Here's another story about British fandom, this one from the 1950s. That decade
might be considered the Golden Age for British fandom; it featured a large number
of hyperactive and very talented fans: Ken Slater, Sandy Sanderson, Ron Bennett,
Terry Jeeves, Eric Bentcliffe, Ethel Lindsay, Chuck Harris, Arthur Thomson... One
of the most active of all was Vincent Clarke, who among his other accomplishments,
was one of the driving forces behind the founding in 1958 of the British Science
Fiction Association. Vincent's new article for Mimosa remembers an incident
that just *may* have influenced that event.  It all happened just before Xmas,
1957, and why it happened at that late date I just don't know. It had been years
since I'd had any passionate regard for science fiction. Fandom was a Way of Life.
And yet, this paragraph in the prestigious Sunday newspaper, The Observer,
irritated me.It was in a column by a very
respected film critic, C.A. Lejeune, and mentioned in passing details of the policy
of the New Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool. I don't know if the NST gave
performances of Shakespeare and Ibsen and Tennessee Williams, but Miss Lejeune
mentioned that on Sunday nights, they let their hair down and showed films to the
New Shakespeare Film Society.They retained, though, a strong
sense of propriety. A brochure was issued giving policy and general rules, and one
was quoted:"There will be
no war films in the present Hollywood-Pinewood sense of the word -- or films of
violence, horror, science-fiction or exaggerated sex."I don't remember if I had a mental
query or two about 'exaggerated sex', but the thought of SF being included amongst
the damned gave me, inexplicably, a sudden passionate desire to do something.
So I hauled out the old typewriter, inserted a stencil, and wrote a general letter
to a dozen or so friends. I quoted the pertinent paragraphs, said "this obviously
calls for indignant letters," and advised sending them to the NST via Miss Lejeune
at the Observer.I then spat on my palms, and did my
own little bit."...I am not, of
course, acquainted with the personnel of your Society. It may, for instance,
consist exclusively of old ladies with strongly religious views, who would naturally
tend to be critical of this particular sub-section of the Arts."Given, however, that your Society
comprises a normal cross-section of those interested in the Cinema as an Art, like
myself, I must say that I can see nothing irreconcilable between this and an
interest in science fiction, in print or on the screen. Your classification of
science fiction with distasteful sensationalism is insulting. ... Do you really
imagine that the stuff Hollywood (and, alas, this country) so often issues under
the label of science fiction is unreservedly welcome..." etc., etc.I then sat back and awaited results.
I didn't have long to wait. John Brunner sent a copy of his letter virtually by
return:"...I am
disturbed and annoyed to see that yet one more wholesale generalisation has been
made about science-fiction. At the time of the purge of obscene literature in
pocket-books a few years back, one grew accustomed to this sort of thing from
back-street newsagents; to find it perpetuated in the leading Sunday newspaper is
altogether another question..." etc., etc.Archie Mercer, an active fan from
the early 1950s to -- as it turned out -- the early 1980s, also contributed:"...And then
there are classics, such as Things to Come, which one would have thought was
just the type of film to deserve showing to a serious cinematic society -- surely
to ban this sort of thing on the strength of 'The Vampire from Umpteen Thousand
Megacycles' is absurd..."Sid Birchby, a pre-War fan, also had
his say:"...As one who
has for thirty years been reading science fiction with no marked crumbling of
morals, I find the association [with horror, etc.] odd. ... After all, the mere
fact that a film deals with, say, a monster emerging from a flying saucer, does not
make it 'science fiction', any more than a handful of classic allusions make
Titus Andronicus a great play..." etc., etc.Sid was sufficiently moved by the
occasion to sign his letter to these snobs 'B.Sc.Tech., A.M.I.C.E.'And there was distant thunder from
Northern Ireland, from one Walter A. Willis:"It is sad when
Hollywood producers bill cheap horror films as 'science fiction', but it is
alarming when a film society lets itself be taken in. Your attitude is all too
reminiscent of that of literary snobs to the film itself, twenty years
ago..."Other fans rallied around, including
Ron Bennett and Manchester's Dave Cohen. Ron was the only fan to get a direct reply
from Miss Lejeune, possibly because he addressed her as 'Mr.':"...Although the
subject [of SF films] doesn't fascinate me myself (perhaps because I'm a woman), I
know what very wide appeal it has, and feel that the Wanamaker people [huh??] are
misguided in putting a tabu (if in fact they have done so) on all films of
this kind..." etc., etc.And finally, there was a reply from
the New Shakespeare Theatre Club itself, to all of the individuals who'd written to
them via Miss Lejeune:"...appreciate
your kindness in making suggestions... The first General Meeting of the New
Shakespeare Film Society was held yesterday, when the question of the content of
films was briefly referred to and it was clearly the feeling of the meeting that
each film would be judged on its merits ... any serious science fiction film of
good quality would not be excluded solely on account of its subject
matter# # # #
So that was the end of a tempest in
a tea-cup. But -- looking at the old APAzine from which most of the above was
taken, I've had a few thoughts.Sid's use of those letters after his
name...John Brunner wrote on World Science
Fiction Society-headed notepaper...The triumphant result, puny though
the struggle was, of concerted action...And the fact that this occurred in
November 1957.It was the very next month that I
wrote a rabble-rousing piece so stirring that at the next Convention, mid-1958,
various fans, principally Terry Jeeves and Eric Bentcliffe, got together and formed
the BSFA -- the British Science Fiction Association. British fans then had the
headed note-paper, the voice to represent them, the works. The BSFA is still going,
after 37 years.Is it possible that the original
source, the straw which did the damage, that eventually led to formation of the
BSFA, was the collective fuddy-duddies of the New Shakespeare Film Society? Title illustration by Teddy Harvia - - - - - - - - - -
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