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Desert Con

Overview

Desert Con was an annual science fiction and horror film convention in Tucson that predates TusCon. It was held at the University of Arizona and was sponsored by the UA's Student Union Activities Board (SUAB). It attracted major guests and screened an enviable array of genre films but may not have survived the seventies.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden wrote (fanac.org) about interviewing Leigh Brackett and Edmond Hamilton at Desert Con, though that doesn't mean they were GoHs (at least Hamilton was), and seeing Poul Anderson and George Pal.

Needless to say, this was an entirely unrelated event to the Desert Con cybersecurity conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia that held its 20th event in 2020.

Most Recent Program Book Covers

Click on the images below to open larger versions.

History

Chronology of Arizona Conventions | Index of Program Books

# Date Location Chair Guests Theme Book Notes
1 1973

University of Arizona
Tucson
2 1974
Feb
University of Arizona
Tucson
Leonard Nimoy
Linwood Dunn
Robert Bloch
David Gerrold
Alan Dean Foster
Things from Beyond
3 1975
20 Feb
23 Feb
University of Arizona
Tucson
Alfred Hitchcock
Edmond Hamilton
4 1976
4 Mar
7 Mar
University of Arizona
Tucson
Les Reese Don Davis
Gene Roddenberry
Robert Silverberg
Robert Wise
The Flight Fantastic
52 MB
5 1977
17 Feb
20 Feb
University of Arizona
Tucson
John Alexander D. C. Fontana
Alan Dean Foster
Richard Matheson
Oasis in the Stars 1
6 1978
3 Mar
5 Mar
University of Arizona
Tucson
Suzanne Schumaker Robert Blalack
Don Davis
Richard Edlund
Alan Dean Foster
Jamie Shourt

90 MB

Notes

1. Attendance for Desert Con V was capped at 600. The cost of membership was $7.

Other Documents

Index of Ephemera

Desert Con IV

Button (155k)
Newspaper Clipping (The Arizona Daily Star for 11 Mar 1976) (633k)
Poster (14 MB)

Desert Con V

Button (129k)
First Day Cover (143k)



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Last update: 17th November, 2022