--- Most of these little gems were overheard and jotted down. A few were donated by fellow conventioneers. Note quasi-quotes where we are not quoting exactly. ---
Max Keasler recounting his experiences in connection with 770: "When I woke up I thought to myself, 'Who's this in my bed?' Then I realized it wasn't even my room."
****
"... why did he have to discover that the girl has wonderful
lush this and that?"
Hans S. Santesson on stf writing
****
" ... Even Marvel takes a stab at mature format ... " ---?
****
Someone speaking to Frank Kerkhof: "Are you sober? I thought you were always drunk?"
****
EEEvans concerning the business session and some of the things said there: "Bunch of damn school kids."
******
Richard Elsberry in answer to the question "Didn't you ever
do anything wrong in your life?":
"Occasionally, yes."
****
Max Keasler admiting an original at the auction: "GIRLS!"
****
Moskowitz as auctioneer: "... some very fine illustrations.
They look like charcoal."
Keasler: "I'd rather have them look like illustrations."
*****
Moskowitz as auctioneer: "I could rip it out and sell it as
an excerpt for more than that." (It being a story in Asf)
Voice from the back of the room: "Barbarian!"
****
"He says he read 'Who Goes There' in the original German." -overheard
****
Greenleaf about a three dimensional art piece in 770: "I don't know what it is, but it's magnificent, whatever it is."
****
Sign in a New Orleans restaurant: "ARMOURED CAR SERVICE"
****
Max Keasler commenting on the size of beers in N.O.: "Oh, my god, you'll fall in and drown!"
****
Harry Bee Moore: "Will you stroke my eyelids?"
****
Bill Morse: "There's Spanish grass all over my room."
****
Bob Tucker concerning stf writing: "He didn't find it necessary to put in several paragraphs explaining what sex was, they just went through it."
*****
Sam Moskowitz: "Science-fiction does not insult the reader's intelligence."
****
To Ned McKeown: "Say something in Canadian."
***
Es Cole about herself and Les: "We are not 15 year old brothers."
***
Robert Bloch: " .... Harry B. Moore to play the title role in The End Of Science-Fiction ... "
***
Max Keasler on the subject of liquor: "I have learned my lesson!"
***
Of Kerkhof: "He's under the influence of incohol."
***
Greenleaf: "During the whole convention Kerkhof never had a breakfast he didn't have to blow the foam off of."
***
A lost soul to Keasler: "Is the party in your room?"
Max: "It always has been."
***
" Bradbury likes to think of himself as A Little Man." -- Quinn
***
McKeown concerning the voting for the 1952 con-site: "Do the top two people get run off?"
***
Keasler admiring an original he had just bought: "Horrible!"
*****
Bloch to Moore who was counting noses before the official voting: "Be careful, Tucker has two hears."
***
Hickman speaking for Atlanta in '52: "You used to have to
look behind the bushes for fans ... you know how Southern fandom has
grown by leaps and bounds ..."
Bloch: "Sounds like a bunch of rabbits."
***
Keasler referring to Finley's style: "I tried that and it all came out scratchy-looking."
***
Tucker: "I was an old man at the time."
Evans: "You were always an old man."
****
" .... He's in Army Language-school ..."
Berger: " Army language? What's that?"
***
Es Cole: "We like it because it's a house?"
***
Max Keasler concerning a Finley he'd just bought: "Three girls; that's almost a dollar apiece!"
***
"He's a chip off the old Bloch."
***
Lee Jacobs: "Duuuuhhhhhhhhhh ..."
****
" ...Girl of the Golden Atom, a novel by EE Cummings." --Fred Brown
***
Some Fan: "I saw that once. It's a real old film."
A Fanne: " A real, real old film?"
The Fan: "Well, it might be a new one."
***
" ... BEMS attacking beautiful girls, and vice versa ... " --Bloch
***
Moskowitz: "All those things they say about conventions are false, aren't they?"
***
" ... Science fiction fans are just like other people, only different ..."
***
"I like science-fiction, not science-fiction." -- Bob Tucker
***
"I'm losing my blood!"
"Nonsense, you're blood's right here." -- from the film,
CASTLES OF DOOM
***
Concerning the convention itself .......
Lee Jacobs: "To Ghu with the formal program; let's go to a smoke-filled room."
Bob Johnson: "I do not choose to run; but I did."
Unidentified Gernsback fan: "Goshwowoboyoboy!"
W. Berger: "Let's go rock the boat some more."
Harry Bee: "When you fire that water pistol at a reporter be sure you hit the lens."
***
Greenleaf in 770: "I haven't had so much fun since Huey Long got shot!"
***
Tucker re the mayor of San Francisco: "Is he a Republican or Democrat?"
***
"The QSFL is the only fan club in New York." -BeAle
***
" ... he has come here at personal loss and sacrifice
..." -Santesson
"Poker loss" - Tucker
***
Situation: Lee Jacobs with Es Cole in his lap, struggling for the possession of a zap gun.
Les Cole: "I draw the line at that."
Lee Jacobs: "But it's fun!"
***
"Chitt'lin's forever, y'all!" --Tucker
***
Tucker answering the phone: "What's the password?"
ShelVick on other end of the line: "Lee Hoffman."
Tucker emphatically: "Not around here it isn't!"
***
Bloch: " ... are we in the South yet? ..."
***
" ... fans are a bunch of jelly-headed nincompoops .... "
***
Overheard - a sailor on the train from Montgomery to Savannah who had been reading a copy of Suspense to his soldier companion:
"Them science-fiction fans are a bunch of crazy people. 18,000 of 'em wanna go on the first rocketship to the moon."
***
((a fitting climax to a week of hyper-fanning, wot? - yed))
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Updated September 27, 2015. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.