RAH taught me moral and work ethics, taught me to be responsible for myself and my actions. Due to him, I excelled in the military (42 years, active, guard, and reserve) and in the Intel Community (active field operations officer). He taught me both honesty and guile. He taught me to be tough and compassionate. Of all my generous mentors, he was the most generous. I passed this on to my children, in his books and my guidance. Currently recollecting his collection for my grandkids. Robert A. Heinlrin will live on, in my family, for generations to come. Kudos and thanks to him. To all reading, love and best regards, Dave
Robert Heinlein helped me grow up better than any parent or teacher. If I'm a decent person, a decent man (respectful of others, especially women), intensely and persistently curious, self-sufficient yet valuing a team effort, and always, always open to the future...then, very much of what is best about me I owe to Robert Heinlein. That I could only buy all his work seems such a small expression of gratitude. Then, influencing my son, now a good human in my estimation, is a timeless thanks to Robert Heinlein. Gone, he is still influencing the tomorrow, making it a better future.
His books helped me survive a brutal childhood by reminding me that there is always tomorrow, always the future, and things can always be better, especially when you help make it happen.
I was 18 and in Navy boot camp while this was going on. I had read almost everything he'd written by then. This is the first time I've actually heard him speak. ✌😎
Wow what a treat. I discovered him long after he had died. Never thought I would have been able to hear him in his own words and voice. Thank goodness for the Internet.
I was in the audience in Kansas City in 1976 for this amazing spot-of-time in the Science Fiction universe. I won't hide the fact that I was with the small group of independent thinkers who booed Robert Heinlein over his unfortunate assertions on the human races' basic instinct for violence and war, and I chuckled when hearing, for the first time in 40 years, the (unnamed) person seated beside me doing that fabulous whistling bomb-drop sound effect near the end of the tape. After Scott Imes, the Minneapolis videographer who headed the documentary crew that created these 1976 Worldcon videos, died in 2001, I became the caretaker of Scott's video archives. At the end of the Fan History Group's panel at the 1993 San Francisco Worldcon, Peggy Rae Pavlat took me aside and asked if I'd be willing to take possession of Scott's videos should anything happen to him. I agreed, and talked this over with Scott. Over the next 8 years, he and I chatted often about his work, and the steps he'd taken to preserve it. I kept the archive safe until the technology for digitizing and editing video became commonplace and relatively affordable, and am very happy that the project to retrieve these videos and place them here on Google's UA-cam has finally come together. This 1976 "Heinlein Tape" (as everyone called it), in particular, was in bad shape and needed a lot of work to safely retrieve. When I was sorting through the 40+ boxes of old 1/2" reel-to-reel and U-Matic 3/4" video tapes, indexing them as I went along, I found that Scott had copied and re-copied the Kansas City footage over the decades to newer formats, and I eventually discovered a 5th generation VHS dub of the original 1/2" reel-to-reel "Heinlein Tape." I digitized that VHS myself, but the sound and video on the tape were extremely poor (the VHS dub itself by then was over 20 years old), nowhere near as good as what you see here on UA-cam - which is why, for a number of years, I declined the many requests to "just put it on the internet" in that condition. I did give out a few DVDs of my preliminary tests, and hope none of those ever show up... "on the internet." The version here on UA-cam is the real one. Congratulations and thanks so very much to everyone who worked so hard to make this project happen!
@@juliepascal7412 Uncomfortable reality, I'd say. But, to a young person, then, just after Viet Bam and before the peak tension of the Cold War, the prospect of dying for the Kremlin or Capitol Hill seemed terrifying and pointless. 44 years later, I find myself agreeing with Heinlein about the dangers of pacifism. And while he was speaking in general and as a pragmatist, perhaps the people booing him were blinkered by ideology or idealism.
@@bnic9471 Unfortunately....and so many human events and lives are unfortunate...Mr. Heinlein spoke truth against idealism. We have only to look at our actual human history. I, of course, am never sure about anything....but some things about our history ring true. The fight to establish and maintain democratic freedom comes with a cost. And that cost includes violence.
Thank you, Jeff, for this UA-cam presentation. It is (was) so nice to hear Mr. Heinlein himself...as old as he was....but still so unique and vibrant. Thank you.
If the reality is that the destitute weak and injured (mentally and physically) have no right to exist, which I see as the only true core foundation of Libertarian belief, yes, unfortunate assertions. Pacificism and Fascism are the endpoints of the continuum. Libertarianism is so pointless and dangerous, it isn't even in the continuum. Strong humans with intelligence and empathy for all life, with wide understanding and knowledge of human, plant and animal life, along with geologic and anthropologic history, and who vehemently deny the concept that if something or someone cannot be used to create profit it has no right to exist, are the true heroes. We will absolutely take up arms to defend ourselves and others when Fascism once again metastasizes.
It was around this time that I heard Heinlein speak at a Star Trek convention in Seattle. While I was only in High School I also happened to be a member of the convention's organizing committee. I suggested that Heinlein be invited to speak, which was instantly approved. Back then if you read Science Fiction you read Heinlein. Speak he did. A high point of my life. He's still my favorite author.
Hi, I am a hardcore Starship troopers fan (Heinleins book ofcourse).. Would you happen to know if he ever referenced or alluded to starship troopers in any of his other works??
This was in 1976 and - ironically - American patriotism was at an all time low. The same comments four years later would have been greeted to mostly cheers.
I always knew he was teaching us when I read every one of his books in the 1960s, but a few years ago I found out he was actually commissioned to write a series of books as inspiration and education to young people. They couldn’t have chosen a better man.
Did not get exposed to this master until mid life and among all of his books, the one that rocked my world was Time Enough For Love. What a story. Pieces still stick in my brain.
I grew up reading RAH in the early 1970's but never got to meet him. At this point he had 12 more years to live. I felt like I had lost a good friend when I read his obit in Time. I read...echo's....of RAH in so many of the best SF writers of today. His writings on these trips to the USSR are a priceless look at what it was like behind the Iron Curtain. The modern left would have kittens and be twitting and pounding the keyboards in shock and outrage if someone gave a speech like this today. However, that doesn't mean RAH wasn't right. As they said at one of the conventions he spoke at: Rah! Rah! Rah! RAH! Molon Labe! Keep your powder dry and your faith in God.
This was the 1st time that I've ever heard R.A.H. speak! I was born at North Memorial Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN in 1965. I have been an avid reader of nearly ALL of his books, and in 1977, I read Starship Troopers, and I went into the USMC in 1987. Semper Fidelis, R.A.H.!:)
Wow, that introduction must have represented the epitome of 70's sartorial bad taste! Yikes! Heinlein however pulls off a classic off white dinner jacket with good taste befitting of his era .
I discovered SF fandom in 1972 with WorldCon in DC. What an experience! I attended MidAmericon for Heinlein, whose books I devoured from childhood. It was marvelous seeing the crowds part in front of Heinlein entering the room, unusual anywhere in fandom. What a blast in those days!
TEFL? Don't get me wrong... I happen to think highly of that book..But adapting it to the screen without completely gutting it would be next to impossible. Even in a series format, it would be unlikely to work without some serious twisting and dubious reworking that would likely change the entire impetus and intent of the work.
Starship Troopers would be absolutely great as a movie. It's so visual, especially that opening battle. Because there has still been no movie version of it! 😝
Thank you for uploading this. Just stumbled on this today. I grew up reading the Big Three (3), but my most favorite one was Robert A. Heinlein. Truly, what a man, and to paraphrase Shakespeare "He was a man, take him for his all in all, for we shall never see his like ever again." May his legacy last for generations yet to come.
I remember seeing you there, Andrew! Jon and I sat in the Hugo nominees section because he was going to (and did!) pick up Richard Geis's Hugo in case he won.
Thank you very much for posting this including the introduction which is wonderful as well. The point here is to get a feeling for the entire evening, the culture, the whole vibe of the time and this group, including hearing this speech from someone who has affected us so much. It doesn't matter if every part is perfect, it doesn't matter if everything said is a hundred percent politically correct. These things do not matter, folks. We have to get over this. This is a great gift coming to us to help us connect with people who have changed our world and contributed to humanity. Heinlein has given us so many lessons that we need to pay attention to right now. He gave us plenty of advance time to take these lessons into account. Let's hope we can grok what matters.
I was 13 and had read Stranger in a Strange Land more times than I can count, and most of his other works. He wrote a good tale, and had more of an impact on my writing style than any other writer. I do not agree with his views on religion and some other subjects, but his ideas are worth pondering, some good, some bad, never boring.
Thanks for putting this out, and to @Jeff Schalles for preserving it. As a lifelong fan, It is a bit hard hard to connect the Heinlein in literature with this presentation. It seems certain that the Cartoid blockage that almost killed him in 1978, was in play on his health in 1976 and affected his content and presentation at the Con. Seven years earlier, the interview with the Apollo moon landing it is better but it is clear he was not a great live talent. But his reading on "This I Believe" recording, from 1952, is excellent. Importantly, on This I Believe he is reading something he wrote there which was obviously his great talent. I doubt there is anything earlier than that to be found.
I never knew he stammered…like you say he wasn’t a public speaker, but oh what an author…we all have our genre. I couldn’t write a decent story to save my life, but music is my forte. And I can speak well.
I was at this convention! It was great and I got to meet him by donating my blood. I’ve always been anemic, but begged and convinced the nurse to let me donate!
7:38 8:26 9:16 10:13 Robert Lewis Stephenson, H.G. Wells 10:45 1st time Robert A Heinlein spoke as a guest of honor. 11:53 1941 Robert Heinlein Prediction: America is getting into war. 🇺🇸 💥 17:07 “Anyone who thinks science fiction can be written without science deserves to go and room with the person who thinks that historical novels can be written without a knowledge of history.” 17:30 "But it also has to be fiction, it has to be a story." *(Funny) Stories* 18:01 "Jenny and I have been in a sort of a rush for sometime now." 19:44 21 Years Old before he had his 1st birthday. 21:33 Tazmania To Pearl Harbor, stopped in New Caledonia. 22:23 "What day are we crossing The Date Line?" April 22nd. 23:17 A Man Simultaneously Married To Both of His Grandmothers. *Fighting* 24:04 1941, 1961, Predicting War. 24:36 The Bi-Centennial of This Republic, The United States of America. - We have been fighting in 199 of those years. 25:20 Only 1 Year of Nominal Peace. 25:44 The Human Race Thrives On Trouble. We're Built For It. We're Going Out To The Stars. 29:43 Peace and Freedom. Peace and Freedom. 30:38 The Only Peace That A Man Who Won't Fights Will Get Is The Peace of The Grave. 31:07 To Fight In Defense of Women and Children. 31:36 2 Choices: (1) To Not Fight and Die (2) To Fight and Die. 31:56 Robert, There are always survivors. That is how the Human Race Develops. 32:36 "The Cowards Never Started, and The Weaklings Died On The Way." 34:27 "We have the most modern of electronic devices housed in things that are little better than masonary tents." 34:44 Goodnight. 35:31 "Since Mr Tucker has decided he will say no more, he will say no more. Goodnight and Thank You."
He probably stammered due to the rate at which thoughts flowed thru his mind. By the time his mouth was uttering one thought, a few more were already passing thru his mind. The stammering being a result of his mouth losing it's place in the thoughts & having to momentarily backtrack thru his mind to find where it left off. Basically, his mouth couldn't keep up with his mind.
Alonzo - the truth is, Robert Heinlein was suffering from blocked carotid arteries at the time and apparently no one had diagnosed it yet. That was why his speech was so stilted. Later on he was operated on to clear the blockage, and he then came back strong enough to write several more novels.
Liked his stories. Started reading his books about 1960 --- I was in grammar school. It took me a few years to figure out where he got his ideas for his interesting heroes and heroins, but I think that they strongly resemble the Greek Heroes like in the Iliad and the Odyssey. That's my take away anyway.
Scott Imes worked for one of the bigger Minneapolis AV rental places then (name something like Blumberg Photo Sound). MAC rented from them and Scott trucked it down to Kansas City. Plus, as I remember it, Scott had a deal that he could take anything not rented over the weekend to use at SF conventions; I was in picking stuff up with him before Minicon the year before MAC. So, anyway, yeah, not consumer equipment, and rather a lot of it. Everything from the classic Sony 1/2" reel-to-reel B&W portapack, which was used for the mobile work, to various EIAJ B&W and color decks, to some 3/4" UMatic color equipment, and some rather good color cameras. We had originally intended to run some things live on the hotel TV system, but the coax up to the antenna head on the roof may have been too long to work well ("may have" because locating a playback deck up there didn't work all THAT much better). That's why we're stringing coax up to the roof in the setup video that I think is on here somewhere. Those good color cameras caused some of our problems -- we sent them to the more important events, and sometimes those events weren't really lit well enough for them (1976 video needing rather more light than 2018 video, of course!). The equipment is also a good part of why so little of this has been seen much until lately. None of us really had equipment to *do* anything with it. Of course, if we had, we might have nothing but horrid nth-generation dupes left by now. (I worked on the original project in 1976, and did most of the restoration digital editing work rather more recently.)
It was. 1976 is when I first read him, and was sad to see that he hadn't published in years. And it would be three more years before he'd publish again.
@@bnic9471 I seem to remember reading about a surgical operation to re-route scalp artery blood to the brain of people who had arterial blockages. I think it was in Scientific American, and the case they described was Heinlein. Apparently it invigorated his brain and brought him back to health. It was so long ago I forgot the details.
@@justgivemethetruth Right you are. Heinlein also detailed it in "Spinoff," in his _Expanded Universe_ collection. I think he also spoke to a congressional committee about how telemetry and other medical innovations that helped him out had sprung from NASA programs.
We will indeed go to the stars, and the Gods of the Copybook Headings will follow us there too. I hope we will learn our lesson and pay them better attention than we have been.
came here to figure out how to pronounce his name. still don’t know because the presenter pronounces it two different ways but i’m assuming the second way was correct because he must have gotten correct. soo hine-lin, right? not hine-line?
Was Mr. Heinlein very shy man? He sounds as if he is reciting from memory. he also seems very stiff and wooden. Not a judgment. I hope it's not offensive to ask if he had a neurological problem?
Bud - yes, the stammering was part of it. But, mainly, in 1976, he suffered from undiagnosed blocked carotid arteries, slowing him down and badly affecting his speech... and memories. Fairly soon after this he was operated on to clear the blockages and came back strong enough to write several more novels.
wonder how his generation would react to super wealthy lobbying for space tourism with more money than rationality/decency. so much expectation, optimism. still a great speech.
There would be no Trekkies without Heinlein laying fundamentals but remember what Jeannette Ngo had to say about how Heinlein under pen name Anson Macdonald wrote Popular Politically Correct WWII racist propaganda published in 1941 "Astounding".
ironic considering his attention to details like including different gender and ethnicity/cultural origins in his characters. you're no eagle, you're barely a pigeon.
It was the '70s and Bob Tucker was just a Midwest farm boy at heart. He also introduced humor to fandom in the 1930s. Before he came along, writing humorous pieces for the mimeographed fanzines of the era, science fiction fan boys were very proper, they all are wearing suits and ties in the photos they left behind. They mostly wrote book reviews and very bad "fan fiction." I think there were, maybe, about three women altogether in fandom at the time...
RAH taught me moral and work ethics, taught me to be responsible for myself and my actions. Due to him, I excelled in the military (42 years, active, guard, and reserve) and in the Intel Community (active field operations officer). He taught me both honesty and guile. He taught me to be tough and compassionate. Of all my generous mentors, he was the most generous. I passed this on to my children, in his books and my guidance. Currently recollecting his collection for my grandkids. Robert A. Heinlrin will live on, in my family, for generations to come. Kudos and thanks to him. To all reading, love and best regards, Dave
Robert Heinlein helped me grow up better than any parent or teacher. If I'm a decent person, a decent man (respectful of others, especially women), intensely and persistently curious, self-sufficient yet valuing a team effort, and always, always open to the future...then, very much of what is best about me I owe to Robert Heinlein. That I could only buy all his work seems such a small expression of gratitude. Then, influencing my son, now a good human in my estimation, is a timeless thanks to Robert Heinlein. Gone, he is still influencing the tomorrow, making it a better future.
Thank you Sir, your story could be my own, making me glad that my and your story are not alone in this universe. 🌍✌️🌎
His books helped me survive a brutal childhood by reminding me that there is always tomorrow, always the future, and things can always be better, especially when you help make it happen.
Nice - I was in the credits as I was one behind the camera for this one.
Great! Im from Russia, and im a huuuge fan of Robert E Heinlein books ❤ im so glad to see this video, hear his voice 😊
I was 18 and in Navy boot camp while this was going on. I had read almost everything he'd written by then. This is the first time I've actually heard him speak. ✌😎
Wow what a treat. I discovered him long after he had died. Never thought I would have been able to hear him in his own words and voice. Thank goodness for the Internet.
After more than 45 years of being a fan, this was the first time I ever got to hear RAH speak. Thank you.
Ron, I'm glad to see your comment. In a nutshell, that's why we're doing this channel.
@@FANACFanHistory Thanks. I just subbed.
I was shocked by how strong his accent still was in spite of having been away from Missouri so long. @@FANACFanHistory
I was in the audience in Kansas City in 1976 for this amazing spot-of-time in the Science Fiction universe. I won't hide the fact that I was with the small group of independent thinkers who booed Robert Heinlein over his unfortunate assertions on the human races' basic instinct for violence and war, and I chuckled when hearing, for the first time in 40 years, the (unnamed) person seated beside me doing that fabulous whistling bomb-drop sound effect near the end of the tape.
After Scott Imes, the Minneapolis videographer who headed the documentary crew that created these 1976 Worldcon videos, died in 2001, I became the caretaker of Scott's video archives. At the end of the Fan History Group's panel at the 1993 San Francisco Worldcon, Peggy Rae Pavlat took me aside and asked if I'd be willing to take possession of Scott's videos should anything happen to him. I agreed, and talked this over with Scott. Over the next 8 years, he and I chatted often about his work, and the steps he'd taken to preserve it. I kept the archive safe until the technology for digitizing and editing video became commonplace and relatively affordable, and am very happy that the project to retrieve these videos and place them here on Google's UA-cam has finally come together.
This 1976 "Heinlein Tape" (as everyone called it), in particular, was in bad shape and needed a lot of work to safely retrieve. When I was sorting through the 40+ boxes of old 1/2" reel-to-reel and U-Matic 3/4" video tapes, indexing them as I went along, I found that Scott had copied and re-copied the Kansas City footage over the decades to newer formats, and I eventually discovered a 5th generation VHS dub of the original 1/2" reel-to-reel "Heinlein Tape." I digitized that VHS myself, but the sound and video on the tape were extremely poor (the VHS dub itself by then was over 20 years old), nowhere near as good as what you see here on UA-cam - which is why, for a number of years, I declined the many requests to "just put it on the internet" in that condition. I did give out a few DVDs of my preliminary tests, and hope none of those ever show up... "on the internet." The version here on UA-cam is the real one.
Congratulations and thanks so very much to everyone who worked so hard to make this project happen!
Unfortunate assertions or uncomfortable reality?
@@juliepascal7412 Uncomfortable reality, I'd say. But, to a young person, then, just after Viet Bam and before the peak tension of the Cold War, the prospect of dying for the Kremlin or Capitol Hill seemed terrifying and pointless.
44 years later, I find myself agreeing with Heinlein about the dangers of pacifism. And while he was speaking in general and as a pragmatist, perhaps the people booing him were blinkered by ideology or idealism.
@@bnic9471 Unfortunately....and so many human events and lives are unfortunate...Mr. Heinlein spoke truth against idealism. We have only to look at our actual human history. I, of course, am never sure about anything....but some things about our history ring true. The fight to establish and maintain democratic freedom comes with a cost. And that cost includes violence.
Thank you, Jeff, for this UA-cam presentation. It is (was) so nice to hear Mr. Heinlein himself...as old as he was....but still so unique and vibrant. Thank you.
If the reality is that the destitute weak and injured (mentally and physically) have no right to exist, which I see as the only true core foundation of Libertarian belief, yes, unfortunate assertions. Pacificism and Fascism are the endpoints of the continuum. Libertarianism is so pointless and dangerous, it isn't even in the continuum. Strong humans with intelligence and empathy for all life, with wide understanding and knowledge of human, plant and animal life, along with geologic and anthropologic history, and who vehemently deny the concept that if something or someone cannot be used to create profit it has no right to exist, are the true heroes. We will absolutely take up arms to defend ourselves and others when Fascism once again metastasizes.
It was around this time that I heard Heinlein speak at a Star Trek convention in Seattle. While I was only in High School I also happened to be a member of the convention's organizing committee. I suggested that Heinlein be invited to speak, which was instantly approved. Back then if you read Science Fiction you read Heinlein. Speak he did. A high point of my life. He's still my favorite author.
Mine too!!!
I was in Jr High in 76. At that time, I was devouring Heinlein. After all these years, he is still my favorite author.
Hi, I am a hardcore Starship troopers fan (Heinleins book ofcourse).. Would you happen to know if he ever referenced or alluded to starship troopers in any of his other works??
@@longball756 on occasion he reference it but It's in his works from the 80s
Nothing against Heinlein, but you need to read more.
@@justgivemethetruth disagree
@@justgivemethetruthno disrespect, but you need to get an education.
Back when someone could disagree with something said, give their boo, have it acknowledged, and even refuted, and a speech could go on.
This was in 1976 and - ironically - American patriotism was at an all time low. The same comments four years later would have been greeted to mostly cheers.
All his books are really about teaching the reader how to be better versions of themselves.
That was beautifully said.
I always knew he was teaching us when I read every one of his books in the 1960s, but a few years ago I found out he was actually commissioned to write a series of books as inspiration and education to young people. They couldn’t have chosen a better man.
I liked the stories.
Robert A. Heinlein, a great man and my favorire science fiction writer!
I grew up reading Heinlein! Thank you for this video!
Did not get exposed to this master until mid life and among all of his books, the one that rocked my world was Time Enough For Love. What a story. Pieces still stick in my brain.
Dora!!
Mine too. A masterpiece.
After an incredibly tedious and soporific introduction, Robert A. Heinlein takes the podium at 7:40 .
Thank you!
and the clown tuxedo
Holy hell, that nerd makes up for his lame speech after Heinlein has finished though!
If there were a point system for karma, this small act of kindness would score you at least 50 points.
Loves the sound of his own voice, Could have done a civil intro in a minute, or less.
Thank you for preserving this!
Thank you so very much for uploading this.
You're very welcome. Thanks for feedback. It's great when we hear that people are enjoying the pieces we're putting up.
I grew up reading RAH in the early 1970's but never got to meet him. At this point he had 12 more years to live. I felt like I had lost a good friend when I read his obit in Time. I read...echo's....of RAH in so many of the best SF writers of today.
His writings on these trips to the USSR are a priceless look at what it was like behind the Iron Curtain.
The modern left would have kittens and be twitting and pounding the keyboards in shock and outrage if someone gave a speech like this today. However, that doesn't mean RAH wasn't right.
As they said at one of the conventions he spoke at: Rah! Rah! Rah! RAH!
Molon Labe!
Keep your powder dry and your faith in God.
This was the 1st time that I've ever heard R.A.H. speak! I was born at North Memorial Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN in 1965. I have been an avid reader of nearly ALL of his books, and in 1977, I read Starship Troopers, and I went into the USMC in 1987. Semper Fidelis, R.A.H.!:)
My wife and both my kids were born there as well. I was lucky enough to pull camera duty working with Scott Imes and DDB.
Wow, that introduction must have represented the epitome of 70's sartorial bad taste! Yikes! Heinlein however pulls off a classic off white dinner jacket with good taste befitting of his era .
Robert Anson Heinlein ,I read his Rocket Ship Galileo in 1958 and was sure to read everything he authored.
I discovered SF fandom in 1972 with WorldCon in DC. What an experience! I attended MidAmericon for Heinlein, whose books I devoured from childhood. It was marvelous seeing the crowds part in front of Heinlein entering the room, unusual anywhere in fandom. What a blast in those days!
My first Worldcon was Discon II also. I gave my first pint of blood to get a Heinlein autograph in '77. Glad you enjoyed the video.
DISCON II was 1974 - my first worldcon and I was 16 at the time. My crazy parents let me and two friend go from MN to DC by Greyhound bus.
Movies that must be made... Glory Road and Time Enough for Love.
Tefl wouldn’t be great. Methuselahs children would be.
TEFL? Don't get me wrong... I happen to think highly of that book..But adapting it to the screen without completely gutting it would be next to impossible. Even in a series format, it would be unlikely to work without some serious twisting and dubious reworking that would likely change the entire impetus and intent of the work.
Starship Troopers would be absolutely great as a movie. It's so visual, especially that opening battle.
Because there has still been no movie version of it!
😝
Time Enoug For Love is far beyond many textbooks
Thank you for uploading this. Just stumbled on this today. I grew up reading the Big Three (3), but my most favorite one was Robert A. Heinlein. Truly, what a man, and to paraphrase Shakespeare "He was a man, take him for his all in all, for we shall never see his like ever again." May his legacy last for generations yet to come.
I was there, a mere 30 years old. The wonders of modern technology!
I remember seeing you there, Andrew! Jon and I sat in the Hugo nominees section because he was going to (and did!) pick up Richard Geis's Hugo in case he won.
Hey Steve - it's bandit - glad you are still cranking along. I hope to make it to a NW con soon...
Hi, Bandit... you should come up for VCON. We don't make Norwescon very often, but we will be there this year! Hope to see you soon.
Lack of funds - been some lean times. Fond memories of many VCONs. We will see... Please tell folks there I say hello!
Been there, done that! Will do!
WOW! Right about 30 minutes Bob lights it up! Challenges the crowd! Outstanding speech!
Thank you very much for posting this including the introduction which is wonderful as well. The point here is to get a feeling for the entire evening, the culture, the whole vibe of the time and this group, including hearing this speech from someone who has affected us so much. It doesn't matter if every part is perfect, it doesn't matter if everything said is a hundred percent politically correct. These things do not matter, folks. We have to get over this. This is a great gift coming to us to help us connect with people who have changed our world and contributed to humanity. Heinlein has given us so many lessons that we need to pay attention to right now. He gave us plenty of advance time to take these lessons into account. Let's hope we can grok what matters.
Glad you enjoyed it!
"Presently you'll find I'm right.."
Yep. He is.
He sounds exactly like I would have thought he would sound.
I was 13 and had read Stranger in a Strange Land more times than I can count, and most of his other works. He wrote a good tale, and had more of an impact on my writing style than any other writer. I do not agree with his views on religion and some other subjects, but his ideas are worth pondering, some good, some bad, never boring.
Thanks for putting this out, and to @Jeff Schalles for preserving it. As a lifelong fan, It is a bit hard hard to connect the Heinlein in literature with this presentation. It seems certain that the Cartoid blockage that almost killed him in 1978, was in play on his health in 1976 and affected his content and presentation at the Con. Seven years earlier, the interview with the Apollo moon landing it is better but it is clear he was not a great live talent. But his reading on "This I Believe" recording, from 1952, is excellent. Importantly, on This I Believe he is reading something he wrote there which was obviously his great talent. I doubt there is anything earlier than that to be found.
I never knew he stammered…like you say he wasn’t a public speaker, but oh what an author…we all have our genre. I couldn’t write a decent story to save my life, but music is my forte. And I can speak well.
Simultaneously brilliant and completely unhinged, like all the best
I just hope Hollywood never attempts to make Stranger in a Strange Land into a film
Lord knows Verhoeven already destroyed Starship Troopers.
Jason Carswell someone doesn’t understand Parody and Satire
He was m spiritual papa.... Thank you, Papa...
I was 11, then, and reading the first Heinlein novel that I'd found in the library stacks.
I'm 60 and have read everything he has written (some multiple times) barring the short stories in Boys Life. I'm hoping for a compendium of those.
thanks for the upload, i really grok this speech. thou art god
Surely this has been thought, before. "Freedom. Honor. Peace. Pick two."
I have read so many of his books. First time I have heard his voice.
Awesome. You can have peace or you can have freedom....
No truer words have ever been spoken.
He is one of two very different authors who's work led to the modern libertarian movement, the other was Ayn Rand. Heinlein was so much funnier.
by dozens of parsex !!!
I stumbled into The Red Planet in 1970 and been a big fan ever since. That book was over 20 years old even then.
I was at this convention! It was great and I got to meet him by donating my blood. I’ve always been anemic, but begged and convinced the nurse to let me donate!
I donated at Suncon for the same reason.
7:38
8:26
9:16
10:13 Robert Lewis Stephenson, H.G. Wells
10:45 1st time Robert A Heinlein spoke as a guest of honor.
11:53 1941 Robert Heinlein Prediction: America is getting into war. 🇺🇸 💥
17:07 “Anyone who thinks science fiction can be written without science deserves to go and room with the person who thinks that historical novels can be written without a knowledge of history.”
17:30 "But it also has to be fiction, it has to be a story."
*(Funny) Stories*
18:01 "Jenny and I have been in a sort of a rush for sometime now."
19:44 21 Years Old before he had his 1st birthday.
21:33 Tazmania To Pearl Harbor, stopped in New Caledonia.
22:23 "What day are we crossing The Date Line?" April 22nd.
23:17 A Man Simultaneously Married To Both of His Grandmothers.
*Fighting*
24:04 1941, 1961, Predicting War.
24:36 The Bi-Centennial of This Republic, The United States of America.
- We have been fighting in 199 of those years.
25:20 Only 1 Year of Nominal Peace.
25:44 The Human Race Thrives On Trouble. We're Built For It. We're Going Out To The Stars.
29:43 Peace and Freedom. Peace and Freedom.
30:38 The Only Peace That A Man Who Won't Fights Will Get Is The Peace of The Grave.
31:07 To Fight In Defense of Women and Children.
31:36 2 Choices:
(1) To Not Fight and Die
(2) To Fight and Die.
31:56 Robert, There are always survivors. That is how the Human Race Develops.
32:36 "The Cowards Never Started, and The Weaklings Died On The Way."
34:27 "We have the most modern of electronic devices housed in things that are little better than masonary tents."
34:44 Goodnight.
35:31 "Since Mr Tucker has decided he will say no more, he will say no more. Goodnight and Thank You."
More classic sf by this man than anyone else, truly need to check him out for yourself
Never knew he stammered. Amazing how his mind worked anyway!
He probably stammered due to the rate at which thoughts flowed thru his mind. By the time his mouth was uttering one thought, a few more were already passing thru his mind. The stammering being a result of his mouth losing it's place in the thoughts & having to momentarily backtrack thru his mind to find where it left off. Basically, his mouth couldn't keep up with his mind.
Tex, that's completely sensible. Good post!
Alonzo - the truth is, Robert Heinlein was suffering from blocked carotid arteries at the time and apparently no one had diagnosed it yet. That was why his speech was so stilted. Later on he was operated on to clear the blockage, and he then came back strong enough to write several more novels.
great stuff. thx for posting.
Liked his stories. Started reading his books about 1960 --- I was in grammar school. It took me a few years to figure out where he got his ideas for his interesting heroes and heroins, but I think that they strongly resemble the Greek Heroes like in the Iliad and the Odyssey. That's my take away anyway.
Ginny.
It's interesting to me that this was clearly shot on video. I'm pretty sure it predates consumer video; I wonder how the taping was arranged.
Scott Imes worked for one of the bigger Minneapolis AV rental places then (name something like Blumberg Photo Sound). MAC rented from them and Scott trucked it down to Kansas City. Plus, as I remember it, Scott had a deal that he could take anything not rented over the weekend to use at SF conventions; I was in picking stuff up with him before Minicon the year before MAC. So, anyway, yeah, not consumer equipment, and rather a lot of it. Everything from the classic Sony 1/2" reel-to-reel B&W portapack, which was used for the mobile work, to various EIAJ B&W and color decks, to some 3/4" UMatic color equipment, and some rather good color cameras.
We had originally intended to run some things live on the hotel TV system, but the coax up to the antenna head on the roof may have been too long to work well ("may have" because locating a playback deck up there didn't work all THAT much better). That's why we're stringing coax up to the roof in the setup video that I think is on here somewhere.
Those good color cameras caused some of our problems -- we sent them to the more important events, and sometimes those events weren't really lit well enough for them (1976 video needing rather more light than 2018 video, of course!).
The equipment is also a good part of why so little of this has been seen much until lately. None of us really had equipment to *do* anything with it. Of course, if we had, we might have nothing but horrid nth-generation dupes left by now.
(I worked on the original project in 1976, and did most of the restoration digital editing work rather more recently.)
I think around this time RH had a blockage in the arteries to his brain that was eventually fixed by surgery.
It was. 1976 is when I first read him, and was sad to see that he hadn't published in years. And it would be three more years before he'd publish again.
@@bnic9471
I seem to remember reading about a surgical operation to re-route scalp artery blood to the brain of people who had arterial blockages. I think it was in Scientific American, and the case they described was Heinlein. Apparently it invigorated his brain and brought him back to health. It was so long ago I forgot the details.
@@justgivemethetruth Right you are. Heinlein also detailed it in "Spinoff," in his _Expanded Universe_ collection. I think he also spoke to a congressional committee about how telemetry and other medical innovations that helped him out had sprung from NASA programs.
We will indeed go to the stars, and the Gods of the Copybook Headings will follow us there too. I hope we will learn our lesson and pay them better attention than we have been.
There's no doubt that Heinlein was also a fan of Kipling.
Wow. 7:47 and Bob's on stage.
This is good, thanks for posting.
I met him at that convention, but I never heard the speech.
I was there!
TNSTAAFL This is free but it's no lunch
He sounds kinda like John Wayne
Excellent. Thanks! BTW, who was the woman at the end?
That was author Pat Cadigan, who was new to the field at that time.
Heinlein actually appears at about 7:40
"I learned that science fiction was a junk drawer, and that my work belonged in it."
-Kurt Vonnegut
Great Author
I've been a Heinlein fan for 60 years but I had no idea he was a stutterer.
Goodness. Not the performance I would have expected from the man who wrote the books that bear his name.
The MC is rocking just about the best damned suit I have ever seen.
Tuxedos were so bu-fu in the mid-1970s. At least Heinlein wore a classic.
Starship troopers the only big film. Stranger in a Strange Land awesome to read, difficult to imagine as a film.
Starship Troopers was a terrible adaptation, by someone who did not even read the novel.
I just came here to learn the definitive way to pronounce his last name!
I was half way through my 17th birthday when I found out he had died, worst birthday ever!!!☹
came here to figure out how to pronounce his name. still don’t know because the presenter pronounces it two different ways but i’m assuming the second way was correct because he must have gotten correct. soo hine-lin, right? not hine-line?
also we’re the people at the beginning laughing because he pronounced it wrong? that would be pretty funny and embarrassing
I've always said Hine-line.
@@davidalaimo2300 I thought they were laughing because he said Robert Silverberg instead of Robert Heinlein.
a great american
Not bad for a guy who had almost enough demerits as a First Classman at USNA to get shipped.
Forty seconds of tedious titles, followed by slow-talking intro. Whew. When do we get to enjoy Bob's speech? Guess I'll skip forward past the boredom.
Not long after this he needed brain surgery. Had a stroke, they sorted him out.
He'd had a blockage of the left internal carotid artery and needed a fairly state-of-the-art carotid bypass in 1979, which he documented in "Spinoff."
I love RAH!
До чего красиво великий писатель поясняет безумным левакам.
А кто такие леваки? Либерасты?
Wow
29:37
Was Mr. Heinlein very shy man? He sounds as if he is reciting from memory. he also seems very stiff and wooden. Not a judgment. I hope it's not offensive to ask if he had a neurological problem?
He battled stammering.
Bud - yes, the stammering was part of it. But, mainly, in 1976, he suffered from undiagnosed blocked carotid arteries, slowing him down and badly affecting his speech... and memories. Fairly soon after this he was operated on to clear the blockages and came back strong enough to write several more novels.
Well, he was an officer in the army when he was younger, so he can't have been that shy.
@@Langkowski He was a graduate of the Naval Academy.
@@Langkowski not the army. He was a naval officer.
He talks like he writes. 🤩🤩🥰
wonder how his generation would react to super wealthy lobbying for space tourism with more money than rationality/decency. so much expectation, optimism. still a great speech.
He'd think it was fantastic.
@@docastrov9013 sure thing spurt :)
He would approve. Tell me you haven't read Heinlein without telling me that you haven't read Heinlein.
There would be no Trekkies without Heinlein laying fundamentals but remember what Jeannette Ngo had to say about how Heinlein under pen name Anson Macdonald wrote Popular Politically Correct WWII racist propaganda published in 1941 "Astounding".
American culture and discourse were so much better before the woke infestation. Heinlein would be a non-person in the current SF scene.
ironic considering his attention to details like including different gender and ethnicity/cultural origins in his characters. you're no eagle, you're barely a pigeon.
the introduction was far worse than his speech. ironic that the CHORF types act like he was being a boor .
That has got to be the ugliest tux I got married in a blue one just like it he was an omen I didn't take
I choose to say "Sir, you are a goofball"!!!
Where did you get that god awful highschool prom suit!?!
It was the '70s and Bob Tucker was just a Midwest farm boy at heart. He also introduced humor to fandom in the 1930s. Before he came along, writing humorous pieces for the mimeographed fanzines of the era, science fiction fan boys were very proper, they all are wearing suits and ties in the photos they left behind. They mostly wrote book reviews and very bad "fan fiction." I think there were, maybe, about three women altogether in fandom at the time...
@@jeffschalles8895 Nah - I was dating one at the time and was there with a group from MinnSTF that had probably 10 women in the group.
It was 1976. Fashions sucked, you had to be around then to realize just how bad.