We have been going to the thon for several years now, but I am wondering where some of the traditions started as they all predate us. 

Single clap per credit
Mark
Wheat Chex/Rice Chex
fireball
Duck Dodgers
others?

BrianInNH wrote on Dec 30^th, 2020 at 11:19am:

We have been going to the thon for several years now, but I am wondering where some of the traditions started as they all predate us.  Single clap per credit Mark Wheat Chex/Rice Chex fireball Duck Dodgers others?

I'll give it a quick go:

Single Clap began spontaneously around SF/30

MARK! Began at the Orson Welles when folks during it's screening at SF/3 notice how many times the name "Mark" was used on screen. The commander (Barry Sullivan) was named Mark Markary in the U.S. dub

Wheat Chex/Rice Chex began at SF/13 when episodes of Space Patrol were shown, complete with Chex ads

Fireball - not sure when this began. Anybody?

Duck Dodgers - not sure when this began, either. I know it showed at least once during the Orson Welles days, but, it wasn't until the SF/teen years that it became a tradition

L.A. Connection wrote on Dec 31^st, 2020 at 4:31pm:

I'll give it a quick go: Single Clap began spontaneously around SF/30

Although I have no proof of what I'm about to assert, my Columbus cohorts and I might have been responsible for the single clap tradition. It's been a hallmark of the Case Western Reserve University 24-Hour Science Fiction Marathon in Cleveland for years, and as longtime attendees of that shindig, we decided to give it a whirl in Boston, probably around the time of SF30. The subsequent adoption of it as a new tradition seems to confirm this, but who knows?

Joe Neff wrote on Jan 1^st, 2021 at 2:41pm:

L.A. Connection wrote on Dec 31st, 2020 at 4:31pm: I'll give it a quick go: Single Clap began spontaneously around SF/30 Although I have no proof of what I'm about to assert, my Columbus cohorts and I might have been responsible for the single clap tradition. It's been a hallmark of the Case Western Reserve University 24-Hour Science Fiction Marathon in Cleveland for years, and as longtime attendees of that shindig, we decided to give it a whirl in Boston, probably around the time of SF30. The subsequent adoption of it as a new tradition seems to confirm this, but who knows?

Better than my guess! I do know it was just before SF/30 because our guest at that year's thon, Chris Coppola, remarked about how cool and "european" it was of us to do so.

There was a short lived tradition, started at sf 10, of reading any written narrative. That was when a series was shown.

Thanks!  I think that we started at SF32, so the clap one must not predate us by much.

Been looking for an answer for years and years. Anybody have an idea of when Duck Dodgers became an annual kickoff film??

L.A. Connection wrote on Dec 31^st, 2020 at 4:31pm:

Single Clap began spontaneously around SF/30

Really? I might be under the Mandela Effect here but I coulda sworn we were single clapping for several years on the Starship Coolidge. It had been explained to me as "so that everybody gets applause". I'll ask my friends who attended SF/24 and /25 if they remember any of that.

Spatch from the balcony wrote on Jan 27^th, 2021 at 4:35pm:

L.A. Connection wrote on Dec 31st, 2020 at 4:31pm: Single Clap began spontaneously around SF/30 Really? I might be under the Mandela Effect here but I coulda sworn we were single clapping for several years on the Starship Coolidge. It had been explained to me as "so that everybody gets applause". I'll ask my friends who attended SF/24 and /25 if they remember any of that.

I remember that the single clap was already well established by sf 24. How much earlier I don’t remember.

Lile wrote on Jan 28^th, 2021 at 12:06am:

Spatch from the balcony wrote on Jan 27th, 2021 at 4:35pm: L.A. Connection wrote on Dec 31st, 2020 at 4:31pm: Single Clap began spontaneously around SF/30 Really? I might be under the Mandela Effect here but I coulda sworn we were single clapping for several years on the Starship Coolidge. It had been explained to me as "so that everybody gets applause". I'll ask my friends who attended SF/24 and /25 if they remember any of that. I remember that the single clap was already well established by sf 24. How much earlier I don’t remember.

Wait wait! I take back my earlier assertion. My Columbus cohorts and I actually adopted the single clap tradition after experiencing it in Boston for the first time in 1999, then inadvertently brought it to the CWRU Marathon in Cleveland, where it seems to have stuck ever since. Man, the havoc that too many years of space-time continuum warpage can do on one's memory...

Joe Neff wrote on Jan 28^th, 2021 at 1:10am:

Man, the havoc that too many years of space-time continuum warpage can do on one's memory...

     None of which alters the fact that it's really annoying.....   ;)