Rich Elsberry
Ed Kuss and I were sitting around in 770 doing nothing much when the telephone rang. It was Lee Jacobs. "Is it alright of we come up and talk about Kenton," says Lee. "Fine, come on right up!" Then I asked him if he'd met Lee Hoffman. "No," he replied, he'd just come in on the plane. When I told him Lee Hoffman was a woman he couldn't believe it. It seems that the Cole's had been keeping things from him.
Pretty soon Jacobs, the Coles, Tom Quin, and Carl Murray walked into the room. Jacobs had a pitcher of Seagrams in one hand. He pumped me some more about Hoffman, and just shook his head. Then we talked about Stan --- "The Man" --- Kenton. A gal from Detroit comes barging into the room. She walks around a bit and then out the door.
About five minutes later the roof fell in. Nearly twenty people all carrying whiskey, gin, or mix bottles come marching into the room to set up shop. Out room is the largest one available outside of the hall so they thot it'd be the perfect place to throw a party. (Dietz's room got crowded so they stood the bed on end. Some of the slats fell out and the neighbors kept calling up so we decided to move the party to a more suitable location.)) At one time that night there were as many as 39 people in that room, and most of them with a drink in their hands. About 60 people or more passed in and out of the room that night and morning.
The din was terrible! People laid on the beds, floors, furniture, and anything else we had around. Ice and mix flowed up to the room in a nearly continuous stream. You could hear the party all the way down and it was a wonder that the house detective wasn't there to stop the thing. When Max and Hickman came into the hotel around two o'clock ((where had they been?)), Max asked for the key to 770. The desk clerk told him that there was a wild party going on up there.
I remember Jack Speer trying to push his wife into a closet -- at least I think it was his wife. Then I remember going into the bathroom and finding the sink covered with a green goo. Ed Walthers was the boy who had so honored us.
Finally some of the more elite fans left us and just the rabid ones and the drunks remained. The total population dropped to about twenty at that time. I had started off the afternoon with a couple of Tom Collins's and had added a highball, a scotch and soda, and a glass of creme de menthe. About this time I wasn't feeling too well. Paul Cox and myself went over and had hamburgers and coffee.
When we came back the noise was deafening. A near riot was going on. Frank Kerkhof and Lee Bishop were lying in my bed and laughing their heads off at nothing. "Squeezebox" Ed Walthers was under the bed.
Bob Johnson was drunk and refused to go home. He didn't think he could make it ((All the way to Colorado?)) Dale Hart was walking around the room swinging a chair. We finally got him out of the room. Roger Sims happened to step into the bathroom and nearly died. The sink was full again and since it leaked it was running over onto the floor. Sims bailed it out into the bathtub.
When I walked out of the bathroom Lee Bishop was tipping the bed over on top of Squeezebox. Soon Walthers was covered with two mattresses and a frame. Ed Kuss walked all over the mattress without knowing anyone was underneath. I finally got Dietz and Sims to help me put the bed back together again.
One Fan was practically dead drunk. Before the Con he's never had a drink in his natural-born life and his folks made him promise that he wouldn't drink. Hah! He finally fell off the bed and lay on the floor groaning. Frank Dietz, holding a precariously full glass of gin spilled about half of it on him when he began to kick him. No one seemed to mind except the Fan.
The Fan finally somehow got down to his room. Keasler went with him since he wanted to sleep and there was noplace in 770 to sleep. When he woke up the next morning he didn't know where he was.
Around 4 o'clock Jacobs got a call to play poker -- probably from Tucker. Walthers was still staggering around the room and Bishop was delirious with laughter.
Dale Hart wasn't in the room but we heard he was down a couple of flights in some woman's room. We thought about calling the house dick, and sending him over there but Hart got back before we got around to it. Hart then took off his pants to be cool. Reva from Detroit was there but she didn't seem to mind. Dietz came up with another fifth from somewhere and that went too.
About five o'clock we went down to Aggie's room to see how Hans Rusch was coming but nobody was there but Aggie. We managed to ditch "Sandwich" Kerkhof and Bishop and went back to 770. Only Sims, Hart, Johnson, Dietz, and myself remained in the ruins of our apartment. Bottles, cigarettes, papers, clothes, bedding, and ashes were spread all over the place. What a mess. None of the others wanted to go to their own hotels or rooms so they decided to stay in 770. People had been dropping in and out all night so we locked the door to keep out wandering drunks.
Dietz and Johnson climbed into Sim's bed. Someone had spilled Vermouth on the bed but they didn't seem to mind. And with Kerkhof's cries of "Timbuctoo in '52" still ringing in our ears we blissfully fell asleep.
-Rich Elsberry
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CRYPTOGRAPHICORNER Last time, we brought you the opening words of TIME AND AGAIN by Simak. This time we bring you the opening of another book, not a science-fiction book, but one that is of interest to fans. Rules are the same as last time, but this time there is a prize. To the first person who writes us a decoding of it and the title of the book and name of its author, we'll award a free copy of Q tacked onto the end of his subscription. Since the time element makes this awkward for British fans, we'll make that a Q to the first stateside fan, and one to the first British fan. With such an incentive, we can, no doubt, anticipate a wonderous response to this glorious contest.
Remember, all punctuation and paragraphing omitted.
AQ J%M&%#T XBCD#% T*% GBJJMAE%J%#T T*DEG *MWW%E%J *%&% MSBCT ME *BC& MCB D PM# ?DXXDEG TDA% *%&% DE T*% B$$D¢% T&QDEG TB ?%%W PM&A PM# WC#*%J SM¢? DE T*% BXJ #PD@%X ¢*MD& PDT* AQ $%%T BE T*% J%#? M# M AMTT%& B$ FM¢T P*%E T*D# *C#?Q #T&MEG%& %M#%J DE
That's it. Oh, yes. If you trade zines or such and win this contest, you may take as your prize an extra copy of Q#16, which will no doubt be quite valuable in a few years ...
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Updated June 17, 2001. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.