Minicon 12 (1977) – Midwest Side Story

Midwest Side Story is a rare recording of that entertaining subgenre of fannish endeavors – the fannish musical. First performed on April 9, 1977 at Minicon in Minneapolis, the recording was preserved in the Scott Imes Video archive, and kept safe for many years by Scott Imes, Jeff Schalles and Corwin Brust. Midwest Side Story is set in an alternate universe where the 1973 Worldcon is held in Minneapolis. It takes place in an alternate Minneapolis where fanzine fans and convention fans behave like rival gangs The musical is a love story between a fanzine femmefan and a male convention fan. If you want more, you’ll have to watch the show. It’s funny, it’s thoughtful and it has a great ending. Just remember this was written about 50 years ago, and has the expected cultural attitudes of the time. The recording is captioned for your convenience. The script as well as some photos from its first public performance on April 9, 1977 is available from Minn-StF at mnstf.org. The musical was a team effort - it was written by Susan Ryan, Denny Lien, Jerry Stearns, Ruth Berman, Mark Digre, David Emerson, Ken Fletcher, Dick Tatge, EssJay, Karen Johnson, Larry Nichols, Renée Valois, and Reed Waller, some of whom appear in the production. Many members of Minn-StF took part in the production. Many thanks to Geri Sullivan and the Video Archeology team for providing this recording, especially Guy Spiller who digitized it and David Dyer-Bennet who provided the editing, and captions along with being assistant director in 1977. This recording is provided with the permission of Margie Lessinger. For more fan history, visit FANAC.org and Fancyclopedia.org, and subscribe to our channel.