TusCon's Illustrated History Pages:

Index to The History of TusCon

    For several years I had been ~~threatening~~ promising to put together a page on the history of TusCon. And here it is, with many thanks and gratitude to Brian Gross, Sue Thing, Jim Corrick, Wolf Forrest, Trini Ruiz, Gloria McMillan, Deb Dedon, Yvonne Navarro, and David J. Schow, to name but a few.
    So as a result, since 2002, TusCon's Illustrated (or Illustrious, depending on your point of view) History has had a listing on the Internet as part of my larger site Honest Intellectual Inquiry. However, in 2007, due to a server problem (the most recent of at least four), I finally broke down and purchased two domain names, so NOW TusCon's Illustrated History has its very own space, so that, one hopes, in the future I won't have to go through the messy, time-and-energy-consuming effort of notifying everyone that, once again, things have changed, whenever that inevitability might happen. [As an aside, when it came time to renew the domains last month, I was very dismayed to find out that the cost has escalated by a factor of three. I decided to pay for three years so I wouldn't get hit by another cost escalation for one year longer, but it really hurts to shell out almost $200 for something for which I receive nothing but an occasional pat on the back (unless it's a complaint).]

    It all started one night in the summer of 1974 when Jim Corrick and I were sitting on the front steps of the house of our friend Nancy Mairs after a science fiction meeting (I remember the sky looking something like this background). We decided that Tucson should have a Science Fiction convention, and simultaneously came up with the name "TusCon." After that, it was 'merely' a matter of getting it all arranged, pooling our paltry resources to finance it, and voila, TusCon was born.
    Of course, there's more to it than that. There's the fact that TusCon was not, in fact, the first con in Tucson, for instance. Yes, for a short time prior to (and during the first several) TusCons, the University of Arizona had been sponsoring a con called DesertCon - geared towards thescience fiction media. Of course, with backing like that, they could afford all kinds of stuff we could only dream of: having several guests each year, people like the well-known Robert Wise, for example, plus high-quality films to be shown in the theatre on-campus, and more. We had actually worked on the DesertCon committee for a couple years, but we thought Tucson needed a con that was geared to fans rather than college students (besides, whoever heard of a con without bheer? Hi, Bob!). Because DesertCon was held on the U of Arizona campus, it was dry. Boy, was it dry! But being on the DesertCon committee, we had the opportunity to invite several of DesertCon's guests to parties we threw off-campus, that weren't in any way affiliated with DesertCon, and showed them some of Tucson's fannish charm. One party we threw was for Poul Anderson and his wife Karen, where the party's host challenged Poul to a beer drinking contest, and I don't think I need say who won... several hours after Karen fell asleep in a bedroom. To be fair to Karen, it was kind of late in the evening by then. [But I have to get back to this when I have a bit more time.]

The TusConFan website is as follows:
   Page 1. This index page, where you are now
   Page 2. The former "index" page, wherein are the listings of TusCon's past conventions, plus the one to come this November, is now TusCon's Illustrated History: List of Cons.
   Page 3. Images of the Program Books and Badges for ALL TusCons for which they were supplied may be seen here: TusCon's Program Book Covers and Badges.
   Page 4. Photographs of people and events in TusCons past are here: TusCon Pictures. When we learn how to photograph future TusCons before they actually occur, they will be included as well. Photos are missing for many of the cons, and if anyone out there has any they would like to share, or if they might be torn out of their possessions by some smooth talking, or even if it takes me to get down on my knees and beg, please notify me at e-mail me .(I guess you can leave out the "-nospam" part before the @ sign if you really feel up to it ) I'll make sure you're given proper blame - er - credit.

For further information on the current TusCon, please go to the NEW TusCon Home Page, or e-mail the TusCon Committee at basfa@earthlink.net.
If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments concerning this web page, please e-mail me (without the “nospam”). And feel free to check out my other website at Honest Intellectual Inquiry.

This webpage launched September 07, 2007
Most recently updated January 23, 2010
© 2007-2010

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Many thanks to Deb Dedon for permission to use her drawing as my logo at the top of this page; © 1997 Deb Dedon.

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