Friday, December 19, 2008

Steve Jobs didn't make the first Macworld, either:

Steve Jobs didn't show up to the first Macworld Expo, which was held in San Francisco in January 1985, one year after the introduction of the Macintosh. He was in the city, but he spent most of his time holed-up at the Union Square Hyatt Hotel with his strikingly beautiful blond girlfriend, whom I only knew as Tina. I know this because Jobs and Tina came to the Macworld magazine dinner party I put together at the Sutter 500 restaurant to celebrate the success of the first expo, and of the first year of the Mac itself.

There were about 20 of us at the dinner, including the late, great Chronicle columnist Herb Caen; Will Hearst, then editor and publisher of the competing San Francisco Examiner; John Sculley, CEO of Apple; John Warnock, founder of the software company Adobe; and Ted Leonsis, the AOL executive, who these days owns the Washington Wizards basketball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team. While everyone else at the dinner wore formal or business attire, Jobs and Tina arrived in blue jeans and T-shirts. Tina was barefoot. They showed up shortly after we had all sat down at a long table. I was at the head, Caen was to my right, Hearst to my left. Everyone on the right side had to move down to make room for Jobs, who sat between Caen and me. Tina sat on Jobs' lap.