as reported by Bruce Apar > dvdj@dvdj.info

In the days of vaudeville, they'd say of lifelong performers that they were "born in a trunk." Well, my professional life was born in a CES (Consumer Electronics Show). Several weeks after being graduated from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, I landed my first job, assistant editor of Hi-Fi Trade News. After telling me I was hired, the editor-in-chief, J. Bryan Stanton, told me to meet him at the airport the following Monday.

Thus was my very first day of work as an adult -- my first week of work, in fact -- spent at the Chicago CES in June 1973. That's right -- those were they halcyon days when there were not one but two -- count 'em -- two CE Shows each year, and both were in the Windy City. It literally was baptism by fire for me, just as the two shows were tests of fire and ice for exhibitors and attendees because the Chicago Junes can be sweltering and the Januarys are positively Arctic. 

NOTES FROM (and about) CES 2006

as reported by Bruce Apar > dvdj@dvdj.info

In the days of vaudeville, they'd say of lifelong performers that they were "born in a trunk." Well, my professional life was born in a CES (Consumer Electronics Show). Several weeks after being graduated from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, I landed my first job, assistant editor of Hi-Fi Trade News. After telling me I was hired, the editor-in-chief, J. Bryan Stanton, told me to meet him at the airport the following Monday.

Thus was my very first day of work as an adult -- my first week of work, in fact -- spent at the Chicago CES in June 1973. That's right -- those were they halcyon days when there were not one but two -- count 'em -- two CE Shows each year, and both were in the Windy City. It literally was baptism by fire for me, just as the two shows were tests of fire and ice for exhibitors and attendees because the Chicago Junes can be sweltering and the Januarys are positively Arctic.

y baptism was skulking around Michigan Avenue and environs in search of  electric fans! Funny, I thought, but are fans really regarded as "consumer electronics"? No, they weren't, but the lakeside Conrad Hilton suite that was our workroom where we produced a show daily had no AC, and Chitown was suffering through a wicked heat wave. Instead of a workroom, we were editing in a sauna. Suite. The good news is the Hilton didn't charge any extra for that amenity. But darn, why did I have to be sick the day they taught "How to Buy A Fan" at journalism school.

 First, under understandable pressure from the heavyweight exhibitors, CE Showman Extraordinaire Jack Wayman led the wagon train -- gravy train, that is -- west to Vegas for the January show, then the June show, then the June show melted into the desert.

 I also recall fondly when McCarran Airport was more comparable to Burbank Airport than to LAX. It was pretty much a shack in the early Vegas days of CES and the years they were building the American terminal were lots of fun, with a prefab terminal to navigate and losing luggage was as certain as losing at the tables.

But perhaps the singular image in my memory bank that best illustrates how this show has become a bustling metropolis where once it was a quaint hamlet is from the 1980s, when the original rotunda (now memorialized by the arch motif that distinguishes the façade of the Las Vegas Convention Center’s grand lobby entrance) was the home of the University of Las Vegas Nevada Runnin’ Rebels nationally-ranked basketball team under irrepressible coach Jerry Tarkanian.

I’d take a break from the show floor by walking over across the hall to the gymnasium, planting myself in the empty stands, and watch the Rebels practice in the cavernous rotunda, right there in the Convention Center where the CES was being held. My, how you’ve grown.

I can't wait to get to my 33rd year of CES, which promises to be one of the most momentous and cacophonous yet. I'll be seeing you on the home page ...