The First Macworld Expo

Steve Jobs Didn’t Make This One Either

By David Bunnell
Founder of Macworld Magazine & Macworld Expo

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 all
right, but he spent most of his time holed up at the Union Square Hyatt Hotel with his
strikingly beautiful blond girlfriend at the time, who I only knew as “Tina.” I know this
because Steve 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 the first year of the
Mac itself.

There were about 20 of us at the dinner including the late great San Francisco Chronicle
columnist Herb Caen; Will Hearst, then Editor and Publisher of the competing San
Francisco Examiner; John Scully, CEO of Apple; John Warnock, founder of the software
company Adobe; and Ted Leonsis, the AOL Executive who these days owns the
Washington Wizards NBA team and the Washington Capitals, an NHL hockey team.

While everyone else at the dinner wore formal or business attire, Steve and Tina arrived
in blue jeans and T-shirts. Tina was barefoot. They showed themselves shortly after we
had all sat down at a long table. I was at the head of the table, Herb was to my right and
Will to my left. Everyone on the right side move down to make room for Steve who sat
between Herb and myself. Tina sat on Steve’s lap.

Steve had no idea who Herb Caen was, much less the tremendous clout he had with
hundreds of thousands of Bay Area followers who religiously read his “Baghdad by the
Bay” daily columns. One mention in one of Herb’s “three dot” columns could make or
break your social life or even your career. So, I introduced Steve to Herb.

Herb said, “It’s a great pleasure to meet you at last,” and Steve’s only reply was, “how
come the Chronicle is such a bad newspaper.”

“It used to be a good paper,” Herb said with a twinkle in his eyes. “Why, what would you
consider a good newspaper?”

This certainly got Will Hearst attention. “Hopefully, the Examiner,” he laughed.

“I only read the San Jose Mercury,” Steve said. “it covers the greatest industry in the
Universe like no one else.”

“But Steve,” Will interjected, “The Mercury is in Silicon Valley so of course they cover
technology more.”

About this time, Chef Herbert Keller, who has since gone on to great fame at Fleur de Le,
appeared from the kitchen. I had tipped him off earlier that Steve Jobs was a vegan and
would not be eating the lamb chops or the wild salmon. He was thrilled though to have
Steve in his restaurant and wanted to make sure he was happy. They collaborated on
menu items, which turned out to be a large plate of raw vegetables that Steve and Tina
shared, plus two glasses of apple juice.

The conversation settled down to the usual social chatter you would expect at such a
dinner with the exception of a few exchanges between Steve and Tina having something
to do with the sexual acrobats they were engaged in Steve’s suite back at the Hyatt. “Did
you like what I did for you this afternoon,” Tina said a one points and Steve’s only
response was to smile. I remember this well because my imagination conjured up a few
very vivid images, which make me very jealous.

John Scully was totally jazzed about the Expo. It success proved to him and anyone else
who cared that Apple users were totally devoted to the company and to the Macintosh. To
many of them, Apple wasn’t merely a computer company; it was a more like a spiritual
reality. As there weren’t yet that many products available for the Mac, the show itself
was confined to half the floor space at the Moscone Center—the other half was occupied
by a boat show. Just over 10,000 people from every state in the Union and several
foreign countries paid to attend, roughly double what we had expected.

John encouraged Steve to make an appearance. “You should really check it out Steve,”
he pleaded.

“Sure, sure, OK,” Steve replied, “maybe tomorrow.”

Later on, Scully confided to me and to my partner, Bart Rhoades, that the first Macworld
Expo had “saved Apple.” He complained that Steve Jobs and his team were so burned
out from the tremendous effort they put into getting the Mac out of the door in time for its
introduction that they had accomplished virtually nothing since. Users were clamoring
for more memory, a hard drive, a faster boot-up, color monitor, and other enhancements.

Macintosh sales had started off with a bang, thanks to the 1984 Super Bowl commercial
and to the Mac’s ease of use and graphic capabilities, but by 1985 they had slowed
considerably. The stunning success of the first Macworld Expo energized not just the
Apple user base but Apple employees as well. Jobs may have been camping out with
Tina, but the other Apple folks were at the Expo listening to their customers and when
they left they had a renewed sense of urgency.

I often wonder if Steve Jobs had bothered to show up at the first Macworld Expo if he too
might have regained his focus. Instead of buckling down to the task at hand, however,
Steve got into a power struggle with Scully and by the end of May he was sacked as the
leader of the Mac division. He left the company in a huff. The first Macworld Expo he
actually attended was in 1997, shortly after his return to Apple.