P3D NSA Green Bay

[Bill Davis <bd3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, here's a brief report on Green Bay:

Wow, what a great Convention!

Arrived in Green Bay Wednesday afternoon. Had met Dan Shelly waiting for 
the same plane out of Chicago and found that we were seated near to each 
other, I in seat 2D, he in 3D (how did he do that?).

Room-hopped for a while after check-in Wednesday, catching up with Mary Ann 
Sell on the latest news for the Buffalo Convention.  It is now confirmed 
that the first NSA Convention of the new millenium will be July 2001 at the 
Adams Mark Hotel in Buffalo NY!  Good news for me is that my good friend 
Marty Abramson is set to handle Chairman duties, freeing me up to do more 
of the behind-the-scenes activities.  More to come about NSA 2001 later...

Wednesday PM I hit the Happy Hour bar and spent an hour or so in the lounge 
area with Bill and Krys Walton and Tex Treadwell and his wife (whose name I 
have forgotton), talking about everything from photography to conventions 
to pony tails. :--)

Thursday AM I helped set up the Stereo Theatre chairs, screen and 
projection stands with a bunch of others, including Bob Armstrong, Leroy 
Barco, Ernst Lipps, Larry Haines, Wolfgang Sell and of course, the 
overworked John Roll.  Things went well, even without Bill Duggan's expert 
supervision (he was there in spirit).  Hopped some more rooms Thursday PM, 
then of course the Happy Hour, where I sat and chatted with Jack Swarthout 
of the SSA, among others .

Some memorable rooms hopped:
Hayden (3DBear) Baldwin had a slew of stereos from his 30 years as an 
Illinois State Police Investigator, showing various crime scenes, including 
murders, suicides, autopsies and more; some *very* graphic and a bit 
disturbing to someone (like I) more accustomed to the sanitized 
body-under-a-sheet images normally seen in the media.

Steve Berezin, with all of his "achromatized" viewers, from V-M Virtual 
Viewers to Star-D's to PinSharp 2x2's.  I grabbed (okay, purchased) one of 
the PinSharps for slides from my "FrankenPony" 8-p Kodak plus a couple of 
frosted halogen bulbs for my other viewers.

Boris Starosta, with so many amazing stereo pairs showing his considerable 
artistic talents. Makes me realize how amateurish my efforts at photography 
are.  I finally got to see his large (life-size?) Phantogram "Surprise" 
that we've heard so much about on Photo-3D.  REAL cool!  This phantogram 
turned up missing for a while, but fortunately was recovered (albeit 
slightly wrinkled) before noon Sunday.

DrT, with his usual selection of viewers, cameras and literature.  He even 
had a Red Button with 40mm achromats for sale.  Too bad it was 
shrink-wrapped, so I didn't get to see the effect.

Jon Golden and Jan, with their mouth-watering de Wijs viewers and variety 
of mounts, mounting supplies and mounting equipment.  His copies of Dalia's 
"Inside 3D" were going fast, so I grabbed one of those.

Friday AM I got a big dose of Stereo Theatre (while it was still on 
schedule), then hob-nobbed for a bit before presenting "The World's 
Shortest Workshop" on field case repair in the afternoon.  Friday night 
about 60 people walked or drove across the lift bridge to the Titletown 
Brewing Company, a converted railroad station now a restaurant/microbrewery 
for the Stereoscopic Society of America (SSA) dinner.  Got to sit with 
Harry and Jean Richards, discussing all the joys of putting on an NSA 
Convention.  Even joined the SSA, passing my ten bucks across the table to 
Shab Levy, Membership Chairman.

Saturday of course was the Trade Fair.  As always, this was the largest 
collection of stereo-related equipment, views, literature and collectibles 
that one is likely to see during the year.  I added to my meager collection 
of View-Master reels with a couple packets from the Sells, a half-dozen of 
the newly re-released scenic sets from Charley Van Pelt, the Frank Lloyd 
Wright set of Michael Kaplan and some assorted single reels.  One dealer 
had brought a whole bunch of VM viewers and projectors and was selling them 
relatively cheap.  I picked up a few Model G's for projects at 3 for two 
dollars.  Later bumped into Dick Twichell, who clued me in about the Model 
H viewer, which I had been unfamiliar with.  Seems this lighted viewer has 
considerably higher magnification than the standard viewer but hasn't (yet) 
hit the hard-to-justify price of the similarly-featured Model F.  Dick and 
I popped open most of the Model H's on the table, looking for one with all 
the parts and none of the corrosion.  Found a nice blue one for $10. 
 Thanks Dick!

Picked up a Kodak Stereo for my brother Dan, to replace the one he lost in 
the Easter fire.  In a big box of cases at another dealer, I found 
(separately) two halves of a field case.  It's in need of re-stitching, but 
I know someone who can do that. :--)

Dalia asked about new and different stuff.  There was one vendor who is 
producing View-Master-compatible reels on what seemed to be a single piece 
of film stock.  His process is proprietary, I think and I didn't get any of 
the details.  They produce advertising and promotional reels so far. 
 Perhaps someone on the list can elaborate.

Stopped at Dan Shelly's/Bill Walton's table, where I got a Bill Walton CD 
plus Bill's "Back to Basics" book, which he autographed for me.  Bill and 
Dan also allowed me to leave some of my "Take Pictures.  Deeper." T-shirts 
at their table, which they promptly sold.  Thanks very much, guys!

More Stereo Theatre Saturday afternoon, then Happy Hour (Free beer?  Outta 
my way, please!) where I got to chat a bit with George T and a couple of 
guys whose names I promptly forgot, but who represented some of the growing 
number of younger enthusiasts.  These guys didn't even have any grey hair 
yet!

Saturday evening was the Awards Banquet up the street at the Day's Inn, 
where  I sat with Ron Fross and his wife and talked photography with them 
and that other gentleman whom I could recognize but not name at this point. 
 Enjoyed a talk by the Fisher-Price representative on the history and 
future of View-Master.  Nearly choked when he said "View-Master covered the 
American space race closely, from Mercury to the *Apollo One launch*" 
 (Apollo One didn't launch, it burned up with three astronauts inside 
during tests).

Afterwards I wandered around pretending to be a photographer, getting some 
(maybe) good night shots of bridges, buildings and fountains with cable and 
tripod.  I went down to the Regency Suites' lounge later on, and ended up 
sitting and talking with Al Sieg and Bill Moll, putting away beer and 
potato chips until they booted us out in the wee hours.  We covered 
everything from collecting to international business relations to the high 
cost of stereo mounting.  (Did someone really pay _two grand_ to have their 
stereo slides mounted for a show?)

Sunday I did a bit more shopping at the Trade Fair, where prices were being 
cut to clear things out.  Finally headed for the airport around noon for 
the trip home.

One of the first things I did at home was to put a frosty bulb and two 
ni-cad C cells in the Model H to view my new reel acquisitions.  Excellent 
viewer!  How come none of the web sites mention this viewer's high 
magnification, I wonder?

Regulars noticably absent from the Convention:

Ron Labbe, Bill Duggan, Dalia, Harry Poster, Gabriel Jacob, Alexander 
Klein, Paul Milligan and Paul Wing.

All in all, this was a most enjoyable convention for me.  Big thanks go to 
Harry Richards for doing it all again (Harry was also the Convention 
Chairman/Coordinator for NSA 94 in Milwaukee).  Your efforts resulted in a 
very well-run and well-attended Convention.  Please convey my appreciation 
to everyone who contributed to this wonderful event!

Now I wait for Mesa AZ. (Providing airfare is reasonable)

Best regards,
Bill Davis


P.S. Apologies to all whose names I misspelled above.








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