quarters city of Los Angeles. It was held at the little national office at 325 Belmont Street on May 14-15. Speakers were Chairman Ken Burns who moderated a penel program on which members of the Board of Directors appeared. About 40 persons were in attendance. Of great interest at this conference was the new Mattachine REVIEW, with its third issue out and on display at the meeting. Looking back, it is hard to conceive that such a small group (national membership was about 75) could have so much business to transact, but it did: the intensity was often emotional as organizational conflicts came out for solution. Highlight of this meeting was the annual Awards Banquet at the Nikabob restaurant, at which Sidney Wachs, deputy probation of ficer, Los Angeles Probation Department, spoke about his work with homosexuals on probation. He encouraged the audience when he said that homosexuals as a group probably accounted for fewer probationary problems, once they got jobs for themselves again, than other groups such as those convicted of theft and assault. Harold Call, publications director, was named Member of the Year. Kennith Burns who hoped he wouldn't be re-elected chairman, and James (Barr) Fugate, author of Quatrefoil, were named to honorary membership.› Award of Merit that year went to SEXOLOGY Magazine, New York.

Next year, 1956, saw the Third Annual Convention assume a format similar to that it has followed since. Held on May 11-13 in Hotel Bellevue, San Francisco, a full day's program was devoted to hearing speakers outside the organization bring informative messages to the almost 50 dedicated members and interested friends present. Theme was "Survey of the Homophile Problem-1956." Don Slater, of One, Inc., Los Angeles, addressed the morning session on "The Homophilic Press." Kenneth Zwerin, attorney, San Fran cisco, entertained the luncheon guests with a sparkling-yet deadly serious -commentary on the law as it applied to homosexuals. In the afternoon, Basil D. Vaerlen, research director, introduced a panel of speakers on the main theme. Included were: Mrs. Rhoda Kellogg, child psychologist, San Francisco, "Sex Conditioning for Pre-School Children"; Daniel Lieberman, M.D. superintendent, Mendocino State Hospital, Mendocino, Calif., "When Does the Homophile Need Psychiatric Treament?"; Robert Flippen, parole counselor, San Quentin Prison, "The Homophile in State Prisons," and Her bert E. Selwyn, attorney, Los Angeles, "The Homosexual and the Law." At 'the evening Awards Banquet, the speaker was Robert S. Rood, M.D., and superintendent, Atascadero (Calif.) State Hospital, who spoke on "Rehabilitation of the Sex Offender in California." Awards in 1956 went to: Donald S. Lucas, Member of the Year; Merit citation to Moral Welfare Council, Church of England, London; American Law Institute, Philadelphia, and posthumously to Dr. Robert Lindner of Baltimore. The last-named, a brilliant young psychologist who died in February 1956, was author of Rebel Without a Cause, mattachine REVIEW

Fifty-MinuteHour and Must You Conform. Charters were granted to New York chapters this year.

Three events unforeseen at the 1956 convention were to be marked before the Fourth Annual Convention. In August 1956 Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey died suddenly in Indiana. At the beginning of 1957, national headquarters of the Society were moved to San Francisco. And in May of that year, full time office operation for the Society began.

Hotel Sheraton-Palace, San Francisco, was the scene of the 1957 convention, moved to its present permanent date-Labor Day weekend. Issued just prior to the event (August 30-September 2) was an 84-page edition of the REVIEW. Ken Zwerin was featured luncheon speaker. On the theme topic, "Must the Individual Homosexual be Rejected in Our Time?" Sam Morford, research director, moderated a panel program which featured Alfred Auerback, M.D., San Francisco, chairman of the Committee on Mental Health, California Medical Association, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Califórnia; William A. Baker and Julia W. Coleman, Master Social Workers, San Carlos; Harry Benjamin, M.D.; New York and San Francisco, Endocrinologist and Sexologist, and Leo J. Zeff, Clinical Psycholo gist, Berkeley.

Evening banquet speaker was David Schmidt, M.D., chief psychiatrist at San Quentin Prison. Member of the Year was Tony Segura, New York. Awards of Merit were issued to writer Luther Allen of Baltimore; The LADDER, magazine of Daughters of Bilitis, Inc., and Cultuur en Ontspanningscentrum, Dutch Homophile organization, Amsterdam.

The growing New York Area Council was host to the 1958 annual confer ence, August 29-September 1. For it space was arranged on the 30th floor of the Barbizon-Plaza, with other sessions scheduled for the Society's offices at 1183 Avenue of the Americas. Chairman Joseph McCarthy presided at the opening session, where once again Ken Zwerin spoke to outline a "Legal Blueprint for the Future." Rev. C. Edward Egan, Jr., pastor of a suburban Methodist church, told about "The Religious Homosexual" at the luncheon. Four speakers made up the afternoon program, introduced by Miss Fannie Hurst, the American novelist who has had a lifelong interest in bring ing social issues to the light for rational examination and solution. Donald Webster Cory, author of The Homosexual in America, spoke on "Ten Years Later: Changes in My Points of View." Theodore S. Weiss, M.D., chief psychiatrist, Bellevue Hospital, told "The Role of the Psychiatrist." Rev. Roy Hooper of San Francisco discussed national office procedures in operations of the Mattachine Society.

Evening address at the Fifth Annual Awards Banquet was made by Judge Morris Ploscowe, attorney and former magistrate, and author of Sex and the

Law.

. 13