Arriving at the Javits Center, they negotiated through the myriad collection of union workers who were waiting on the loading dock to ‘assist’ in unloading and setting up the booth, for a price, naturally.
Once the convention opened, Charlie and George did a lot of standing around, handing out business cards and demonstrating the system to anyone who happened to look remotely interested. The Cinetron system was positively received by those who saw what it could do and that made Charlie and George feel that the effort was worthwhile. But there were no orders and that was not encouraging.
On the last day of the convention Charlie took a break for coffee and George was left alone with the equipment. Now, George was a great salesman but his knowledge of the technology of animation and the workings of the Cinetron system were woefully lacking. Well, as fate would have it, George being alone was the exact moment that a truly interested prospect arrived at the booth. Mort Lesser, owner of Film Effects, Toronto was looking at the system while George was telling him of the installations that we had in New York City. About that time, Charlie wandered back to the booth but stayed back to try to see if he was needed to help George. Just then he overheard Mort ask George “how does this work anyway?” without missing a beat, George replied: “Fine, Just Fine”. Well, about then Charlie decided to join the conversation and demonstrated how the system could be instructed, using conventional animation terms, to faithfully follow the user’s instructions.
Convinced that the system was for him, Mr. Lesser said that he would place an order an order: Provided, however, that the system that was being demonstrated be taken directly to his shop in Canada as soon as the convention ended and installed on his animation stand.
Yikes, good news, with a hook. Charlie and George were going to have to extend their trip and install a system using a borrowed computer.