Unveiling the Future - Inventing the PC - page 67

The announcement of the MCM /70 in Toronto. From left: Mers Kutt,
Gordon Ramer, Ted Edwards, and Reg Rea, with a prototype of the
MCM /70. (Source: York University Computer Museum, photographer
unknown.)
in Toronto on 25 September at a press conference in the Royal
York Hotel, then in New York on the 27th, and in Boston on
the 28th. Extensive North American press coverage followed. 10
In New York, Kutt told reporters and technology observers that
“the trend in the computer field toward usage of more small
computers and a limited number of large computers, could
result in the MCM /70 in a few years becoming 'as familiar as
calculators are today.'” 11
There are only a few known photographs from these early
press conferences. One published by The Toronto Star two days
after the 25 September press conference, showed Mers Kutt as-
sisting Edwards' twelve-year-old daughter Kim to operate the
computer. At the time, marketing of computer technology fre-
quently employed a youthful theme, such as a child playing with
the keyboard of a computer. Clearly, young children could not
possibly operate mainframe or minicomputers of the 1960s and
early 1970s; such ads were designed only to stop a reader from
turning a page and to focus on the message conveyed by them.