About Calendar Shows

In the good old days, a son followed in his father's footsteps.....a doctor's son became a doctor, a cook's son became a chef, a judge's son became a lawyer. Over the last generation however, this tradition has become the exception rather than the rule with technology running rampant as it does these days. Most children become involved in careers & jobs that didn't even exist 5 or 10 years ago, except possibly in the minds of inventors or science fiction writers.

Therefore, it's rather pleasant to run across someone carrying on a family business serving not only the family, but the community where it does business. Such is the case of Michael & Marilyn Grimes who carry on the tradition of fine antique shows that have been produced by the Grimes family for over 35 years.

"My father & mother were originally involved in a business called "Master Calendar of Events" says Michael, "which served the Inland Empire of San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties. They did a free publication which carried all the events happening during a particular month, and then sold advertising to local businesses. During the early 60's, it became apparent that newspapers were becoming more involved in this area and it was only a matter of time before they would be put out of business by the larger circulation papers. A friend of the family pointed out that trade shows were becoming a big thing back east and maybe with their public relations & advertising backgrounds they could become a success in this newly emerging business promoting such events."

They ran around like crazy, Michael remembers, trying to come up with an idea that hadn't been beat to death by someone else. They finally decided on trying to promote antique shows, and set out to find some dealers with a pioneer spirit to match their own. The first show was held at The Farmers Fairgrounds in Hemet, and consisted of only 13 dealers from the Southern California area, with the dealer traveling the farthest coming all the way from Ojai. The show was a success and the rest is history.

Over the next twenty years, they built up a series of successful shows throughout southern California. Michael helped out however he could when he was younger, sometimes helping set up tables or moving dealers in, other times doing distribution of flyers & posters.

Meanwhile, during all this period Michael was learning the promotion business from what he describes as "two of the best tutors you could possibly have"...

From his mother he learned the art of advertising and the lingo that went with it. "Sometimes she would put me on the phone to talk to the papers or radio stations with her listening in on an extension to see how I'd handle talking to the sales reps. Of course, the ad itself would have already been scripted, but the reps didn't know that & treated me as though I was the person responsible for everything. In this way, I learned to be comfortable talking the talk & walking the walk of the advertising trade. To this day, I'll catch myself using words that are outmoded and don't mean anything these days."

"From my dad I learned how to deal with people & dealers. I still remember him telling me "if you treat the dealers like adults, they'll act like adults....if you treat them like kids, they'll act like kids. I'm a promoter, not a baby-sitter" Needless to say, we treated everyone with respect & as adults and got the same treatment in return.

When his mother died in 1982, the wind left his dad's sails. Since Michael had a full time job working in Los Angeles, father started to cut back on the number of shows & locations. At the time of his death, he had 2 shows per year in Pasadena and 3 shows per year in Del Mar.

"Del Mar was always their favorite show.....it was the crown jewel of all their shows. They loved the area and the race track. Both of them grew up with people who were involved in the horse racing trade, so the mixture of the show & Del Mar seemed to click. In fact, I think my dad might still hold the record for the largest Pick-6 win at Del Mar, which he won just before my mom's death."

Although many people have tried to promote antique shows in Del Mar over the years, no one has been able to duplicate their success, except Michael and he's not telling how he does it. "Hard work" is all he'll say if you ask him, "and the willingness to spend money on advertising". The other thing he'll tell you is that "promoters are like banks. The only difference between banks is the services they are willing to give you for the money you're paying them. Promoters are the same, but the service they provide is crowds of people. Ask any dealer and they'll be the first to tell you that if the promoter brings in the people, he's done his job....if he doesn't, he's slacking off or not spending the advertising dollars correctly. The dealer is paying me for a service. If I don't provide that service, they'll go to another promoter just as you would go to another bank if you were dissatisfied with the service."

"I also still do a lot of the 'scurrying around' that I did when I was a kid, but I just do it a little slower these days." What used to take him just a couple of days now can take up to 2 weeks. "I blame the fact that there are more places to hit with advertising flyers & posters than there were even just a few years ago. Wherever you go it seems there is a new mall or shopping center being built, which means more stores we have to go to distribute."

The WE is Michael's wife & Co-Producer Marilyn, whom he met just before his mother's death. "Without her, a lot of the scurrying wouldn't get done at all these days," Michael says. According to Michael, they are sometimes out well after midnight during the weeks before the show. Why you ask? It's simple according to Marilyn. "We can get more done without all the people around. Although the stores aren't open at that time of night, we can slide a promotion packet under their door for them to find in the morning." The promotion packet will usually contain a free pass for the owner with some discount flyers for their customers & a poster for the window. "Sometimes we go back to make sure they got the package. Plus, the idea is that the free pass is sort of a 'quid pro quo' that gets them into the show for free if they put out the flyers that advertise the show. Sometimes we go into a beauty shop & hand out free passes to all the girls working there. Naturally, the topic of conversation in the salon for the week before the show is that they are going & the week after is how great the show was. All this helps get the people thru the door, and once they are thru the door, our job is done".

Between the two of them, they always seem to put on a glittering show at the fairgrounds. The show averages 175 to 250+ dealers per show, with many coming from out of the area, and even from other states. This means that there is always merchandise that can't be seen at any other time than the show. In fact, even the dealers that are considered 'local' you can't see at any other time because they don't run a shop, they only do shows [sometimes up to 40 or 50 per year].

"It can be a brutal exhausting business for the dealers", Michael says, "considering what their normal week entails. Let's start their week with setup [usually the day before the show opens]. The next three days are spent at the show from opening to closing. Then when they pack-out after closing on Sunday night [usually around midnight], they are off & running to another show the following week. They have to be ready to set up in another town sometimes hundreds of miles away within days. Needless to say, sometime during all this traveling & selling at shows, they still have to find time to shop for replacement merchandise.
Maybe brutal is too kind a word, what do you think?"