On 5/10/2022 3:51 PM, Gary McGath wrote:
There's an interesting article on Bruce Pelz on File 770. It didn't
mention his filk activity, so I left a comment calling attention to it,
and Mike Glyer expanded on it in a subsequent comment. Lee Gold is quoted.
https://file770.com/remembering-bruce-pelz-2/
BRUCE PELZ, Fan Guest of Honor
as seen by Lee Gold
published in the Westercon XXXII (1979) program book
During the daytime, a mild-mannered Engineering Department Librarian at a state university (UCLA), Bruce Pelz is in reality SMOF #2. (Just
check his license plate if you doubt me.)
Pelz's first club activity was in the 1950s as a spelunker. That was at the University of Florida in Gainsville (a place which was shortly
later to graduate Tom Digby as well). Soon Pelz (and several of the
other spelunker club members) sunk to his proper level and became a
science fiction fan.
Leaving Florida in 1960, he came to Los Angeles and, except for brief excursions to fannish conventions, has remained there ever since. In
his fanhome, the Tower (currently Tower VI, a home in Granada Hills),
Pelz has for over a decade hosted some of the LASFS's most popular
parties, among them the annual Ellik-Jacobs Memorial Wine & Cheese
Tasting Party (recently renamed as a D.R.E.G.S. [Drinking Readers
Extropic and Gaming Society]) function and the early fall Baskin-Robbins
Party, to which admission is a pint of Baskin-Robbins ice cream.
Pelz has been active in many areas of fandom, but in one he once achieved a distinction unlikely ever to be equaled these days: he was
an OMNIAPAN, a member of ALL the apas in existence. (Of course, in
those innocent days of the early 60s, there were only five apas in
fandom: FAPA, the Cult, N’APA, OMPA and SAPS.) Old filksongs still
attest to the fact that he objected if lazier multiapans attempted to
run the same material in more than one apa.
These days Pelz is again a member of the Cult (recently having served as its Official Arbiter), Lasfapa, an occasional contributor to the
weekly APA-L, and the Official Encapsulator of WOOF, the Worldcon APA
which has been appearing at each worldcon for several years now and to
which he is a never-failed contributor.
Pelz has long been a major force in LASFS, most notably for having guided the Incorporated Club for over six years as dual Board and
Procedural treasurer during the period that the LASFS’s Building Fund
got pushed to the point that Realsoonnow became Reality and the LASFS
actually bought its own Clubhouse. Shaped by that period, for some time
the post of Treasurer loomed in LA fan circles as equivalent in
importance to that of Secretary in the Communist Party. Pelz still
serves the LASFS as Comptroller (aka Treasurer) of the Board of Directors.
Pelz holds two other standing LASFS positions, exercised infrequently and informally perhaps but forever his. The first is as Devil’s
Advocate at Large. The duties and perquisites of this office have never
been fully defined, but its function does seem to fit in well with
Pelz’s general character. The second, created during his stay as
Continual Treasurer, was his status as The Committee to Gouge Money out
of the LASFS, a post which enabled him to conduct minor and major
auctions, set up fund raising activities, and otherwise somehow actually
get the money needed for down payment and mortgage payments on the
Clubhouse.
Pelz is also active in several more or less disorganized LASFS ingroups (besides the Board of Directors). Back in August of 1966 he started the Blackguards for the purpose of proving LASFSians will join anything.
The group went in for poker, bowling and miniature golf — and put out
four issues of the infamous Victorian Digest, usually referred to by its initials. The Blackguards are now inactive, but Pelz still frequently
spends parties at the poker table that the group purchased in its
heyday. He also became a tournament bridge player in the early ‘70s
with currently 116 registered master points to his credit.
Pelz is also a notable collector, not only of paperbacks and hardbacks (like most fen) but also of (speak it softly) fanzines. His are
organized. Most of his runs are complete. Many are even bound. He has
nine filing cabinets of loose fanzines and one bookcase wall of bound
fanzines (in addition to his several rooms lined with books). And he
keeps them indexed (with the aid of a friendly computer).
Pelz also serves as curator for the Institute for Specialized Literature, ephemera division. The purpose of this institute is “the
support of research in the Science Fiction field through the
accumulation, ordering, and preserving of research materials.” Fen may
wish to note that donations to the ISL are tax-deductible and may be
sent Book or Library rate to Pelz. (And the ISL states it is usually
able to repay postage.)
Pelz also serves as LASFS Fanzine Librarian, a job that involves organizing and maintaining the LASFS’s vast and highly miscellaneous collection of fanzines, augmented at irregular intervals by donations
from members who have grown tired of the things.
Pelz has also been long active in the field of filk songs, not only as a write of lyrics (“DNQ Rally Song,” “Sir Fanalot’s Lament,” and numerous others) and composed (among other things he did the music for
[some of] the Silverlock Songs by John Myers Myers), but also as
publisher of the Filksong Manuals, now finally reissued again. Unlike
any other publisher of filk songs, Pelz takes care to publish not just
the lyrics but the full score of the song, thus enabling a fan who has
never heard the song’s tune to still attempt to sing it. Since quite a
few of the West Coast filk songs are set to original tunes, this makes
Pelz’s Filksong Manual invaluable.
How to recognize Bruce Pelz? I don’t know whether th is program book will carry a picture of him, but he’s unmistakable. Just look for a
medium height, stocky fellow who gives the impression of wearing a bear
and being dressed in black (and may even be doing so at the time you see
him). (Once upon a time at Disneyland, Ted Johnstone lost track of Pelz
and checked with the manager of the last Main Street Shop he had seen
him in. “Bearded fellow in black?” said the mundane. “Oh yes, he went through that door.” Ted checked and sure enough, there was Bruce. It
was only on closer inspection that Ted noticed that Bruce had shaved off
his beard and was wearing pastel shirt and pants.)
Conventions
F-UN CON (1968): assistant chairman
Westercon (1969): co-chairman
Eastercon (1970): ran the convention — in New York. This mad escapade
began at the suggestion of the Fanoclasts at the 1969 Eastercon that
Pelz bid for t he next Eastercon for LA. He did so and won.
Presicon (1971): co-chairman
LA CON (1972 Worldcon): co-chairman
Westercon (1979): chairman
and other concom positions in many others
Costume Awards for
Westercon: 1963: Heavy Trooper (from DRAGON MASTERS)
1965: Gorice of Carce (with Dian as the Lady Sriva)
1966: The Fat Fury (with Dian as Ticklepuss) (from the Herby comics)
1967: Barquentine (from TITUS GROAN)
1978: Nick van Rijn (from the Poul ‘Anderson series)
Worldcon: 1963: Fafhrd (with Ted Johnstone as the Gray Mouser and Dian
as Ningauble)
1966: Chun the Unavoidable
1968: Heavy Trooper (from DRAGON MASTERS)
1969: Countess Gertrude of Groan (from TITUS GROAN)
1970: Gorice of Carce
Of these costumes, the one I particularly remember was Countess
Gertrude. Bruce wore a green and gold caftan, a green cap, and a string
of snails. He spent the presentation murmuring to a dove which perched
on his finger (and was actually stuffed). No one recognized him
including old friend Charlie Brown, who actually helped “Gertrude” up
the ramp. The panel of judges was sufficiently impressed by the whole
affair to award him MOST EVERY THING, including Most Beautiful, Best Presentation, and Best Group (after all, there was Gertrude and the
Dove). When the name of the winner was announced, the entire audience
burst into applause.
Diplomacy: Pelz is a one-time Diplomacy player though still on some PBM mailing lists. He played Russia in RURITANIA, the second Play by Mail Diplomacy game ever held, in 1961-64. He also played in LASFS Diplomacy
as chronicled in WITDIP, a game which died in the flaming wreckage of a
Cobal Bomb, which was dropped to end the unenjoyable wrangling over just
who had moved where and what the result was, when it turned out even the referee and those he consulted couldn’t figure it out.
Fanzines
ProFANity (genzine)
Tantrum (personalzine)
Glamdring (reviews)
Ratatosk (news)
Menace of the LASFS (minutes)
SpeleoBem (SAPS)
Savoyard (N’APA-OMPA)
Rache (N’APA)
Ankus (FAPA)
Angmar (The Cult)
Nyet Vremia (APA-L)
Kiarans’ Tuncheon (Lasfapa)
Everything (SFPA)
Old Ship (NAPA - Mishap)
Valday (VALAPA)
and course the four Filksong Manuals, now reissued in one volume
https://conchord.org/xeno/ix.filkman.html
The Filksong Manual was published by Bruce Pelz in four parts,
starting in 1965
The Filksong Manual is still available for sale as of June, 2020, and
will continue to be available as long as either Lee Gold or Barry Gold
is alive and compos mentis.
$10 by email
--Lee Gold
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)