SFScope friend Andrew I. Porter writes with news that the banquet speeches from the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention, Noreascon I, are now available for downloading from this page.
The speeches were recorded onto a two-disc vinyl 33rpm record set for sale. The files now available were produced in 2008 to help sell the remaining copies of the records. As Massachusetts Convention Fandom, Inc. (MCFI)—the producer of the records and the convention—notes, the files were originally distributed on flash drive sticks. “The Noreascon I On A Stick Flash Drive uses technology unknown at the time of Noreascon I. We do note, however, that memory in the form of IBM punch cards was in common use, so we have provided a conversion comparison below:
* Total Size of MP3 files: 83,329,024 bytes = 405 foot stack of IBM cards.
* Formatted Capacity of stick: 1,016,791,040 bytes = 0.93 mile stack of IBM cards.
Assuming IBM cards were formatted to include sequence numbers (because if you didn’t number your deck and you dropped it, you were so hosed), the actual comparison is 1GB stick to a 1 mile stack of IBM cards.”
The speeches in the files include:
Record side 1:
* Initial Introduction by Tony Lewis
* Remarks by Toastmaster Robert Silverberg
* First Fandom Award presented by Lester del Rey (to John W. Campbell, accepted by his daughter Philinda Campbell Hammond)
Record side 2:
* TAFF Delegate Mario Bosnyak
* Bob Shaw Fund Delegate Bob Shaw
* Pat Terry Award presented by Gordon Dickson (to Ron Goulart, accepted by Terry Carr)
* Big Heart Award presented by Forrest J. Ackerman (to C.L. Barrett, accepted by Lou Tabakow)
* Remarks by Robert Silverberg
Record side 3:
* Fan Guest of Honor Harry Warner, Jr.
* Pro Guest of Honor Clifford D. Simak
Record side 4:
* Hugo Awards, presented by Isaac Asimov