The Star Wars display Listed in the MidAmeriCon pocket program was "The Star Wars Display" in Muehlebach Towers meeting room 364 (aka The Chapel). Charles Lippincott,
Star Wars Corporation's vice-president of advertising, publicity, promotion, and merchandising, producer
Gary Kurtz, and actor
Mark Hamill were on hand promoting the upcoming
George Lucas film, that would be released 9 months later in May 1977. At that point, the space fantasy was being called
The Star Wars (
Star Wars). Three of the film's
costumes were displayed on mannequins:
Darth Vader and the
C-3PO and
R2-D2 robots; also on display was Darth Vader's lightsaber (hanging from his belt) and a
Storm Trooper helmet and blaster, behind-the-scenes production 8x10 stills, and a wall of framed conceptual artwork by
Ralph McQuarrie. As a part of the studio's promotion of the film, an offset-printed, two-page yellow press release flyer was given away in the display room. It depicted an early graphic of the
Luke Skywalker character drawn by McQuarrie. A dark blue, 2.25-inch wide promotional pin button, emblazoned with a white star field background and white type font that carried the motto "May the Force Be With You" was also given away. Finally, a largish, full-color film poster, illustrated by
Howard Chaykin, was also available. The display proved so popular that all three promotional items were gone by the end of the second day of the display.
The Star Wars slide presentation At 1:30 pm, on Saturday afternoon 4 September 1976, an hour-long presentation made up of
35mm slides of the film's production artwork and on-set production photos was hosted live in the Muehlebach's Imperial Ballroom, the hotel's largest, to a standing-room-only crowd. This was presented by The Star Wars Corporation's Charles Lippincott. During the course of his presentation, he outlined in great detail the full plot of the film from scene one through to the final scene before credits. A lengthy audience question-and-answer period followed with Lippincott, producer Gary Kurtz, and star Mark Hamill.
Forbidden Planet soundtrack and screening The "electronic tonalities" soundtrack for the classic
MGM science fiction film
Forbidden Planet was first released in 1976 by
Louis and Bebe Barron at MidAmeriCon. It was on a vinyl
LP album, done for the film's 20th anniversary, on the Barron's own PLANET Records label (later changed to SMALL PLANET Records and distributed by GNP Crescendo Records). The LP was premiered at the convention by the Barrons as part of a 20th Anniversary celebration of the film being held at MidAmeriCon. They helped the convention's film programming staff arrange for the rental of fine grain film print from MGM's archival storage vaults. Three separate screenings of
Forbidden Planet were held as part of the convention's all 35mm science fiction and fantasy film retrospective. The Barrons were on-hand to promote their signed soundtrack LP, and they introduced the first of the three screenings of the film.
First Hugo Losers party For MidAmeriCon, science fiction and
fantasy author
George R. R. Martin, along with his good friend
Gardner Dozois, organized the first-ever Hugo Losers Party. They first gathered together all the leftover but previously unfinished and opened bottles of wine and liquor, and all unopened beer, and all left-over snack foods from Sunday evening's many open room parties. This was for a uniquely themed "dead dog" party: It was to be a gathering spot for all past Hugo losers (and friends and family), set to happen Monday evening after the "official" closing ceremonies for MidAmeriCon that afternoon. Martin and Dozois had planned to host this open party should Martin lose either Hugo for which he had been nominated. He became the party's undisputed host when he lost in
both MidAmeriCon Hugo Awards categories: for the
novelette "...and Seven Times Never Kill Man" and the
novella The Storms of Windhaven, written with
Lisa Tuttle. Whenever a past or current Hugo loser entered, Martin, standing atop his three-drawer-high room dresser, would take a swig directly from a liquor bottle, and in a loud voice announce, "Looooose," as his other arm, held on high, made a wide, sweeping downward arc, all to the delight of the assembled party goers. A little later at the party, writer
Larry Niven was presented with a
replacement Hugo Award by convention chairman Ken Keller. As Niven entered, from atop his dresser, Martin announced in a well-lubricated voice, "There's another loser, he
broke his new Hugo". Niven had dropped and broken the award in a backstage stairwell shortly after winning it while rushing back to his auditorium seat. Niven quickly departed after receiving a loud round of good-natured
boos and catcalls in response to Keller's presentation. In the years and decades that followed, the Hugo Losers Party became an annual event and evolved into one of the largest social gatherings held annually at every Worldcon.
First hardcover program and souvenir book The convention also produced another first: a highly collectible hardcover 172 page program and souvenir book, edited and designed by
Tom Reamy. The book contained articles, essays, an artists' portfolio illustrating scenes from the novels of Guest of Honor Robert A. Heinlein, fiction by
Harlan Ellison and
Howard Waldrop, as well as convention-related items like guest biographies, detailed film program notes, a membership list, and paid advertising. Only two other hardcovers have subsequently been done, one by the
45th World Science Fiction Convention and one by the
63rd World Science Fiction Convention. == Awards ==