Having just read some comments on pen shows I feel the need to set some records straight.  In 1979 Pen Fanciers was publishing a monthly with the names of so-called presidents of local clubs.  I was a subscriber so I looked up a number of the collectors whose names and addresses were published and in 1981 I began hosting regular meetings.  Included were collectors from Wisconsin, Illinois and eventually other bordering states.  By 1983 the first "dealer" set up which placed our meeting at a new level.  From meeting in my house to Mike Fultz's mansion we were forced to begin using hotels and motels.  By 1984 we were attracting collectors from Canada and numerous states.  In 1983, 1984 and 1985 we were hosting 2 shows a year, in April and in November at Thanksgiving. We were now the center of the pen collecting world as no other show was yet in existence although Frank Dubiel had started up a meeting in Boston in 1985, I believe.   George Fischler and Stuart Schneider became great friends and attended our shows in the mid-80's.  Eventually George and Stuart offered to help us out by starting a show in New Jersey and we agreed to help them out. The first NJ show was in 1986, if memory serves me correct and so we scaled back to one show in Chicago, in the spring and NJ picked up the fall show.  Attending all of these shows was the legendary Robert Tefft and his sidekick, the equally legendary Peter Amis. Bob suggested that it would be nice to have a show in a warm location on the west coast in LA so February was picked and Mike, Dan Zazove, who by now was a partner in our local endeavor, and I began to attend shows in LA and we worked with Bob and other members of the then SCPCA, the pre-cursor to the PCA.   So Jeff, Chicago is much older than 8 years and pre-dates all other shows by at least 2 years.  Eventually Michigan started up as well as Philly, and Houston and Miami.  The original Miami show lasted 2 years and took a long hiatus.  2 shows were also set up in Toronto, both of which I attended and enjoyed. Washington and Columbus were years away from organizing.  Another early show still in existence is the Little Rock show.  Small and mostly local, it has been on the show agenda since the 80's also.   I will continue to give more information on the history of the pen show in additional postings.  If you have read this post you will now realize why we always bill the Chicago show as the oldest and largest show in all of our ads.  Oldest can never be debated and largest is always debatable.  I guess I should start billing our show as the largest vintage show in the world because we always concentrate on vintage and try hard to maintain a good mix of vintage dealers, modern retailers, manufacturers and ink and ephemera dealers.

Don Lavin
January, 2001