1999 National Show Report
by Carol McDougald
Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", August 1999, page 17
As predicted, the weather at the end of June is always HOT, HOT, HOT in
Scottsdale, Arizona. Also, as predicted, the insulator hobby was treated to a
HOT, HOT, HOT national show. Hosts Steve and Melanie Marks anticipated every
aspect of the three day convention. Their superb planning was evident
throughout. The show hall was large and very well lighted and did justice to the
130 sales tables and 20 displays which greeted the attendees.
National Show Hosts Melanie and Steve Marks
Scottsdale's DoubleTree Resort was grand, and it became very clear early in
the weekend that the Marks had established a working, personal relationship with
every staff person so that they would make the convention and those in
attendance their top priority. When Melanie or Steve would make a request, it
was answered immediately and courteously by the DoubleTree staff.
Members of the
Grand Canyon State Insulator Club were very evident in helping to get the sales
tables and displays set up, manning of the admissions tables and just being
present to assist in any way they could during the weekend. Everything ran like
clockwork.
Closing the door to Crown Jewels of the Wire operations two weeks
prior to the show afforded us a leisurely trip across the heartland of America.
We began our journey at the Tama/Toledo, Iowa swap meet on June 12th, visited
friends and collectors along the way, and spent several days relaxing in Sedona,
Arizona.
We arrived at the national show site by noon on Thursday, so that John
could participate in the NIA Board meeting. I was commissioned to pick up a
small insulator collection in Scottsdale, just minutes from the show site.
Collector friends from 25 years ago in Ohio had moved their collection with them
when they retired in Arizona 10 years ago. Our good fortune was that we didn't
have to transport a lot of insulators with us knowing we would be picking up a
collection so close to the show site. Imagine, just 20 minutes from the show
site, a collection was available the day before the start of the show. That left
room for the 18 boxes we transported for other dealers and displayers from the
east who were flying to the show.
It has been several years since we attended a
professional baseball game, so when the offer of tickets for the Diamondbacks
vs. Cardinals game on Thursday evening was extended, John and I gladly accepted.
The stadium, complete with air-conditioning and great ballpark hotdogs, was
filled to capacity and we had the chance to see the Diamondbacks win as well as
St. Louis's Mark MacGuirre hit his 23rd
home run accompanied by a barrage of
camera flashes.
Friday morning was an early start for everyone. Displayers and
those with sales tables could begin setup at 6:00 a.m. By 9:00 a.m. everything
was in readiness for the opening of the show. Buyers were HOT, HOT, HOT....Sales
were HOT, HOT, HOT....Displays were HOT, HOT, HOT! The comment was made over and
over that those attending were serious collectors (not just "tire-kickers") who
wanted to learn as much as they could about the hobby during their stay at the
show.
I was personally amazed at the distances people had traveled
to attend
the show. It had been well publicized the number of sales tables and displays
that one could expect, but the unknown of every show is the number of people who
just come through the doors. And, Scottsdale is not at the central core for a
large number of collectors. But, people DID attend. From Washington, Idaho and
Oregon they came. From Alaska, California, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Colorado and
New Mexico they came. From Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas they came.
I guess I would have expected that the western half of the United States would
be most likely to attend the show, but I was DELIGHTED at the number of people
who traveled from east of the Mississippi. A large group of members from the
Chesapeake Bay Insulator Club (1998 show host club) and the Greater Chicago
Insulator Club (1997 show host club) representing Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan,
Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Delaware. Collectors
came from the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Alabama as well as
members of the newest insulator club, the Oklahoma Signals. And the northeastern
states of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey were also
represented. Nearly 400 paid admissions were received during the three day
event.
Most color-filled table at the show belonged to Butch and Eloise Haltman of
Cathedral City, California. Rows of 7-up green, purple, white milkglass, cobalt,
peacock and carnival glass greeted those looking to add a special insulator.
Following the NIA General Meeting after show hours on Friday afternoon,
nearly 100 convention-goers traveled north along Scottsdale Boulevard to
RAWHIDE-Western Town and Steakhouse. Admission was free and the "fun"
expensive for those who dared to outwit or outbid the house card shark while we
waited for a table at the steakhouse. John and I tried, but, as usual, the
"house won." Thank goodness we played with bogus money!
Our table
included Bennie Helen and Carl Rusk, and we were entertained with some pretty
fancy dance moves when this handsome Texan couple took the dance floor. One
little six-year-old girl kept cutting in on Bennie Helen to have a chance to
dance with "the silver fox with the ten-gallon hat from Robert Lee,
Texas."
North Western Region Insulator Club Gang at Rawhide.
Part of the gunsmoke and native American theme attractions are the various
melodramas that are played out nightly in the streets of Rawhide. Several
collectors were caught up in the fun of the evening. Terry Kornberg (Andover,
Minnesota) was jailed as other "gang members", Bob Stahr (St. John,
Indiana), Ed Peters (Savage, Minnesota -- "Savage"--now, that's a
clever town name for the Rawhide scene) and Rick Soller (Gurnee, Illinois)
watched helplessly.
The "Lawless-One" jailed and hung.
National Insulator Association President," Kevin Lawless, was arrested
and thrown into the Rawhide Jail for being "lawless" -- and since bail
was not produced by his friends, the hangman, Central Region Vice President Bob
Stahr, carried out Kevin's punishment.
Later in the evening, "Marshal Dick
Bowman", was found roaming the Rawhide streets -- clearly out of his
jurisdiction. He also was jailed, but since he is recovering from serious knee
surgery the jailor took pity on him. He only had to ride his horse (a palomino
on a broomstick) across the main street of town to the watering trough and back
to the jailhouse. The "Marshal" got lucky! I wondered if the jailor
would do the same thing to lawmen with bad knees as they do with horses that
come up lame!?!?
Saturday was a full day of HOT, HOT, HOT wheeling and dealing. Following the
close of the show hall at 4:00 p.m., participants were invited to attend an
educational seminar led by Mike Guthrie and Dwayne Anthony on altered, repaired
and fake insulators.
Mike Guthrie (Fresno, California), who authored Fake,
Altered and Repaired Insulators in 1988 has just completed a revision of the
handbook. Topics covered are the repairing of insulators, coatings to insulator
surfaces, color alteration, mechanically altered insulators, fabricated
insulators and facsimiles, as well as alternations to porcelain insulators. Its
content can currently be viewed on the Internet at:
http://www.insulators.com/fake/index.htm
Fake, Altered and Repaired Insulators
A non-competitive, educational display
by Mike Guthrie
"The purpose of the display was to expose collectors to the many types
of alterations and fabrications which have been achieved. One must take great
care not to assume that just because a piece has been in a collection for
decades that it is authentic. Many of the practices demonstrated in this display
have been traced back to the middle 1960's."
Altered Insulators
NIA Educational Exhibit presented by the
NIA Research and
Authentication Committee Research
by Dwayne Anthony
Dwayne Anthony (Highland, California) saw the need to establish some
educational materials to help the collector determine alterations in glass
insulators. He subjected dozens of insulator samples to both radiation and
thermal sources to duplicate many colors that have been suspected as
"highly questionable" in the hobby. His on-going trial and error
experiments have produced some startling results. The actual altered specimen
samples, along with the control sample "halves", have been organized
into a definitive display.
Through the NIA, this display can be shipped to local shows upon request. Additional information on
irradiated insulators and heat altered colors may be found on the Internet at:
http://www.nia.org/altered/index.htm
Borrowing examples from both of their educational displays, Mike and Dwayne
enlightened a large crowd of interested collectors in the Chambers auditorium.
An hour wasn't long enough to cover the many questions that arose during their
presentation.
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