Does anyone know when the first franchise OFFICIALLY formed, and which one it was?
I am not sure there is such thing as an Officially formed franchise . That would mean that Sony , Columbia Pictures and later on , Ghost Corps had rented / leased / or āgivenā some fan club the rights to use their Intellectual Property and trademarks / copyrights ā¦ to which as far as I know ā¦ they havenāt .
( Here is what I know , from my own personal experience . )
Back in the 80ās , after GB - the movie came out , there was a 'fan club ā and magazine subscription that you could buy ā¦ it came with a ācertificationā āsignedā by L. Tully .
Also in 84 , was a sticker book that also had a ācertificationā in the back .
That was about it .
Years later , I read on the internet , that Sony , as a promote for another GB movie , made a āfranchise requestā ā¦where people would contact them and get an āofficial certificationā . After an amount of time , Sony stopped the promo .
I am pretty sure that Sony and etc,etc,etc ā¦ never thought that in the years and years to come , that GB would have itās own ācult followingā , similar to Rocky Horror Picture Show / Star Trek / StarWars ā¦ where itās fans would dressup and do community events , like fund raisers , cancer research , children hospitals etc .
I do hope that Sony never sues the ā ā ā ā out of us ( fans ) . That would be a sad day .
As for āofficialā , i hear it tossed around by a few other fan-clubs once in awhile , along with ā Been around since 20whenever ā .
ā It is a sad tactic used , trying to establish dominance over other clubs .
I personally donāt like trying to play the āWho has the Bigger Walker Peckā game . Our first āfranchiseā was the same year after the movie was released . Iāve got 20 to 40 years on some of these āyoung whipper-snappersā . Second franchise was made because we wanted to go invade a local theater showing of Afterlife with other Ghostbusters fans ā¦ and could not find any actiove groups ā¦ so we made one .
Beyond that ā¦if anyone else has any GB history , we love to hear it .
Google has found these ::
https://ghostbusters.fandom.com/wiki/Official_Ghostbusters_Fan_Club_(1984)
The first Official Ghostbusters Fan Club was founded on July 3, 1984 by Mark Lister and Jim Garvey of Swissvale, Pennsylvania, who paid Columbia Pictures an estimated $10,000 for the right to operate an official fan club. The fan club operated domestically, as well as internationally. Applicants would send in their money and fill out a ghostbusting job application. There was no guaranteed acceptance, but no applicant was ever rejected - even Samantha, a dog who sent in her paw print as proof of her interest in Ghostbusters. For the $8.95 registration fee, members received the following
A personal membership card.
The official Ghostbusters metal badge.
A Certificate of Anti-Paranormal Proficiency, four āThis Property Protected by Ghostbustersā color stickers.
An Ectomobile sticker.
A Ghostbusters logo patch.
One-year subscription to the quarterly newsletter entitled The Official Trade Journal of Certified Ghostbusters.
Thereās the fan club stuff, sure, but I donāt know that any of that really led to much in the way of Cosplayers embracing the fandom. Fan Franchises definitely existed before the modern popularity and coining of the term Cosplay, I remember being a 13-14 year old wishing I could own my own proton pack in the early days of the internet and browsing through the OLD fan franchise websites. Some digging around on the Internet Archive got me to the old Proton Charging Links page circa 2000, and you can see thereās already nearly a dozen fan franchises linked to there. We know folks started cosplaying as Ghostbusters pretty much from Day 1, but as far as when they started grouping together and pooling their resources to build the groups we know and love today? Since the 90ās, at least, most likely shortly after the initial release, but anything from pre-internet would be hard to track down without actually knowing someone directly involved.
Plus, thereās the legendary Pete Mosen to consider. Idk if was solo or he started a club in the late 80s.
All the pictures Iāve seen Pete was completely solo, but I also wouldnāt call myself an expert on the subject. I reached out to Chris Stewart via Twitter and asked if he knows, but Twitter is literally the worst, so who knows if heāll actually see it or respond. Iāll definitely report back if I find anything down this particular rabbit hole though!
It mightāve been the early 2000s when we first started to see organised fans whoād get together and go out and do community events under a shared banner of a franchise, as opposed to general gatherings for things like Halloween (though Sean Bishop and friends could definitely be considered one of the earliest āproto-franchiseā). One of the first U.K.-based franchises (The GBUK Elite) were established by 2005/2006, and they attended an event where Ernie Hudson was signing autographs.
Certainly, by 2008/2009 there were plenty of groups who did events as organised franchisesā¦ Some of which even came together because of the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Ghostbusters International used to be one of the first pages to really feature the idea of real-world teams (it used to also feature fanfic teams, but the site administration opted to take things in a different direction circa 2004).
Cue the spooky music as I resurrect this very old thread.
Did I get back to you on Twitter? Iām afraid I donāt recall.
From my recollections, there were a couple of people that were prop building and costuming, the three that come to mind are Norm Gagnon (fan only), Peter Mosen (fan turned official rep), and a guy in a car magazine (I have a copy around here somewhere), who didnāt put a lot into the costume, but definitely has a first-claim on being a fan ecto.
As for franchises, they did start to form roughly at the same time and even with the internet, fans could be doing something in one place, but you wouldnāt know about it until later. The two that I remember as being the first two fan franchises to form were the Hawaii Ghostbusters and the San Diego Ghostbusters. Hawaii is also, as far as I recall, the first franchise to create a modified, regional logo.
You did! And said pretty much the same thing to me, albeit a little briefer. And then of course, I got sidetracked and never got back to researching this topic, lol.
Iād imagine it was the 501st that inspired āGB franchisingā and other cosplay charity groups, no? Maybe their history could shed some light.
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The 501st was first organised in 1997, according to Google.
After a bit of digging, I found the Middle Tennessee Ghostbusters on the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/19981205191005/http://www.belmont.edu/MTGB/main.html
āOffical franchise of Ghostbusters Inc. since 1992ā
Of course, the page capture itself is from 1998 so itās hard to verify whether they were actually around before the 501st in 1997. Wayback Machine doesnāt go back much further so itās going to be difficult to find anything before 1997.
Iāve got a feeling that the Bristol Ghostbusters are possibly the first British franchise, setting up in 2001, predating The UK Ghostbusters by at least 5 years. Fan clubs obviously existed before that, but fan clubs are rather different from full-on cosplay groups.
When the Bristol Ghostbusters founded, they created personas in-universe as opposed to now when people generally play either one of the OG characters or play themselves as a Ghostbuster. Bristol instead have characters like Samuel Thomas and Dr David Hugo (not their real names) and often still wear name patches with those characters on even today, 25 years later. Their gear at the time was mostly repainted Kenner stuff and packs made from foam/cardboard. Fibreglass shells very difficult to obtain in the UK back then. And of course weāre all spoilt for choice these days.