Peter Hartlaub at the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Apple II Forever” was an event staged by a company still working out the bugs.
The April 24, 1984, press and exhibitor gathering was late to start and later to finish. Apple executives sat on the kind of metal folding chairs that one would find at a recreation center singles dance. Steve Jobs — hair feathered gloriously — hadn’t quite settled into his permanent turtleneck-and-jeans uniform yet, choosing a bow tie, suspenders and Velcro-strapped Nike high-tops.
But even at this early public launch of the Apple IIc computer, the marketing panache that would infuse countless future Apple events could be seen.
We recently found rare Chronicle archive photos of the event at Moscone Center in San Francisco — one of the first spectacle-permeated launches of a new Apple product. The photos were taken by Gary Fong, a longtime Chronicle photographer and photo editor who often found artistic ways to shoot routine happenings.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Click through for some amazing photos of a very young Steve Jobs, but be sure to listen to this, too: