The Days of Old - By Dwain Kaiser

Part 4

Why Don't We Do A Oneshot?

It has been noted in fandom that while doing oneshots is fun, publishing them is a painful activity and absolutely they should be trash canned unprinted. That way nobody will be "forced" to read them.

Oh well, please don't feel forced, but following are excerpts from a oneshot done at the first meeting of ValSFA (and the first distribution of ValAPA), plus a few additional comments on that first meeting.

Reprinted From: The Oneshot Page

(or: What to do while Dwain Kaiser is cleaning up his room).

ValAPA #1 (Friday Feb. 25, 1966)

Editor: Misc. Authors

Slightly Corrected from the Original Publication

So I sit myself down to pound out something on Dwain Kaiser's typer (otherwise known as the green-monster-who-shall-not-be-named.)

This is our first meeting. Oh, you know that already? Well then let me tell you what is happening as of now. The only people present are Dwain, Russ, and me (also the corflu kid can be seen slinking around if you look quick). I'm supposed to be helping DK clean up his room, but typing out a oneshot or looking through his old pulps is much more fun…

It is perhaps only fair to put down in print somewhere, before I tell anybody, that I intend to run for the office of chairman for this madhouse. I may not be the best choice, but Fred Whitledge refuses to run (says he wants the club to be our own -- whatever that has to do with it) and nobody else wants the job. What better place for an aspiring young neo than an aspiring neo club?

Dwain is yelling something at Russ but I can't hear what he said too clearly… I wonder why Russ is crying?

One more thing about my running for/winning the post of chairman. If elected, my first official act will be to appoint Fred Whitledge as committee head of getting things done (this means he has been around long enough and has the contacts to do it). Hmmmm…that just might lose me Fred's vote.

Schu

I'm not in a very productive or expletive mood tonight it seems (possibly because we nearly got killed twice coming over on the freeway).

But it looks like the first meeting is going to turn out quite well -- better than I had expected. I wonder if this first meeting will make history (infamous perhaps)? In any event I intend to be a charter member.

According to Dwain, Gill ("fish") Lamont will be over in a bit to put out his own imitation of Applepatter for ValAPA. Think about it. By the way I can't type, this is being put on master by none other than the corflu kid himself.

- Russ Brooker

(Later in the Issue)

*S*I*G*H* this old neofan is again pounding away at a oneshot, a neofannish oneshot of course.

Why is this a neofannish oneshot? Why very simple, not one, NOT ONE, of the fen who are working on this oneshot is drunk. Who has ever heard of a BNF's oneshot being done without being drunk…"

(Later)

Not even one small sip of Bheer, not even one…

Dwain Kaiser

A Few Comments (1999):

My typer was a loaner from Fred Whitledge and the Fontana High School typing class. The keys were blank so students couldn't cheat on their touch typing. There were a number of fans who, over the years, sat down at the typer to pound something out, looked at the keys, looked again at the keys, and then sought out another machine.

Oneshots can be painful to read at times, so this is a very edited version of the two pages that were turned out pre-meeting. You didn't miss much by my editing.

Jim Schumacher became our first Chairman, later on the choices became rather strange.

The Robert E. Gilvert illo is from the oneshot. REG was a very popular fan artist in the '60's. With no xeroxing, no scanning, offset being costly, only mimeo and ditto printing was left for fanzine publishing. Artwork needed to be traced and REG's work was about as complex as most faneds wanted to handle. There was also the fact that when you asked him to contrib to your zine he always did.

Most of the art in ValAPA was done by the artist directly on master, or electric stencil, allowing a higher quality work. Fred Whitledge was able to have electric ditto masters done at his High School and while some of it was used in ValAPA, the quality was never that good. The printing always came out "washed out" looking and light. Fred did most of his "classic" fanzine reprints using electric ditto masters. Don Fitch was one of the few members of ValAPA who used offset printing (mainly for the ValAPA covers he provided).

Additional Comments (1999):

(JOHN WELSH: Nov. 30, 1999 - Valhalla List Server): My most vivid memory of you at a ValSFA meeting is you slaving at the ditto, running off everyones contribution no matter how late, no matter how far past the deadline.

(Dwain Kaiser): Notice that Russ Booker commented on almost being in a car accident twice on the way to the meeting. Car accidents, cars in general (more over the lack of them), breakdowns and car problems will be a common ValAPA subject from now on. It seemed like everyone in the apa "almost" got killed once/twice/three times during the existence of the club. Now, what do they say about teenage drivers? (On a sad note one club member was killed in a car accident, Bob Davenport who did artwork for ValAPA and visited from Las Vegas for a number of meetings. As he was in the Army at the time he became the ValSFAs only Service related death.)

If we didn't have anything else to write about we could fill our ValAPA pages with commentary on ValSFA. Introspective commentary is a fairly harmless "Don Fitch way" to write as the other major method to fill pages is to feud. And feud we did. More on that topic later, much more.

A little additional on REG from another source:

Reprinted From: Beabohema #4

June 9, 1969

Editor: Frank Lunney

(The Letter Column)

Al Andrews: I must agree with Seth Dogramajian about REG and his works. REG has been the most consistent artistic contributor to the whole fmz spectrum. In my faanish memory (spanning some 20-odd years), no other fan-artist has given so unstintingly of his time and talent to fmz-dom at large, as has REG. While most of this work has been artistically impressive, even his lesser and poorer illos are a tribute to the fact that he has been called upon so regularly to produce for free artwork for fmzs, and unceasingly has responded. It is quite croggling: in seven years over 1300 illos. And, no doubt, REG's had an unnumbered pre-1961 output.

A Comment (1999): A little overdone but REG was an extremely popular artist at the time. Another artist who always provided artwork upon request was Bill Rotsler. The best time to ask him for artwork was when he had a pretty young lady on his arm (as almost always he did). That gave him a chance to show off and the faned to gain a dozen brilliant drawings. A number of Valley publications featured his excellent cartooning. Later on a number of ValSFA members would "earn a living" by writing porno novels based by Rotsler photographs. That is yet another ValSFA story.

Reprinted From: Apple Valley #2

March 11, 1966 (For ValAPA #2)

Editor: Dwain Kaiser

(Slightly Corrected from the Original Publication)

I was very happy about the last meeting, the first meeting of ValSFA. More people showed up than I thought would, the auction was really good (with over 22 dollars worth of material going) and everyone seemed to have had a good time sitting around talking to each other after the business was over.

Then of course the last ValAPA was good, even if I did goof up in a place or two. At least now I understand Fred Patten's job more on APA L… It's hard getting everything done, and trying to do a good job on the O-O ---- listing everyone, the zines, pages in it, and doing so without mistakes. *Sigh* And I still don't know how Jim S.'s zine got mixed up… Tho from now on I'll check to make sure everything is in order before allowing everyone to start putting their copies together.

The back sign up sheet will be the usual thing from now on… It gives the members of the group a chance to check back later to see just who did, or didn't show up. It'll work as long as everyone signs in, and that the phony names are strange enough not to be taken for real… The CorFlu Kid my foot… Of course my John Kaiser of Mars, wasn't much better, but… Oh well, everyone knew John Kaiser didn't show up (*hmmm* that John Carter didn't show up that is. I'm really here, partly here anyway, no matter what some of the members of APA L claim.)

I still can't get over that auction… A lot of ghood material went, and I think we can count on a fair bunch of stuff going up for sale each meeting. Or at least as long as we allow the member selling the material to keep the money…our 10 percent is enough.

Now all we have to do is to figure out something to spend our money on… We could start a library…but that's fairly old hat and not that good an idea anyway… If we get enough we could give it to the LASFS to help with their building fund, that's a useful way to get rid of unloved money, since a LASFS clubhouse will be good for all of us Valley fen. Then there's the idea I like the best… We use the money for wild parties, broads, booze and old fanzines…*Sigh* I don't think we'll ever have enough though…*Sigh2*

(Later in the issue)

The postcard (stapled) over this, is of course, a picture of the Sahara Hotel.

*Sigh* the large pool you can see on the grounds used to be always filled with pretty girls, most of whom came down from L.A. *Sigh*

Any of you guys want to get a travel group together for a weekend in Vegas. There are all sorts of pretty y/o/u/n/g t/h/i/n/g/s sights to see in the area.

A Few Comments (1999):

No matter who put out the Table of Contents it was always a large pain to correctly list the zines inside. (Or in front. As D.C. I put out the Table of Contents as the last page a few times, and talk about upsetting members!)

I often felt we were doing good when the disty got out before midnight. We missed that deadline more than a few times.

I'm not even sure why I tried to keep a "clean" sign up sheet. It was a completely hopeless task from the very beginning. Later on some of the sign up sheets became "legendary masterpieces" of "artwork". Not very useful as a listing of who was at the meeting, but worthy of a few minutes examinations. I'll be scanning examples of the sign in sheet for Valhalla.

I really missed Vegas. My first half a year of High School (10^th grade) was in Long Beach, then I moved to Vegas. Typical of most fans I was always the "odd man out" in school. Except at Western High in Vegas. Western was the major party school of the nation. It didn't matter how anti-social you were, or how much a hardcore sf fan you were, you got dragged, kicking and screaming even, out of the house to party. It was a requirement, it was the law, it was a hell of a lot of fun Then there were my sf/comic fan friends, Lynn Pederson, Alan Weiss, Scott Bell, Bob Davenport and so many others. Lynn and I were the closest of friends. We spent all our spare time talking, listening to music, catching movies, discussing fandom and fanzines. I truly hated leaving Las Vegas, I missed my High School, the parties, my fan friends, the Vegas club, the Arts Club, my Yearbook classmates, etc. etc. etc. I knew no one in Southern California except for some LASFS members. I was looking forward to attending LASFS but giving up all my friendships was a high price to pay. To this day I doubt if I could name anybody I went to Upland High School with (except for Jeanne Carow, who went to Chaffey J.C. with me and later joined the ValSFA and ValAPA.)

The newly formed ValSFA, in many ways, was just an expanded version of the Fred Whitledge travel group. We traveled to LASFS together, ate at Kal's together, played poker together (some of us, others socialized). The very concept of ValSFA was worked out while traveling back and forth to LASFS.

Reprinted From: By Strange Unseen Gods #3

Apa L #71: Feb. 23, 1966

Editor: Dwain Kaiser

(Slightly Corrected from the Original Publication)

Django: Russ Brooker: I don't think the Fred Whitledge travel bunch is as ingroupish as some people feel. Sure, we do sit together at Kal's, but other fen join us, and are of course welcome to. When we have 7 fans together tho, it is a little hard to seat non-members of our group, we take up a table fairly nicely.

A Comment (1999):

It took nerve to argue that we weren't an "ingroup" when it was obvious that I thought of other fans as "non-members."

Reprinted From: By Strange Unseen Gods #2

APA L #70: Feb. 16, 1966

Editor: Dwain Kaiser

(Slightly Corrected from the Original Publication)

For those people who are interested in the fannish events taking place in strange and out of the way places, you might be interested to know that a local (by local, I mean around here, roughly 41 miles outside of L.A.) science fiction club has been formed. It is the Valley Science Fiction Society, with meetings held once every two weeks on Friday. The first meeting will be taking place Friday, Feb. 25t^h. (Etc.)

Bruce Pelz later brought an interesting point concerning ValAPA:

Reprinted From: Valday #12

7 April 1967 (For ValAPA #29)

Editor: Bruce Pelz

(Uncorrected from the Original Publication)

I was rather amused to realize, looking through my ValAPA collection preparatory to binding the first stack of distributions, that the ValAPA doesn't actually have a name -- only an abbreviation. Nowhere in the early D's is it stated what "ValAPA" stands for. (Leave us not have the usual quibble about "ValAPA" being the name, as it is in itself meaningless; nor the usual trite joke to the effect that what's important is not what ValAPA stands for as much as what it falls for.) Perhaps we should go through something official about adopting a name -- or going on record as being satisfied with an abbreviation and not wanting a name?

A Comment 1999:

No one had even noticed. It was listed as "Valley Amateur Press Association" in one of our earliest club constitutions but that constitution had just gone into effect, but not yet printed up, when yet another constitution was put in place. And so it went.

The two Terry Romine cartoons in this part are reprinted from:
The House of the Games #76 (ValAPA #29, April 7, 1967)
Editor Dwain Kaiser