>>> Interesting, I've never heard of this
show before now.
On Wed, 3 Aug 2005, 'Computer Collector Newsletter' wrote:
The West Coast Computer Faire is a real part of
computer history! It was
the predecessor to Comdex (LOL, which is also now part of computer history
after shutting down a couple of years ago.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Computer_Faire
WRONG! WRONG!
AMATEUR, INACCURATE SOURCE.
That says that Comdex was a renaming/transformation of WCCF.
THAT IS FALSE.
Comdex started independently of WCCF in about 1981? (first that I went to
(NOT the first one, it was already bigger than NCC) was 1983), and for
about 10 years they were in active competition, with both getting
larger and larger, and then WCCF stopped growing, but Comdex continued to
get bigger for a while. WCCF was a dim remnant of its former glory when
Interface Group (Comdex) finally bought it and killed it.
I may very well be misrecollecting McGraw Hill v Prentice Hall. But
Shelley Adelson was NOT EITHER. He owned the Sands, and built the
Bellagio. He owned Comdex, and had the power to prevent exhibitors from
renting meeting rooms anywhere in town, or sometimes even suites, without
going through him. One taxi driver in Vegas said, "the reason there's no
mafia in town any more is cause they're scared of Adelson" :-)
In 1988? there was a trivial news story about some Interface Group
execs who went to a "gentlemen's club", bought the "special bottle of
wine", and didn't get laid; the place burned down the next day.
Also, the 8th WCCF (1983) was NOT the last one. Maybe the last GOOD one.
It continued to about 13th!
In 1986, I started to exhibit at Comdex, and for quite a few years
was exhibiting at BOTH.
BTW, I have some Comdex show directories if anybody collects them.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at
xenosoft.com