaign with the end of the second season Bjo Trimbel campaign?

@Maurice @Neopeius I already said the number was "dubious" so don't distract by pretending I was defending it. I'm not.

Please don't mentioned it again.

I did some research for you. Analog's distribution was ~145,000 per month, a little under half of whom were subscribers. It was by far the biggest mag, the others having circulations under 100,000, closer to 50,000. And there was cross over, so one can't just add them all together.

This gibes well with ACE having average sales runs of 40-70K.

So one could guess that the dedicated reading community of SF fans was 100-200K.

And that would establish a minimum not a maximum. Seriously, you think it is one sale/subscription equals only one fan? No sharing? No multi-reader households, or classroom copies* or issues shared amongst club members? And that only fans who could afford subscriptions were "dedicated?" (BTW, as an aside, how are you representing the 1967 cost for all this reading your are doing? A change jar maybe, to account for all the costs you would paying if you were really in 1967? With the collections to some local charity perhaps?)
And on the subject of sharing, even your "I'll sit this one out" fan received three copies of the Letter from three different people and shared it with the local club, who may or may not have been subscribers of anything—and yet could have responded to the campaign. where are those in you accounting?

*(Like my physics teacher in high school. RIP, John Arnold)

 

[Neopeius]

And that would establish a minimum not a maximum. Seriously, you think it is one sale/subscription equals only one fan? No sharing? No multi-reader households, or classroom copies* or issues shared amongst club members?

F&SF seemed to believe they reached 180,000 -- 60K a month, with each issue reached by three readers. Of course, they were also trying to get ads with that proclamation...

And that only fans who could afford subscriptions were "dedicated?"

You asked me to estimate the size of the fanac fandom. If they can't afford to buy the mags, can they afford the stamps for letters, or the costs for fanzines?

(BTW, as an aside, how are you representing the 1967 cost for all this reading your are doing? A change jar maybe, to account for all the costs you would paying if you were really in 1967? With the collections to some local charity perhaps?)

It's an established fact that my alter-ego is rich. Actually, I've assumed that he has at his disposal the same amount of money as I do in 2022... only it's at 1967 valuing. That's easily enough money for jet-setting, long distance calls, a personal 'fax machine, time-share privileges at the local university computer (maybe even with a home terminal).

It's at the edge of plausibility, but not possibility. If Amos Burke can do it...

And on the subject of sharing, even your "I'll sit this one out" fan received three copies of the Letter from three different people and shared it with the local club, who may or may not have been subscribers of anything—and yet could have responded to the campaign. where are those in you accounting?

Somewhere in my "10,000 fanac-active fans".

*(Like my physics teacher in high school. RIP, John Arnold)

A saint (doffs hat).

Anyway, again, all you've got is "nuh uh." I'm open to evidence. I'm happy to revise every one of my tentative conclusions. It will please me to no end to be able to say, "BK, old boy/girl/other, you were right! Thank you for setting me straight." Or as a friend of mine recently put it, "This isn't a competition. I want us all to win."

Give me something more than "nuh uh!"

Edit: It might help to know just what you're contesting. Is it:

1) The number of regular SF-reading fans (I'm guessing ~250,000)
2) The number of fanac-active fans ('zine-making, club-active, con-going -- I'm guessing ~10,000)
3) The number of letters received by NBC (which, by the way, may not be all the letters written -- there were multiple destinations, so the fellow writing four letters probably only sent one to NBC) (I'm guessing ~4,000, no more than 10,000)
(Edit) 4) That the first campaign was smaller than the second.

Conceivably, I could multiply all of these numbers [in 1-3] by two. If I did that, would you still have an issue with any of these numbers? If so, which ones?

 

[Daddy Todd]

You might enjoy Galactic Journey. We put up a new article every other day, and we cover far more than just Trek (indeed, one gains a greater appreciation for Trek in context, I've found).

Oh, the Journey is one of my regular internet fanzines (along with File 770, Black Gate, Camestros Felapton, and Scalzi’s Whatever.) I really enjoy it!

I’ve even seen you “live”, at the 2019 NASFiC in Utah. I mean, I sat in the audience for one of your panels. I was already a Galactic Journey fan by then. It was a great panel, as I recall.

 

[Neopeius]

Oh, the Journey is one of my regular internet fanzines (along with File 770, Black Gate, Camestros Felapton, and Scalzi’s Whatever.) I really enjoy it!

I’ve even seen you “live”, at the 2019 NASFiC in Utah. I mean, I sat in the audience for one of your panels. I was already a Galactic Journey fan by then. It was a great panel, as I recall.

This reminds me of a bit on The Dean Martin Show this week. One of his guests exclaimed, "I bought your book!" to which Dean Martin replied, "You're the one!"

Seriously, though, thank you. And yes, those are all great blogs. Mike Glyer is a lovely man (if occasionally too hotheaded for his own good...), and Scalzi just featured my wife's book!

 

[Neopeius]

I just got a huge tranche of Trekzines. As I was collating them, I found Thru The Haze #34 (October '68), the unofficial newszine for N3F, the oldest SFF fan club in existence. To the question of how many active fans there were at the time, the membership of N3F was 441.

Obviously, N3F didn't include all of the active fans in existence, but it's a useful number to gauge relative sizes of things. The biggest clubs won't have more than 500 people. The rest of the clubs should be a lot smaller. And, of course, one could be a member of many clubs at once, so double-counting is possible (i.e. folks could be Lunarians and N3F members).

If 1% of active fandom was in N3F, there were ~40K active fans in late '68. That feels ballpark.

Edit: Per Degler 164 (1-13-67), that issue was mailed out to 100 people (that may be an anomalously large number since the particular issue was being sent to that number "At Forry's (Forrest Ackerman) request"). It reports that Stephen E. Pickering stole $3,700 worth of priceless SFnalia from Forry! They got at least some of it back...

 

[Neopeius]

Quick note: @Commishsleer

A bit ahead of schedule, but this is from an Aussie 'zine from '70 and has a nice list of ways one might be on the distribution list for a 'zine.

 

[publiusr]

Any spacecraft fan art from the zines?
Starlight had a few on what the replacement of the refit might be…

 

[comsol]

Any spacecraft fan art from the zines?
Starlight had a few on what the replacement of the refit might be…

Starlight? Or did you mean Starlog?