EXCLUSION ACT

from Fancyclopedia 2

The Triumvirs, in planning for the NYCon I, considered excluding their feud-opponents the Futurians from the gathering to avoid such conflict as had marred the Newark Convention. No decision was reached, but when the conventioneers began arriving Taurasi stopped Wollheim Lowndes Kornbluth and Gillespie and told them they couldn't enter the hall. (It appears that some pushing and shoving was done about this time, but no blood drawn.) Moskowitz came out and they talked and argued for about fifteen minutes, SaM telling Wollheim that they would admit the four if the Futurians promised "not to do anything to harm the progress of the convention." Wollheim refused to accept conditional admittance but in another passage of the conversation said they could be ejected if they didn't behave. Moskowitz sent for the superintendent of the building, but couldn't get in touch with him. Finally he went looking for Sykora to consult with him, but on the way found a stack of Michelistic sheets and pamphlets (which Pohl and others had run off the night before for distribution at the con) where Pohl and Michel had cached them behind a radiator. In the end, all six -- Wollheim Lowndes Kornbluth Gillespie Pohl and Michel -- were refused admittance. Police had been called but were not put into service by the Triumvirs.

Many attendees, including Morojo of LA, Hart of Texas, and Mrs Swisher of Massachusetts, urged the convention committee to admit the six, and other members of the FSNY including Kyle Wilson Rubinson and leslie perri were not barred. In the afternoon, Kyle gained the floor on a pretext and held it to make a motion that the excluded fans be admitted. But Sykora as chairman talked a while and changed the subject. (There was no fan discussion period, and no motions were recognized, during the convention.) On the third day of the con, while most attendees were watching a fan baseball game on Flushing Flats, the Futurians and their sympathizers met at a Futurian Conference to discuss the Exclusion Act, but this was not a part of the convention.

Because of its dramatic quality, as well as the issues involved, the X Act came to dominate talk about the convention as time passed. The Triumvirs tried to do as they had done in rising to power -- ignore the existence of fan feuds -- but finally, at the PhilCo in the fall, Moskowitz published their side of the matter (theretofore unrepresented and uninquired about) adding charges that the Futurians' refusal to make the promise asked showed that they wanted to be excluded, in order to better their strategic position in the feud if they weren't able to upset the convention itself. Resentment over the thing decreased somewhat thereafter but the Triumvirs were never forgiven.

The Second or Little Exclusion Act, so called, was a piffling affair at the NYCon II when the con committee briefly refused to allow any attendees who had not paid for the banquet ($7) to listen to the dinner speakers from the balcony overlooking the hall. But this was resented rather as fuggheadedness than malice.