Friday, August 20, 2010

BabelCon - STAR's 1980 Con

"BabelCon I - and so it begins" was the slug line made up for STAR OKC's 1980 Convention.  It was help in the summer of 1980 at OKC's Southgate Inn, on I-35.

Here are the members of S.T.A.R. Oklahoma City in 1979 -- the group that started BabelCon:



 









... And at BabelCon I, my friends, your humble Chronicler makes his appearance.


I don't know how I found out about BabelCon, but I arrived on Friday night of the three-day-affair.  I walked through the small area of panels and dealers.

I came back on Saturday and spent the day.  I brought my STAR TREK scrapbook to show off -- oooh, how cute! -- and was scandalized when somebody offered to buy it off me.  Parenthetically, most of the stuff posted by me during last year's "STAR TREK month" on my Super Blog came from my scrapbooks.

the banquet





On Saturday evening there was an "Ambassador's Banquet."  This was a tie-in to the con's name, BabelCon.  As we all know, Babel was the site of a peace conference referred to several times in Star Trek.  So what better name for the Saturday-night feast?  All the people in costume could be ambassadors!


Ambassador from Landru's Planet
Salt Vampire and what-is-it


Dawn Atkins as a "Fantasy Warrior"
Paul Marek as Poochie; Maxine Franz as the
Pooch Keeper




















Next time: more photos from BabelCon -- the con with no shame!  (oh, that's ME that has no shame, sorry)

5 comments:

  1. This website is an interesting project. It am curious to see both the archival information folks still have, as well as the personal memories. It feels like synchronicity to me since I have been working a type of "memoir" of that time in fandom.

    I assume (or hope) that the caption you gave my photo was the one from back then. Certainly, you have my last name correct in other entries. So a few corrections -- Atkins, not Adkins, and the title of that costume was "Fantasy Warrior." The costume involved no aliens and certainly I would never have labeled myself anything as sexist as "fleshpot."

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  2. Dawn, the article in the Oklahoma Journal said you were playing an "Alien Warrior."

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    1. Whether Alien or Fantasy, "Warrior" =/= "Fleshpot"

      And her name is *still* misspelled, how many years after being corrected?

      Serious dedication, that.

      -E-

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  3. And Dawn's name is misspelled. Alien warrior or fantasy, I would think that she knows what she cosplayed. And she certainly didn't label herself as a fleshpot. I have a feeling the author isn't willing to give the respect due to a then 17 year old girl as he would have a 17 year old boy--or any man, for that matter. Mike, prove me wrong.

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  4. Mark (or whoever is currently webadmin), please correct Ms. Atkins' name and costume title (Fantasy Warrior). Thanks!

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