Editor’s Personal Note:
Eva Whitley planned, hosted and managed the VERY LAST Hugo Awards Banquet held at a Worldcon.
Events that had previously been routine and often referred to as “Rubber Chicken” banquets.
That last Awards Banquet was held at Constellation, the 1983 Baltimore Worldcon.
I had the honor of helping out, having been the manager of the previous “Last Hugo Awards Banquet” held at Suncon in Miami in 1977.
Eva and I met via Jack Chalker, the legendary, sadly missed, BNF and author. I was a friend and, if not the first, one of the first people to be informed that Jack intended to ask Eva to marry him. Which he did, and she said “yes” and a son and a daughter and far too many years later, here we are.
For some odd reason, whenever Eva and I talk at any length, the discussion turns to Hugo Awards Banquets and how much (very surprisingly) we’d like to see that institution revived.
It’s surprising because they are not easy things to do. Catering and seating, not to mention scheduling an awards ceremony around the serving of appetizers, main courses and desserts, complicates the otherwise complicated ceremony of cat herding that is each and every convention. Not an easy task.
Neither of us came through those events unscathed.
But we still think that sitting down with a large group of Fans and sharing a meal, some reparte, some awarding and some emotion, would still be a fun thing to do.
After some 33 years of ruminating, this prospect is still on Eva’s mind. So much so that she sent along a write up of some of those thoughts for us to share on Amazing Stories.
And now, Eva –
This process was developed with my friend Seth Rosenberg, who doesn’t know from Hugo banquets but does know about hotels. (In fact, he’s building one in Puerto Rico.)
1. Secure a large ballroom in the venue that is otherwise not being used by Worldcon the day of the Hugos.
2. Reach an agreement with venue that the con can cancel all obligations for that room without penalty
a set period in advance. (E.g. three months, etc.)
3. Announce there might be a Hugo Awards banquet, but the price is $X (whatever the venue charges
plus a percentage over to account for comps, entertainment, goodie bags [1], etc.) BUT ONLY IF 1000 (or how many) tickets are sold within the next 3 months.
Say the ballroom is 12,500 SF, you’d need 10 SF per 8’ table, and I’d do a seating of 8 rather than 10 at each table, with the idea that fans are BIG (well, I am).
Also, add in space needed for people who just want to watch the ceremony and not attend the banquet. In 1983, this handled the whiners who wanted to sit with friends but couldn’t follow instructions about being on the same form so they’d be at the same table. [2]
4. Wait for orders. If my one-time experience is any indication, you’ll sell out. If you listen to people who
have never done a Worldcon banquet, they will predict it won’t happen.[3]
There’s probably software and sites to automate moving data from order forms and allocating tables, but in 1983, I managed it with a lot of manual data entry and a spreadsheet.
5. Depending on #4, either move ahead with planning with the venue, or announce there won’t be a
banquet.
6. Distribute tickets at con. Only give the comps to the people who agree to show up 45 minutes before
the doors open so whoever is running the Hugo ceremony can explain the procedures for accepting
and getting photos done, etc.
7. Run Hugo banquet. The budget from the con committee should include whatever the Hugo Nominees
reception would have cost to offset the comps. [4]
This is grossly simplified, and it all turns on a large venue being unbooked all day and getting the word
out about there being a hard deadline for buying tickets.
Notes:
[1] If you are running a Crab Feast, do not put the mallets on the table, but make up a bag with plasticware or silverware, bib, wet wipes, and the mallets. It’s optional to put the crab knives on the table, depending on if you want to see someone shanked or not.
Also, don’t sell tickets to anyone who is an officer in the Philadelphia Science Fictions Society. They know why.
[2] Then I made fun of them in private.
[3] Don’t wait for an apology from them when they prove to be wrong, you’ll never get it.
[4] 2 per nominee, screw that “63 people were nominated” nonsense.
And now, a bit more.
I went to some length to “bother” Gary Farber (who has worked on quite a few Worldcons and has championed Fan History rooms among other things) about the history of the Hugo Awards Banquet.
The reason why I say that Eva hosted the LAST DANGEROUS HUGO AWARDS BANQUET and I hosted the NEXT TO LAST DANGEROUS HUGO AWARDS BANQUET is because at those two events, the banquet, GoH speeches and the Awards were all presented together. Many previous Worldcons did that as well, but between Suncon (1977) and Constellation (1983) no other Worldcon ran things that way. In most cases, there was either no banquet offered, or the GoH speeches were conducted separately from the banquet.
So that makes Eva the current reigning Queen of the Hugo Banquet, and if she is thinking that we ought to do something like that again, I think we ought to at least give it some consideration.
ANYone who was at Constellation, whether they had a seat at the banquet table or not, remembers that event. It nearly brought the house down! And I mean that quite literally. That banquet was a crab fest (naturally, for Baltimore) and every seated member was handed a custom wooden mallet for cracking shells. (You can read a bit more about it here in Fancyclopedia.) (And read a copy of Beautiful Steamers, created by Steve Stiles and Jack Chalker here.)
Which were promptly put to use to explore the concepts and consequences of resonant frequencies.
The convention center still stands, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there were cracks in its foundation.
So what say you all? Would you all be interested in doing a retro-style banquet? Does it have to be at a Worldcon, or is it something that could be done as its own thing?
