Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society
| Abbreviation | LASFS |
|---|---|
| Motto | De Profundis Ad Astra ("From the Depths to the Stars") |
| Formation | 1934 |
| Type | NGO |
| Purpose | Social |
| Headquarters | 6012 Tyrone Ave. Van Nuys, California 91401 |
| Coordinates | 34°10′21″N 118°22′59″W / 34.1725°N 118.383°WCoordinates: 34°10′21″N 118°22′59″W / 34.1725°N 118.383°W |
|
Region served
|
San Fernando Valley |
| Website | http://lasfs.org/ |
The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, Inc., or LASFS is a science fiction society with its headquarters in Van Nuys, a neighborhood in San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles, California. LASFS HQ is located at the corner of Tyrone & Aetna streets, near the Van Nuys Orange Line station.
LASFS is the oldest continuously operating science fiction club in the world, helped considerably in that record by being one of the few to own a clubhouse. The organization continues to hold regular weekly meetings on Thursdays. The club maintains a private lending library of books, videos, and other genre-related materials, for use by members.
Members of the club have run the World Science Fiction Convention several times, initiated the regional science-fiction convention Westercon, and hosts a yearly science fiction convention called Loscon. It maintains a web site and discussion forum, publishes (at irregular intervals) an amateur magazine called Shangri L'Affaires, and hosts the collations of a weekly amateur press association, APA-L. The LASFS monthly newsletter, De Profundis, is named for the club motto, De Profundis ad Astra ("From the Depths to the Stars"). DeProf is available (in PDF format) for reading at the LASFS web site, and can be obtained by writing its editor/publisher, Marty Cantor.
In 1934 Hugo Gernsback, editor of the then-prominent science fiction magazine Wonder Stories, established a correspondence club for fans called the "Science Fiction League." Local groups across the nation could join by filling out an application. Early meetings were held first at the Pacific Electric Building, then moved to Clifton's Cafeteria. Forrest J Ackerman later wrote, "The first meetings of the club were held in what was called the Pacific Electric Building in downtown Los Angeles. I think that once a month, a man who worked there was able to get the seventh or eighth floor free for us. Then we moved to Clifton's Cafeteria, a feature of which was their free limeade and lime juice. Some of the members who didn't have more than a nickel or dime to spend guzzled a lot of that free juice.
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