And Now We’re Into 1970
Fortunately for us, Bill Enders, a member of the RCA team, had left RCA and moved on to become a marketing VP at Magnavox in their New York sales offices. He had been so impressed with the demonstrations of our Brown Box that he urged Magnavox management at the head shed in Fort Wayne, Indiana to take another look at our game concepts.
In July, we received an invitation at Sanders‘ from Fort Wayne to bring our road show to Magnavox. Lou Etlinger and I got on an airplane on the 17th of July and flew to their Indiana headquarters for the demo. They gave us the board room. There, we set up our Brown Box, the light gun and our golf putting device and demonstrated to a room full of Magnavox personnel sitting around a long conference table.
The reception we got was not exactly overwhelming; no one showed any visible degree of enthusiasm with the exception of one man in the room: The VP for marketing of the television set division, Gerry Martin. He saw the possibilities of the product immediately … and he was the boss! He made the decision to go ahead with a home TV game product right then and there. Unfortunately, there was another minor detail: He had to convince Magnavox corporate management to support that decision.
It took until March of 1971 – nine months later – for that to happen:
