Bits of pulp is an irregular feature of Yellowed Perils highlighting pulp-related tidbits that might interest fans of the pulp magazines.
CTHULHU McCTHULHUFACE? I’m sure you heard the entertaining results of the United Kingdom Science Ministry’s online poll to name its new research ship: Boaty McBoatface. Well, you may have missed voting in 2014 on what to name the daughter of web developer Stephen McLaughlin. But a bunch of H.P. Lovecraft fans didn’t.
The website Vox rounds up “Boaty McBoatface and the history of internet naming fiascos.” McLaughlin’s poll is among the list. The winning name: Cthulhu.
DRESSED TO PULP: Cosplay — a portmanteau of costume and play — may not yet be an event at your nearby pulp convention, but it’s all the rage at comics and fantasy conventions.
The website Racked reminds us in “Meet the Woman Who Invented Cosplay” that cosplay originated at the first World Science Fiction Convention, or WorldCon, back in 1939. The con was organized by fans to celebrate the science fiction of the pulps.
Fans Myrtle Rebecca Douglas Smith Gray Nolan, also known as Morojo, and Forrest J Ackerman dressed as characters from the future in costumes made by Morojo. The costumes were pretty simple by today’s standards.
The article, by Jennifer Culp, goes into more details about cosplay, its history, and Morojo.
For more than 10 years Morojo (Myrtle R. Douglas) and (Forrest J) Ackerman were an inseparable, intellectually compatible dream duo, and 1939 was an especially big year for the pair: they started their first major zine together, jointly financed the publication of teenage Ray Bradbury’s first sci-fi zine, and attended the first-ever World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) wearing “futuristicostumes” straight out of the 1936 H.G. Wells movie Things to Come — the FIRST FAN COSTUMES EVER WORN IN RECORDED HISTORY.
Handsome Forrie cut a dashing figure in his giant shoulder pads and breeches, tiny Morojo’s ball gown converted into a ROMPER with a CAPE, and every other attendee who wasn’t busy hatin’ on ’em for out-fanning the rest of the world started planning their own costumes for next year.
Morojo and Ackerman shook the newly developing geek culture to its core with those costumes, laying the foundation for a hobby that would become a majorly significant expression of fandom before the 20th century was out.
SCHALLERT ON SF: William Schallert was a familiar face on TV from the 1950s through the ’90s. He played Patty Duke‘s father on The Patty Duke Show and Dobie Gillis‘ teacher on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He died this week at the age of 93.
SF fans might recognize him from his role in Star Trek‘s classic “The Trouble With Tribbles,” and later in a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode. Back in 2011, Schallert talked with StarTrek.com about the episodes, where he briefly touched on his early interest in sf pulps:
I was not a Star Trek fan. I didn’t watch the show. I used to be big on reading science fiction. I used to read a magazine called Astounding Science Fiction, but I stopped doing that around 1948. I remember the year because that was the year L. Ron Hubbard wrote a piece for Astounding Science Fiction called “Dianetics,” and that was the beginning of Scientology. It was launched in Astounding Science Fiction. He used to write space operas, as they called them. He was not terribly good at it, I didn’t think. We had some pretty good writers, Asimov and Heinlein, and people like that who were really talented writers. But he was not one of them. Anyway, I’ve always remembered the year.
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