And, the Mac 30th goodness continues! The rest of us have watched the video of Steve Jobs introduce the original Mac at the Apple shareholder meeting on YouTube. However, the production quality of this Boston Computer Society intro video is much, much better and it’s chock full of amazing moments and people.

It’s January, 1984. Steve Jobs, nattily attired in a double-breasted suit, is demonstrating Apple’s breakthrough personal computer, Macintosh, before a packed room. He speaks alarmingly of a future controlled by IBM, and shows a dystopian commercial based on that theme. He says that the Mac is “insanely great” and plucks the diminutive machine from a bag; it talks for itself. Screens of a graphical user interface — something few people had seen at the time — swoop by. The theme from Chariots of Fire swells. Jobs beams, as only he could.

This presentation, at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting on January 24, is the stuff of tech-history legend. What’s not so well remembered: Jobs did it all twice, in less than a week. Six days after unveiling the Mac at the Flint Center on the De Anza College campus near the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, CA, he performed his show all over again at the monthly general meeting of the Boston Computer Society.

Another reason to watch this video? It includes Apple’s original Mac TV advertisements — all six of them, wow! As well as a rarely seen Mac team slideshow narrated by the Mac team, including a bit from a very young Bill Gates.

Live demos? There are extensive live demos given by the Mac team. Taken altogether, this is quite the Mac 30th present!

“Never trust a computer you can’t lift.”

Hmm, words to keep living by. Happy Mac 30th, everyone…

What’s your take?

Via Harry McCracken

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