Midnight Pals: Hugo Drama

Hugo Gernsback: hey everyone its me, hugo gernsback Gernsback: editor of Amazing Stories and namesake of the hugo awards Gernsback: perhaps you've heard of them? Clive Barker: oh buddy Barker: buddy Barker: we've heard all about them ha ha

Stephen King: they're named after you? i thought they were named after victor hugo Gernsback: ha ha a common mistake Gernsback: but that's fine Gernsback: i'm not mad at all that victor hugo keeps getting the credit Gernsback: i think its funny Gernsback: in fact i'm laughing

Gernsback: ah yes my precious hugo awards! Gernsback: the most prestigious award in science fiction and fantasy! Gernsback: a place for serious business Gernsback: certainly no room for shenanigans here Gernsback: no room for tomfoolery Gernsback: no room for clownish buffoonery

Gernsback: The Hugo -- an award whose very name rings with integrity & honor!   Gernsback: it is no mere nebula! no paltry clarke! Gernback: the stoker, the howard, the lambda - none can compare! Gernsback: the L Ron hubbard writers of the future award? pah! dust before the hugo!

Gernsback: only the choicest cuts of science fiction and fantasy would ever achieve the lofty hugo award Gernsback: an award forever untainted by shenanigans or hijinks! Gernsback: now to take a big sip of coffee and read this  file 770 report!

Gernsback: what the--?! Gernsback: my beautiful hugos!!! tainted by the foul stench of corruption!!! Clive Barker: yeah boy i bet victor hugo's just sick about it Gernsback: Barker: just sick about what they did to his award Gernsback: Barker: ha ha Poe: clive leave him alone

Gernsback: my hugo!!! you were supposed to be a thing of beauty... not this monstrosity! Dean Koontz: gosh he's so sad about his award Koontz: do you think it would cheer him up if i gave him my nickelodean kids choice award? Poe: i think that would be a very nice gesture dean

Chris M Barkley: [thrusting microphone] Mr gernsback! mr gernsback! a statement for the press? Jason Sanford: [thrusting microphone] how do you respond to the allegations about your award mr gernsback? Gernsback: confound these intrepid newshounds of the 4th estate!

Gernsback: [wiping brow] don't worry, we will be taking measures to fix this Barkley: what are you going to do mr gernsback? Sanford: the people demand an answer mr gernsback! Gernsback: we'll uh Gernsback: we'll nominate an essay called 'Dave McCarty Can Fuck Off Into the Sun'

Gernsback: what a debacle! i cannot believe my good name will now forever be associated with such shady practices! HP Lovecraft: hey when are you gonna pay me for my story you ran? Gernsback: new phone, who dis?

Gernsback: you know who this really hurts? Gernsback: worse than the nominees secretly disqualified for politics? Gernsback: worse than the entirety of Chinese science fiction secretly disqualified for being Chinese? Gernsback: worse than the winners whose awards are now tainted?

Gernsback: the person that this hurts most of all Gernsback: is clearly bitter karella Gernsback: for reasons i can't articulate Gernsback: everyone should immediately go and heap conciliatory praise on bitter karella Gernsback: truly the most wronged person of all

Bitter Karella: [bravely holding back tears] no no it's not about me Bitter Karella: [voice cracking] my only thought is for the hugo community who has been through... so much... Bitter Karella: [stoically gazing into distance] they're the REAL heroes

Gernsback: look how bitter karella keeps a brave face... for our sake! King: god bitter karella is so brave... and so modest! Poe: truly a great goblin Poe: possibly the greatest Koontz: why? what did they do? Poe: dean! show some respect!

Radio Craft, July 1944. Cover art by Alex Schomburg.

1924.

AMAZING STORIES #8 (Experimenter Publishing, 1928)

"Buck Rogers Armageddon 2419 AD" - first Buck Rogers appearance.

As Gernsback's example had shown, it was useful for a pulp or magazine publisher to create multiple publishing companies, and most did so. When trouble arose, one company could be placed into bankruptcy and have its intellectual property bought out by one of the publisher's other companies. The purchaser company would then be legally shielded from responsibility for paying the debts of the bankrupt company (even though the editors stayed the same, as did the office addresses). Those unpaid debts included money owed to the hapless writers, some of whom were already getting a bad deal by being paid "upon publication" instead of "upon acceptance." Payment upon publication forced writers to wait weeks and months for their payments, with no guarantee that their work would ever see print. It was a delaying tactic that allowed publishers to build and manage inventory at no cost while holding onto their money longer—maybe even long enough to see the debt discharged in bankruptcy. A more insidious practice was (to use a modern term) to "repurpose" an author's work: present it as original material by changing the title and the character's names—and stripping away the original copyright notice. The trade magazines of the late 1920s and early 1930s are overflowing with complaints from writers who had been so victimized. One of the chief practitioners of such dirty dodges was Harry Donenfeld, the future publisher of DC Comics, the main rival of Marvel Comics to this day.

—Blake Bell and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo, The Secret History of Marvel Comics (Fantagraphics, 2013): pg. 18.

Martin Goodman, founder of Marvel Comics, would do the same:

It took two years, but on January 5, 1942, the FTC slammed both Goodman and Silberkleit for deceptively reprinting stories as new fiction, substituting new titles for the original titles, changing the names of characters and, "without obtaining the sanction or authorization of the authors of stories, [substituting] pseudonyms or so-called 'house names' for the authors' names or pen names." They were also sanctioned for stripping the original copyrights and claiming the work as their own.

Over the next two decades, three more FTC judgments against Goodman would follow. (Ibid., pg. 28-29.)

Gernsback, it's worth noting, is Hugo Gernsback, publisher of Amazing Stories and namesake of the Hugo Awards. Silberkleit is Louis Silberkleit, the L in MLJ Magazines, the precursor of Archie Comics.

Wonder Stories June 1935

Vintage Pulp - Amazing Stories (May1927) (Ziff-Davis)

Art by Frank R. Paul

Frank R. Paul “Evolution of Modern Science Fiction” by Hugo Gernsback Cover Original Art (1952)

Source

This Photo Depicts Hugo Gernsback Wearing His "Teleyeglasses" In 1963.

Gersnback, an inventor of such innovations as a combination of electric hair brush/comb and a battery-powered handheld illuminated mirror, is best known to science fiction fans as the founder of amazing stories magazine.

THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON by H.G. Wells (London: George Newnes, 1901).

The two protagonists journey to the moon and discover it is inhabited by sophisticated, insect-like creatures called Selenites. It is considered the first story of an alien dystopia.

Scientific romance initially serialized in The Strand 1900-1901. Later, in America, it was serialized in Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories 1926-1927.

source Wikipedia

December, 1926 / January, 1927 / February, 1927 Covers by #Frank_R._Paul.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION IN PICTURES. Volume 13, #1. May 1925. Filming the Impossible. Edited by Hugo Gernsback. Cover by Frank R. Paul.

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contains

THE LIVING DEATH [Part 8 of 9] by John Martin Leahy

“Doctor Hackensaw’s Secrets: The Mystery of Atomic Energy: by Clement Fezandié

Mass Effect 2 Photomode - Aeia

Do you have a collection of the vintage B&W photos of wacky sci-fi and home TV inventions that strap to your head, etc…? I’d love to get a few to frame and display in my Home Theater. Thanks!

I could do a whole post that's nothing but headgear worn by Hugo Gernsback. He created the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, primarily as an advertisement for his radio parts company for electronic enthusiasts. This is why the line between science fiction fan and science/radio enthusiast was extremely blurry. Most early scifi fans of the First Fandom (anyone active in scifi prior to 1939) were also technical tinkerers.

More than that, Gernsback created the first letters page, where people wrote in their comments, and encouraged people to write to each other and become friends, which started off the first known generation of Fandom in the US, First Fandom. The first convention, Worldcon in 1939, started by the connections made in the letters pages of this magazine. In other words, "geek culture" as we know it today started off because this one man in 1928 wanted to sell radio parts to weirdos.

Here's one of his isolator device, which was designed to encourage productivity.

It's one of those very Silcon Valley ideas in that, in theory, it might increase productivity but completely misses the point of what it is to be a human being. People don't want to drink soylent protein drinks in lieu of eating good old ham and eggs in the morning (most people find Jetsons style nutrition in pill form to be hideous) and people certainly don't want to wear diving bells to get work done.

SCIENCE WONDER STORIES Vol 1 #5 (Gernsback, 1929)

Art: 'Paul' aka Frank Rudolph Paul

The Isolator (1925)

The invention was the brainchild of Hugo Gernsback.

The Isolator’s purpose was to block out all the noise from the surrounding environment and narrow the field of view to only let you see the page in front of you.

It was designed to improve concentration through total sensory isolation. It rendered the wearer deaf, piping them full of oxygen, and limiting their vision to a tiny horizontal slit.

Wonder Stories April 1934