In the late 1960s I was involved in the successful “Toronto in ’73” Worldcon bid and ended up travelling to Canada many times from my home in New York City. I have to admit that I became quite a fan of Canada and its people, including, of course, the Canadian fans. I visited Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal a lot. In Montreal I stayed with Bruce Robbins, an American who moved to Canada to avoid the Viet Nam era draft.
Together we travelled quite a bit through the province of Quebec, visiting such places as Chicoutimi, Lac St. Jean and Mont Tremblant. I remember once driving back to Montreal with Bruce surrounded by a vast number of cars with dead deer tied to their roofs.
Gradually, the idea of having a Worldcon in Montreal took shape in my perhaps fevered brain. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I’d been secretary of the successful bid to hold the 1967 Worldcon in New York City. I was still young and flush with energy and enthusiasm. The sky seemed the limit. Best of all, Montreal had never hosted a Worldcon. Richard Labonté had proposed one when he was in college in Montreal, but his idea never came to fruition.
I thought about it a lot, checking out hotels and convention facilities, meeting with Montreal fans, including resident pro Donald Kingsbury and the Francophone fans who’d just started publishing a zine called Requiem — later renamed Solaris. None of them were silly enough to be involved in the bid. Eventually I produced flyers and a bidding button (which said Montreal In/En ’77). My committee consisted of myself as chairman, Bruce as Montreal liaison, John Boardman as treasurer, Detroit’s Howard DeVore to run the Dealers’ Room, and Quebec’s own Esther Rochon. I wrote to Philip K. Dick and asked him to be our Guest of Honour if we won. He declined but John Brunner accepted.
The convention would have been held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, with additional events, including the Dealers’ Room, Art Show and Masquerade at the Place Bonaventure exhibition space. In the mid 1970s there wasn’t the large choice of hotels and convention facilities available today. In fact for years there was one big unfinished hotel in the middle of the city whose construction had ground to a halt, the steel frame collecting rust.
Initially, having sold about 40 pre-supporting memberships, I felt there was a lot of enthusiasm for the bid. But my idea never caught fire, as I hoped it would. I was never very good at delegating responsibility and the bid became very much a one man show. I never really found anyone with the same passion for its possibilities. In the end, the realities of bidding for a Worldcon defeated the dream. It’s expensive to bid. There are thousands of dollars in costs involved. Without a millionaire on the bidding committee and unable to raise the money some other way, there really wasn’t a chance. So, although Montreal In/En ’77 was my dream, it received too little support to ever really succeed. I pulled the plug in March ’75, switching my support to the Orlando bid, which won, becoming Suncon, the 1977 Miami Beach Worldcon.
If you see me at the convention, I’ll be the one with the black and yellow “Montreal In/En ’77” button on my lapel. If there are any left, you’re welcome to have one.
Andrew I. Porter