MONTREAL SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY ASSOCIATION (MonSFFA)

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THE MONTREAL SF SOCIETY

— Founded November 15th, 1946 at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. It may be the second SF club to be created in Canada (only the Ontario Science Fictioneers predates it, as far as I am aware).

Originally called the ‘McGill (University) Science Fiction Society’, it was intended as a campus SF club “able to use the facilities of the university as regards clubroom and notices in the student’s daily newspaper.” For the purpose of attracting “the numerous fans presumably residing in the Montreal area… it adopted the name of ‘Montreal Science Fiction Society’. The two names were reconciled with great originality by means of the initials MSFS.” (Moe Diner)

“Jack Bowie-Reed, Basil Rattray, & Moe Diner, the organizers, found two dozen members in little more than a year, thanks to publicity in Montreal newspapers & school publications.” – (HWJ)

Wrote Jack Bowie-Reed, the Montreal SFS “adopted CENSORED (in 1948) as its club organ, Fred Hurter Jr. (faned of CENSORED) having happily moved to the ‘City of Sin’, ‘Le petit Paris’.” Just prior to this however, the club published its first issue of MOHDZEE, a small 8-page digest-sized zine, in which plans for the upcoming CENSORED were announced. Readers were invited to subscribe to CENSORED at 15¢ per issue or 3 for 40¢.

As of February 1948, the staff of the MSFS executive consisted of: Honorary President – Fred Hurter, President – Moe Diner, 1st Vice President – Cecil de Bretigny, 2nd Vice-President – Bert Joss, 3rd Vice President – Thomas Buck, Treasurer – Basil Rattray, Secretary – Jack Bowie-Reed, Recording Secretary – George Ljelios, & Fanzine Editor – Fred Hurter.

A letter by club treasurer Allan Bernfeld published in CANADIAN FANDOM #21 (Jun 1954) states: “Just a short note to acknowledge receipt of the recent issues of CANFAN. I’ve passed them around at the meetings of the Montreal SF Society and they have been received with interest. CANFAN may have the good effect of sparking Fred Hurter into limbering the old multilith so we can whack out another CENSORED. Our normal two year publishing hiatus is now stretching itself out into darn near four years. However, don’t hold your breath until you see the issue.”

There were only two issues of CENSORED published under the auspices of the Montreal SF Society: #5 in Sep 1948, & #6 sometime in 1951. So the above threat to publish never panned out.

MSFS members Basil Rattray, Moe Diner, Cecil DeBretigny, Fred Hurter Jr. & Allan Bernfeld are Montreal fans listed in the CANADIAN FAN DIRECTORY published by the Canadian SF Association in 1952. Most of the other Montreal fans listed were probably members of the Montreal SF Society as well. They are:

Ivan M. Aron, E.E. Bennett, M.R. Bercovitch, Bill Black, Peggy Brighton, M.J. Bubbis, Fred Carrow, Eugene Cartwright, Alex Church, Edward David, Robert Edgar, John Elder, Leo Ethier, Charlie Falconer, Dennis Gaherty, Jack Goldwater, Paul Gorschkoff, Lucien Guimond, Jane A. Halden, Gerri Hale, A. Held, Vladimir Hospadaruk, A.M. Hunter, Robert A. Joss, Steve Kennedy, Michael Kensman, Gordon Keys, Norm Kipnis, Nixon Knowlton, J.L. Lackman, Jaime E. Lanz, Jean Le Bel, Eric B. Le Clair, Linel Loshak, Douglas B. Lyons, J.E. McAsey, Charles McHale, Gordon S. McKerrow, Alex Mierzwrinski, John Mileus, Calvin A. Paterson, Hugh Peak, Anne Perley, Sylvia C. Pett, Mike R. Quastel, Vera Rawcliffe, C.L. Roach, L.E. Robertson, Al Rosen, Dave Rosenberg, A. Roston, Sidney Schoner, John E.J. Sears, David D. Smith, M.E. Stalker, Peter Tamutes, N.J. Thompson, J. Arthur Thompson, Samuel Trenchard, James Welsh & George F. White.

The Montreal SF Society was a founding member of the Canadian Science Fiction Association (of SF Clubs) in 1948. The CSFA assigned various projects to its member clubs, and for its contribution the Montreal SF Society undertook “the author pseudonym project”, which I assume was intended to be a comprehensive listing of SF authors & all of their pseudonyms. Don’t know if the project was ever completed.

At some point, probably in the late 1950s, the Montreal SF Society ceased to exist. (Info requested!) (JBR)

[ See CANADIAN SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION, MONTREAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ASSOCIATION, MONTREAL STAR TREK ASSOCIATION, WARP, IMPULSE, MOHDZEE ]

MONTREAL STAR TREK ASSOCIATION

— Existed 1987/1988 as a revival of organized Montreal fandom which had been dormant since the demise of the Montreal SF Society. Founded by Luke A. Fallon & ? FINAL FRONTIER was the MSTA clubzine until the club evolved into the Montreal SF&F Association (MonSFFA) in Oct 1988 when the name of the zine changed to WARP. (LP)

[ See MONTREAL SF SOCIETY, MONTREAL SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY ASSOCIATION, WARP, IMPULSE, FINAL FRONTIER]