If my memory serves me well, the nudity in the costume shows peaked in about 1975 at the World SF Con in Washington. It seemed that most of the costumes had at least some degree of female exposure that wouldn't be accepted on a woman who was just walking down the street.
Eventually, at the 1975 costume show, a guy came out in a simple costume without an element of theatre or nudity. He might have been dressed as Flash Gordon. He went up to the mike and said, "I thought this was a costume show. If I'd known it was going to be like this I would have brought my girlfriend with her +1+s painted green." That's what he said, but I had to use +!+s for breasts because of the level of prudity on this board. Angelique might remember it more closely but I have the key words right. The audience cheered in approval.
I am pretty sure that the audience didn't dislike the nudity but was probably sad that the costume show at the World SF convention seem to centre on it. Again, if my memory serves me well, the World SF convention banned nudity in costume shows the next year. Certainly the one I attended in 2003 had no nudity whatsoever.
Irony abounds. Right now, in Toronto, a woman or man can walk down Yonge Street exposing everything but their genitals and it is perfectly in keeping with the law. Should Toronto ever hold a world con again, which seems unlikely, there will be no nudity on stage. I can't quote a word that every five year old knows on this board because "spoon" will be written in its place but the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation often (perhaps always) leaves far harsher words in when broadcasting interviews with men and women on the street.
Those were the days in a certain way. Was it a flowering of culture when we were naive about the value of the literature of the fantastic? It was our own little corner of the world. Fantastic Four #1 wasn't yet worth more than any first edition by Hemingway, Faulkner or Fitzgerald. Comics and SF hadn't overwhelmed the movie screen. Comic books and books on comics hadn't won Pulitzers. It was our little sub-culture and no one elses. We made the rules.
Or is the golden age of everything, whatever is going on when you are twelve? Will the kids today get the same sort of thrill that I did over comics and SF or see them as a commodity to be bagged, boarded and speculated on? Certainly I describe the extremes but we are far closer to the "commodity" end of the continuum.
Rereading the thread, I must ad that the magazine is in no way pornographic. It just sort of leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
Before I comment I have to make a correction on yesterday's comment: at one point I said that Heidi was 13 when she did Vampi but I was wrong: she was 14 (and 13 when she did Sheena.)---gotta keep these things straight...
Now, on to the comments:
--When I first read it I was either laughing or feeling bad for Heidi after all, what 14 year old wants their baby pictures published in a magazine? Or a silly and obviously fictional story about putting their "po-po nappie" on their 3 day old head and saying in "perfect Finnish", "Look, ma, I'm the Big Diaper!" ? sheesh!
The funny stuff? To those of you familiar with Forry's style of writing, you'll see that he went into high gear as he wrote lines like this: "...blonde reed of womanhood, bending in the wind of the sighs of her would-be wooers, ...delightful, full-of-life dweller on the pink cloud of fantasy..." ad nauseam......
btw--I do have a magazine--a gift from a friend who wanted to commemorate my first masquerade but it has since suffered severe water damage in a fire some years ago. However, if anyone is interested, I can offer a photocopy of some of it. e me about it.
I think what upsets me about the whole Heidi thing was that she was going through terrible emotional turmoil at that time but felt helpless to do anything about it. Her mother once forced her to dance in front of a gathering of comic professionals at a private party like some trained animal. Friends who witnessed that said that her discomfort was obvious to everyone except Taimi who was too busy playing the cassette recorder she brought with her and shushing the audience. Heidi had alot of potential but her parents desire for her stardom really messed with her head--and let's just say that we're lucky that she didn't die on us.
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angee
"Time is an illusion--lunchtime, doubly so!" "The angels have the Blue Box!"
Thanks for the long commentary on Heidi. It sounds like you were very close to it all, while I learned what I did mostly from rumour and inference. Thanks for the facts on the situation.
--I'm glad to help
I went to enjolrasworld.com and read your interview. It was interesting reading your statements about Heidi there as well. I am surprised that she, and all that happened to her, is so well remembered.
--she has become the stuff of legends...like Bettie Page? Actually, she and her times are so well remembered because of her Warren one-shot selling for hundreds of dollars on ebay....
I went so far as to search Heidi out on the internet but the adult Heidi seems to be gone without a trace.
--yeah--she's a happy recluse these days.
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angee
"Time is an illusion--lunchtime, doubly so!" "The angels have the Blue Box!"
I went so far as to search Heidi out on the internet but the adult Heidi seems to be gone without a trace.
Very cool info. I love reading about the early fandom days. So, does anyone know "whatever happened to" Heidi?
Thanks.
Heidi is living in seclusion with her husband of 7 years. She's kinda ambivalent about the old days--sometimes she's ok and others, she just wants to forget them.
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angee
"Time is an illusion--lunchtime, doubly so!" "The angels have the Blue Box!"
Yeah, that's what I thought she would be doing and it makes perfect sense to me. She would have had a couple of very intense years there where people were trying to turn her into an underage sex symbol and she had little control over the situation.
I imagine that once in a while she sits down with a friend and says, "I am going to tell you something-- you won't believe it," then spills the whole bizarre story.
I respect her privacy.
But maybe this fan thing will one day grow so big that the San Diego Convention begins to look like the New York Convention of old. Everybody will read Spider-man. Bill Clinton will have a comic book collection. Stan Lee will be on university courses. There will be a statue of Jack Kirby, thirty feet high, in the Bowery. At that point Playboy will search around and find Heidi Saha and do a special interview. There will be a made for TV movie starring some emerging model called, "The Heidi Saha Story". It will be promoted as "a special tale of one girls struggle against an adult world she can not understand". In it the comic fans will not be overweight, short or acne ridden but will look like Horshack, Epstein and Barbarino. Then they will dig her up and interview her, in silhouette, on Sixty Minutes.
But maybe this fan thing will one day grow so big that the San Diego Convention begins to look like the New York Convention of old. Everybody will read Spider-man. Bill Clinton will have a comic book collection. Stan Lee will be on university courses. There will be a statue of Jack Kirby, thirty feet high, in the Bowery. At that point Playboy will search around and find Heidi Saha and do a special interview. There will be a made for TV movie starring some emerging model called, "The Heidi Saha Story". It will be promoted as "a special tale of one girls struggle against an adult world she can not understand". In it the comic fans will not be overweight, short or acne ridden but will look like Horshack, Epstein and Barbarino. Then they will dig her up and interview her, in silhouette, on Sixty Minutes.
Sounds like a dynamite episode of 'Behind the Panels.'
_________________________ Comic-Covers.com - new this week: DC's Blackhawk!
This is one of the greatest threads on the forums right now... too bad most probably aren't reading it! Ron, you're posts are fantastic about what was going on back then and Angelique, yours are giving a great first hand look to the story.
Stage mothers (fathers) are a horrible thing when it comes to kids, my ex-wife had done stage musicals for many years while she was young under the watchful eye of her "stage mother" and it definitely f-ed her up even now more than 20 years later.
It's one thing if kids show an interest in things like this, but anytime they're forced into participating in something they don't like or are led to believe that it's "best" for them, then a horrible wrong is being perpitrated.
Thanks for the kind words Buffy Fan. I remember Angelique as being a huge comic/SF celebrity back then, so much so, that I recognized her name immediately though it hadn't come up in 30 years and seemed way out of context on my computer. It's good of her to come forth and clarify this bizarre situation from maybe, 35 years ago.
This is one of the lonely corners of the message board. I agree, others would like to read about all this if they knew it was here.
I thought about it but my zeal for completing a Warren run aint what it once was. I've been more into DC war comics (Enemy Ace!!!) than mags for a couple years now. I wouldnt have gone higher than $250 for Heidi,which means Ill probably never own one. " _________________________
Btw--if you're interested I'd be happy to send you a photocopy of the Heidi mag--just so you can see what all the fuss is about. angee
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angee
"Time is an illusion--lunchtime, doubly so!" "The angels have the Blue Box!"
