The Beckett Blog

TriStar Productions on Friday announced it would not promote the annual San Francisco Labor Day collectibles show in 2008. TriStar will promote the annual February show at the Cow Palace near SFO airport.

Is the downtown show dead for good?

Since the mid-1980s, there has been a regional show on Labor Day weekend in San Francisco. Bob Rose was one of the earliest promoters to recognize that dealers from around the country saw a four-day weekend in San Fran as more of a vacation opportunity than a show grind. Bong Tongol picked up the slack after Rose, then TriStar jumped in and brought the show to the Concourse Center at 8th and Brannan streets, where collectors and dealers did biz for about a decade every Labor Day weekend.

One of the hottest — and I do mean HOTTEST — shows on record happened at the Concourse Center Labor Day 2004. The un-airconditioned building was subject to unseasonable, record 90-plus temperatures for four days. The record highs were up to 20 degrees above normal for that weekend. Dealers baked. BGS booth employees scrapped the corporate uniform for T-shirts. However, the unflappable Steve Garvey sat upstairs in what had to be attic-like 100-degree heat wearing a dress shirt and a tie, signing away for autograph seekers.

Will some local promotor attempt to revive the weekend show? Is it even viable anymore?

Any of you guys out there in attendance at the 2004 broiler? What about the inferno-like temps at the Cleveland “soccer field show” from June 2003? – ph