Editing Science fiction convention (section)

== History ==
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Forrestcostuming.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Con guests in costume, 1939]] -->
The [[Royal Albert Hall]] has asserted that the [[Vril-Ya Bazaar and Fete]], a charitable event held at the Hall in 1891, was the world's first science fiction convention.  The event was a multi-day fundraising bazaar themed around the popular 1871 science fiction novel ''[[The Coming Race]]'' by [[Edward Bulwer-Lytton]], which involves the Vril-Ya, a subterranean race of winged superhuman beings.<ref>{{cite web |title='The Coming Race' and 'Vril-Ya' Bazaar and Fete, in joint aid of The West End Hospital, and the School of Massage and Electricity |url=https://memories.royalalberthall.com/content/coming-race-and-vril-ya-bazaar-and-fete-joint-aid-west-end-hospital-and-school-massage-and-1 |website=Royal Albert Hall |date=27 August 2019 |access-date=29 March 2021}}</ref>  The event at the Royal Albert Hall featured elements similar to those of later science fiction conventions (in particular modern commercial events), such as special guests (although apparently none directly related to the novel or science fiction generally), special events and other performances, set pieces and special effects (such as flying "Vril-Ya" mannequins), costumes (essentially what later came to be called ''[[cosplay]]''), and stalls selling merchandise related to the event's theme and named using the Vril-Ya language as presented in the novel.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Lydia |title=5-10 March 1891: Bovril and the first ever Sci-Fi convention, at the Royal Albert Hall |url=https://www.royalalberthall.com/about-the-hall/news/2016/march/5-10-march-1891-bovril-and-the-first-ever-sci-fi-convention-at-the-royal-albert-hall/ |website=Royal Albert Hall |access-date=29 March 2021 |date=2 March 2016}}</ref>  However, the event was not contemporaneously referred to as a science fiction convention and was primarily a fundraiser for the London Massage and Galvanic Hospital, one of a number of such events held with other, non-science fictional, themes put on by the hospital's founder Dr. Herbert Tibbits.<ref name="Munro">{{cite web |last1=Munro |first1=Michael |title=The ill-fated, SF-themed "Coming Race Bazaar" of 1891 |url=https://observationdeck.kinja.com/the-ill-fated-sf-themed-coming-race-bazaar-of-1891-1554861334 |website=Observation Deck |access-date=29 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112035726/https://observationdeck.kinja.com/the-ill-fated-sf-themed-coming-race-bazaar-of-1891-1554861334 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |date=2 April 2014}}</ref>  (The event not only failed as a fundraiser, but led to Tibbits' personal bankruptcy.<ref name="Munro" />)

The precise time and place of the first science fiction convention is a matter of some dispute. The idea and form was clearly anticipated in Robert Bloch's short story about a large convention of writers, "The Ultimate Ultimatum" (''Fantasy Magazine'', August 1935), "It was a big convention. Lovecraft was there." Sometime in 1936, a group of British fans made plans to have an organized gathering, with a planned program of events in a public venue in early 1937. However, on October 22, 1936, a group of six or seven fans from [[New York City]], including [[David Kyle]] and [[Frederik Pohl]], traveled by train to [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], where for several hours they visited a similar number of local fans at the house of [[Milton A. Rothman]].  They subsequently declared that event to be the first "science fiction convention."<ref>{{Citation | publisher = Jophan | url = http://jophan.org/mimosa/m19/kyle.htm | first = David 'Dave' | last = Kyle | type = account | title = 1936 event | volume = 19 | journal = [[Mimosa (magazine)|Mimosa]]}}.</ref>  This small get-together set the stage for a follow-up event held in New York, in February 1937, where "30 or 40" fans gathered at Bohemian Hall in [[Astoria, Queens]]. Attendees at this event included [[James Blish]], [[Charles D. Hornig]], [[Julius Schwartz]], and [[Willis Conover]]. This event came to be known as the "Second Eastern" and set the stage for the successful Third Eastern held in Philadelphia on October 30, 1937, and the subsequent Fourth Eastern held on May 29, 1938, which attracted over 100 attendees to a meeting hall in Newark, NJ and designated itself as "The First National Science Fiction Convention." It was at this event that a committee was named to arrange the first [[World Science Fiction Convention]] in New York in 1939; formalizing planning that had begun at the Third Eastern. The "First National", which included the participation of a number of well-known New York editors and professionals from outside fan circles, was a milestone in the evolution of science-fiction conventions as a place for science-fiction (SF) professionals, as well as fans, to meet their colleagues in person.

On January 3, 1937, the British fans held their long-planned event at the Theosophical Hall in [[Leeds]]. Around twenty fans, including [[Eric Frank Russell]] and [[Arthur C. Clarke]], attended. To this day, many fan historians, especially those in the [[United Kingdom]], contend that the Philadelphia meeting was a convention in name only, whereas other fan historians point out that many similar gatherings since then have been called "conventions" without eliciting any disagreement.<ref>{{Citation | place = [[Glasgow]], [[Scotland|SCO]], UK | publisher = DCS | url = http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/SF-Archives/Then/then_1-1.html | author-link = Rob Hansen | first = Robert ‘Rob’ | last = Hansen | title = SF archives | contribution = History of 1930s UK fandom | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081101180918/http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/SF-Archives/Then/then_1-1.html | archive-date = 2008-11-01 }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation | publisher = Fiawol | place = UK | url = http://www.fiawol.org.uk/fanstuff/THEN%20Archive/1937con.htm | title = Fan stuff | contribution = 1937 con | type = essay}}.   Extensive essay on the gathering in Leeds, with photographs of all 14 known attendees, several taken at the convention.</ref>

Regardless of what gathering is held to have been the first science fiction convention, American fans had organized sufficiently by 1939 to hold, in conjunction with the [[1939 New York World's Fair|1939 World's Fair]], the first "[[Worldcon|World Science Fiction Convention]]," in [[New York City]]. Subsequent conventions were held in [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]] in 1940 and [[Denver, Colorado|Denver]] in 1941. Like many cultural events, it was suspended during [[World War II]]. Conventions resumed in 1946 with the hosting of the World Science Fiction Convention in [[Los Angeles, California]]. The first Worldcon held outside the United States was Torcon I in [[Toronto]] in 1948; since then, Worldcons have been held in [[United Kingdom|Britain]], [[Germany]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Canada]], [[Australia]], [[Japan]], [[Finland]], and [[Ireland]] although the majority of Worldcons are still held in the [[United States]].