Obituary: In Memorium

Remembering
Ben Jason

A Biographical Sketch
by John L. Coker III

Ben Jason will probably best be remembered as a photographer – making pictures for decades at many Worldcon masquerades and banquets – and as a world-class collector and long-time supplier of rare science fiction (SF) books and magazines. 

Ben Jason was born Benedict Joseph Paul Jablonski in Cleveland on March 18, 1917. 

He was introduced to SF at the age of eleven by his older brother Sylvester, who was an omnivorous reader.  Sylvester had a small collection of Amazing Stories from 1927-1928 with Frank R. Paul covers.  One issue had a story by Ray Cummings called “Around the Universe,” which he said was like a tour of the solar system.  Another issue featured the first part of Doc Smith’s “The Skylark of Space.”   Ben admired the story so much that he wrote to Doc Smith and asked him for two signed photographs.  They corresponded for several years and Doc finally sent the two pictures.  Ben also corresponded with David H. Keller and Ray Cummings.

When he had money, Ben would buy SF magazines, usually at secondhand stores.  He would read them numerous times, and then trade them in two-for-one, which depleted his small collection.  He loved Amazing when it first came out, until it changed to a new editor with a different ownership.  Ben particularly liked Astounding when it appeared in 1930, and enjoyed stories written by Doc Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, A.E. Van Vogt and others.

As a teenager, Ben was an avid moviegoer.  He would collect bottles and newspapers to get the ten cents needed to get in.  Ben recalled that they would sometimes have several movies and a Vaudeville variety show, and piano and organ players.  In order to lure customers, movie houses would even have drawings where food would be given out.  One of his favorite early movies with which he identified was The Count of Monte Cristo.  Ben also enjoyed the swashbuckling adventures of Errol Flynn.

Ben started out in public school but transferred to Catholic school, then graduated from South High School four years later.  When he reached the age of seventeen, he learned about photo development, which brought in some badly needed income.  One time Ben remembered his mother telling him not to waste his time going to the icebox because there was no food.  When she started crying, he was able to give her the little bit of money that he had saved from his job.

Ben grew up in the Great Depression, when people could leave their homes unlocked, partly because no one had much worth taking.   He went to work part-time for the NRA making $21 a month, where he learned about making and developing pictures.

Ben and his brother were interested in science.  One of the greatest thrills of their childhood was tuning in to a Jack Dempsey fight on a crystal radio set that they built.  Years later, when he went into the army, Ben was stationed in North Africa.  He went into a nearby town and got enough equipment to build a little crystal set.  He used some bedsprings as an antenna.  Soon other soldiers started building their own sets.

Ben Jason, U.S. Army

L-R: Robert A. Madle, Ben Jason, Honey Wood (Cleveland, 1955)

When he returned from the army, Ben received letters from people in the Cleveland area who wanted to form a SF club, which eventually became the Cleveland SF Society.  They had about a dozen members around 1950.  One of his best friends there was Frank Adrosovsky, who was very enthusiastic about SF.  Ben remembered Frank as an unusual individual with a sharp, clear mathematical-type mind.  According to Ben, Frank could tell you the odds on any roll of the dice, and he was an amusing fellow who had a knack for inventing poetry.  This was around the time of the first Midwestcon, which Ben didn’t attend.  However, he and Frank went to Midwestcon the next year, and it was there that Ben met his first SF professional, Lloyd A. Eshbach. 

At that time, Ben knew that SF fandom was concentrated in metropolitan areas such as New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Chicago.  Those SF clubs could invite writers to participate in their meetings.  In order to meet professionals, Cleveland fans would get into one of Frank’s fifty-dollar jalopies and travel.

The early 1950s were formative years for Ben’s SF life.  For several years, he felt that he was a bystander looking at what was happening in other parts of the country. 

However, in 1953 the Cleveland fans decided to become involved, so they went to Philadelphia and made an unsuccessful bid for the World Convention to be held in Cleveland.  The next year they went to San Francisco and made another bid, which Ben felt they lost due to his neglect.  He had gone to the kitchen cupboard and found a pack of letters that were two weeks old.  His father had been cleaning and put the mail away for safe storage.  One card was from the Cincinnati Group, who offered their support for Cleveland’s bid.  Since Ben had not answered, the support fell through and San Francisco won the 1954 convention.

In 1953, the Philadelphia World Convention decided to establish an award, which would be named the Hugo.  Ben was so impressed that he decided if Cleveland won the Convention he would continue with the awards.  The next year, San Francisco got the Convention but they did not pursue the continuation of the awards project.

In 1955, Ben thought that the man who had made the award for the Philadelphia Convention would also do it for Cleveland.  Ben had announced widely that the awards would be presented in Cleveland.  In May, with time nearly running out, he took a rocket-shaped hood ornament from an Oldsmobile ’88, and fashioned what would become the model for future Hugo awards.

The 1955 Convention was well attended, and considered to be successful.  Co-chairs were Nick and Noreen Falasca, and the Guest of Honor was Isaac Asimov.  In addition to reinstating the Hugo awards, the Convention featured the first progress reports with color covers.  There was also a color cover for the Convention’s program book, from a painting that Ben commissioned Frank R. Paul to do for sixty dollars.

Ben married Frances Glynn, who came from Manchester, England.  During 1965 Ben was bidding for the next year’s World Convention in Cleveland.  In the process he was looking for publicity.  Frances had a brother named Tony, a writer and cartoonist who published a SF fanzine called Squeak.  Ben got to meet Tony when he arrived in England to promote Cleveland’s bid.  Tony had a sister, and they hit it off.  Ben didn’t pursue her because they lived so far apart.  The next summer, Ben received a letter.  Frances had tried to reach him as Ben Jason, but didn’t know his legal name was Jablonski.  One thing led to another and they got married.

The 1966 Worldcon started out as a bid by Cleveland.  Ben learned that the city of Detroit was making a bid too, headed by Howard DeVore.  They decided to join forces and hold the Twin Cities Convention, which lasted for a little while.  Later, Ben received a request from the Cincinnati group who asked to join the Convention, which became known as the Tricon.  Then Ben received an offer, this time from Earl Kemp of Chicago, asking to join the effort.  Ben thanked him but declined, saying that the name “Quatracon” wouldn’t work.  Earl understood and offered help whenever needed. 

When Ben became chairman of the 1966 World Convention, he told his team that there would be no questioning his authority.  Ben decided to ask L. Sprague de Camp to be the guest of honor.  Kelly Freas did the cover painting of de Camp for the Convention’s program book.

During the bidding stage, two years before the Convention, Ben had put together a complete program.  About six months before the Convention, Ben’s longtime friend Harlan Ellison asked if there would be an interest in seeing an advance screening of the new Star Trek show.  Harlan said that they had shown it on the West Coast at a convention where it had been received with wide acclaim.  A few weeks later Ben got a letter from Gene Roddenberry offering to bring the two episodes.  They were presented in Cleveland, and they received a great response from fans.

Roddenberry had heard how Ben had helped create the Hugo award.  He asked if it was possible for Ben to create a plaque stating just how well received the Star Trek pilot episodes were.  After the convention, Ben was exhausted, and newly married, and he soon forgot about the request.  A few weeks later there was a knock on the door by a messenger with a fruit basket and a big bottle of champagne.  Inside was a card with a reminder about the plaque.  Ben created some artwork and a framed certificate for Roddenberry, and eventually got it to him.

Tricon Program Book (1966)
Cover art by Kelly Freas

L-R: Unknown actress, Gene Roddenberry (1966). Photograph by Ben Jason

A week before the Convention, Ben received a telephone call from a person who was a SF fan and the owner of a large chain of movie houses throughout Ohio.  He asked if Ben would be interested in having a premiere showing of a movie called Fantastic Voyage.  They arranged to have it shown at the ritzy RKO Palace.  A requirement was that the Convention Committee provide 250 comment cards, to be filled out and returned to the movie producers. 

After the film was over, the normally reserved Ben got up on stage and yelled out for all of the attendees to come back.  They returned and filled out the comment cards. 

The 1966 World Convention was financially solvent, with quite a bit of money left over.  Ben regarded it as probably the last small World Convention, and one of the first big ones.  Until that time, there had usually been around three hundred people at World Cons, but there were nearly eight hundred people at the Cleveland Convention.  In addition to the guests, other professionals in attendance included Ray Cummings, Frank R. Paul, Doc Smith, Andre Norton, Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett.

Ben stopped corresponding with Doc Smith because he went into the army and served in the signal corps.  When he returned to civilian life, he began to re-establish his collecting.  Ben wrote to magazines that published ads offering pulps and fanzines for sale.  In one of them he noticed an ad from Doc Smith, who offered some magazines for trade.  Ben wrote to Doc and they got together again at the third Midwestcon. 

From then on, things were great.  Ben always felt that Doc was an exception among the professional writers.  He was more of a fan than a pro, and he and his family were friendly.  In 1965, Doc Smith dedicated the book Subspace Explorers to Ben, and gave him the original manuscript, which Ben treasured.

L-R: Samuel A. Moskowitz, Ben Jason, David A. Kyle.
First Fandom Reunion, RiverCon XIX, Louisville, Kentucky, 1994.
Photograph by John L. Coker III

In the early 1980s, Ben opened a bookstore called Golden Fleece Magazines that offered comic books and SF.  The shop was a popular gathering spot for fans, and he operated it for a number of years before retiring. 

One of the moments of which Ben was most proud was being named Guest of Honor at Concave 16, a convention held in Park City, Kentucky, in 1994. 

A few years later, Ben sold the home where he had resided for over fifty years and he donated material from his collection (including correspondence files) to the First Fandom Archive. For the remainder of his life he remained actively interested in science, technology, SF and the future. Ben Jason passed away on May 16, 2003.

(Based on interviews with Ben Jason held during 1994-95 and 1999.)