If It's April, It Must Be PseudoCon

... At least in 1987!

For a little context, PseudoCon was put on by NOSFA, the Norman, Oklahoma Science Fiction Association.  There was another PseudoCon, in 1988, before the name was changed.  Several members of STAR OKC or helpers at SoonerCon were also Normanites, so all of us folks overlapped in a fun way.

PseudoCon was held April 18, 1987, and here is the eight-page Program Book:

(No, I don't have a brother named Mike.  They got my name wrong.)

At least for my TREK panel with Larry, they got my name right!

I can testify that my part at PseudoCon, at least, was a blast.  I got into my Vulcanian garb and pretended to be Spock, while our future ThunderChief Larry played the irascible McCoy.  And we argued -- I mean, debated.  (Another wonderful memory was created before that panel, when Larry was kind enough to stand next to me at the Men's Room sink and direct a hair dryer to dry the glue holding my homemade Vulcan latex ears on!)

See you next time, fellow Oklahoma fans!

  

Merry Christmas from STAR OKC

STAR OKC had its 1987 Christmas Party on December 10. One of the annual rituals was the awarding of various prizes. Some honors were voted upon, some were matters of record.

Good ol' Lionel Lenoir's money-raking for the club was a hard number.

"Best Galactic Gazette Cover" was voted on.  Is it any wonder that our own Kevin Hopkins emerged the bloodied-but-unbowed victor?  He provided art for April's and August's covers.

And he responded with a nice note:

I won the award for "Best GG Contributor." Shucks, folks, I'm speechless!

Unfortunately, these are the only winners of 1987 for which we have records.  See you next year!

  

SoonerCon 3 Publicity and News

SoonerCon 3 was held October 16-17-18, 1987, at the Central Plaza.

BTW, did you know that STAR OKC ran an ad on the first episode of ST:TNG?  I wonder if somebody (Yes, I'm talking to you, Mister Nemecek!) has a copy on video?  The club had raised about $150 for the ad, but I don't know the final cost.

Somebody tell me who created the Warthog Gazette?  Surely there's no reason to keep it a secret any longer?

The above photos ran in the Sunday paper.

Other tidbits:  In the November GG, Prez Mike Hodge reports, “rumor has it that attendance was well over 500 people.”  However, it's a documented fact that SoonerCon 3 raised $1600 for its charity, the Oklahoma Pediatric Cancer Association.

That's it for this trip back in time!  See you around the galaxy.

   

1987 - SoonerCon 3 - Attendance Survey, Press Release, etc

The above is a tabulation of a survey of SoonerCon 3 attendees.  Who our number cruncher was, I don't know.  But it sure looks demographic!

The above is a press release by publicity maven Larry Nemecek, then of the Norman Transcript,  later known as ThunderChief through his helming of ThunderCon (of which more anent).

 Here's the programming grid.  Note the straight lines!  I suspect somebody pretty smart did this. These pages were the result of dozens, possibly hundreds, of hours of planning.

Con Chairs asked for each department head to write up a brief job description/how-to-do-it guide for any successor.  The above is notable in its explanation of VCR chaining and other hi-tech procedures.

Nowadays we have computers to do everything, right?

See you at SoonerCon 24!
   

SoonerCon 3 Flyers & Pocket Program

Here's an early flyer, probably Mac-produced:

(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrDk7kl_BwRFBiz_p6y5UBw0TFXBHQFcLGekom73XLmogIHC4OYFinkLD3dxA222RmRyezNMqqN5pEjUQVdKQz9Y4fBs70P9Ma_5X17eae-gjLUTTGLaOZBH9EOL0hdq39BGwsV2j9iUE7/s1600/1987+-+SoonerCon+3+Flyer+01.jpg)

This yellow flyer has Dell Harris's art, and a few guests "scratched" -- One was Wendy Pini.

 

(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ_MFwkfLPDOiMbUlQ0NcV48WUtjatZmWm6Y8TRXMogowmyYqFz2lNoBkuhlL7e_buVeBZTTK3jsEhzl3OHC40btoWrNVyQWbChtiaLG96C-pfwEJvVE99Jltc9XiWxBj1i_yd5JN2YQEV/s1600/1987+-+SoonerCon+3+Flyer+02.jpg)

Here's an article from the Oklahoman a couple of weeks beforehand:

(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYdnyzrXx8foFgFjfA8L9CEGzucH3dfLhVzu0PGNbJRTY8ififgs2L7h3w-aEzzwpYof7OgVvN_UI0VJMOXOeJiJa_4v9Kio6dmK-m0V5h_BD_xKNR_H9o_nZXxK7ilK90ZrIlzRDBXiRr/s1600/1987+-+SoonerCon+3+Oklahoman+article+10-04-1987.jpg)

And here's the Pocket Program:

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(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir87WnFSYrsV_FTYUFpfFnmc5HdFLDZIwWXMqJjqhbDB4XEr3pIuAGU1E-OefRsmzIwbF6ttydBwOB6zv6w-1HWi6ttPdUT-naaPUIpJ7HQKhdNl8TpOZ73NjTOlMS6jzTOGaeqEb5dz0x/s1600/1987+-+SoonerCon+3+Pocket+Program+02.jpg)

See you later!

More from SoonerCon 3 - 1987

 A scan of the "badge of honor" worn by then-STAR OKC Prez Mike Hodge.  As you can see, his area of high responsibility was the Con Suite.

 

Back in the pre-internet days, publicity was handled by mail-out.   Much effort was expended to acquire a possibly overlapping group of addresses, such as the mailing list for another SF con a few states away, or a local comic-book store.  The kind of one-sheet above would also be sent to local newspapers and even social clubs.

 Here's an update from Dealers' Room chair David Means letting them know that a Thursday set-up is no longer in the works.  Note the statement towards the end that SoonerCon might "make the Central Plaza our home in perpetuity."  We are all lamenting that this did not come to pass.  Maybe not all are lamenting.

 

Great art from Dell Harris for SoonerCon 3!  It should be on a hundred dozen T-shirts!  (This is a high-res scan from a photo print of the art.)

This is a version of the "Deadline Schedule" that supposedly guided the departments.  If it was "X" months away from the Con, then x-y-z should have been completed by your department.

Happy New Year, see you soon I hope!

SoonerCon 3 -- October 16-18, 1987 -- Program Book

 Cover art is by David Cherry, our artist GOH.  Thanks to Mike Hodge & Leonard Bishop for the info.

 Our charity was the Oklahoma Pediatric Cancer Association, which does not seem to exist any more under that name.  Does anybody know if it changed names, or went dormant?

 Con Chair was Casey Means (nee Hamilton); Mike Hodge was STAR OKC President.

 Art by David Lee Anderson.

Conquest  is still alive and kicking!

 Art by Dell Harris.

 Note the page header, "SoonerKin."  This was an appellation coined to refer to main guests from previous SoonerCons.  This status enabled them to get in free to future SoonerCons (free admission only).  Some STAR members thought this was giving away future possible revenue, others thought it was a nice gesture.

 Who was the artist for the bottom of this page?  Was it Angela (Bostick) Lowry?

 Now we have bios for "Programming Speakers."  Also note the ad for "Southside Comics" in Norman, later Planet Comics.

  Art by Dell Harris.

As was SoonerCon tradition, the outside cover of the Program Book was an ad for next year's show.  We already had our all-female line-up lined up!

More items to come from SoonerCon 3 include badges, flyers, attendee surveys, and others.