Greetings to the group! My first post and one that I hope will clear up any questions. Experience shows that it will likely raise as many questions as it answers.
In any event, this is how the 25th came to be ... (with apologies for the length)
In 1971, at 19, I went to work at a local camera store, called Cal’s Cameras, in Costa Mesa, CA., a store that I had been going to since I was a kid (in the 50s and 60s it was also a hobby shop). Motivating me was the cost of tuition at the University of California, Irvine. Cal’s was owned by Cal and Helen Stilley and, in its hey day, employed close to 40 people and was considered one of the largest and most successful family owned stores in the western United States. At the time, I wasn’t so much a photographer as I was a technology buff and the store had an audio department that was completely neglected. It was a perfect match, as I had been a stereo nut since puberty and I jumped at the chance of taking over the department. Not satisfied to be camera dumb (I used my dad's Pentax Spotmatic at the time), I took a different camera home 3 nights a week. Soon, I was as smitten by photographic gear as I had ever been with audio electronics and the love affair began. Actually, in two respects; I began dating the boss’ daughter after working at the store for a few months and that relationship flowered into a courtship, and ultimately marriage, now 44 years strong. In 1972, I met Maurice Greeson, who also came to work at Cal’s, and we became fast friends. In the mid 70s, Cal’s purchased a second store in Long Beach from a fellow named Phil Terry, the purpose of which was to provide a training ground for his son to learn the business, and having the experience of managing a store. When he was ready to return to the mother ship and assume duties at Cal’s, The Long Beach store, Terry’s Camera Exchange, was up for grabs. Cal offered the store to my good friend, Maurice, and a new chapter began in the mid 70s. In the meantime, I had taken a swing at commercial photography, starting my own business, and found that it was not as much fun as I had hoped it would be. I could return to Cal’s and work for my father-in-law-to-be or join Maurice in Long Beach. I chose the latter. We were two kids in a candy store, building the business together, an enthusiast’s store made for people who loved photography, by people who shared their passion. For me, that Golden Age lasted 5 years, until 1983, when I returned to Cal’s for 17 years, until my retirement from retail in 2000. Maurice went on to have a very successful run with Terry's until his retirement in 2006. I went on to work in the professional photo and cinema industry, until my retirement in 2019.
When I joined Maurice in 1978 it was a case of two good friends playing cameras every day. It was the best. We were both avid photographers and complete nerds, knowing more about the gear than was probably healthy. Both Leica purists, we modeled the store as a Leica showcase store, long before such a thing existed. That drew an upscale clientele from all over the state and introduced us to some very interesting folks. One of those individuals was Ralph Shook, who was then West Coast Sales Rep for Questar. Now Maurice and I had drooled over Questars since we were kids looking at our first Scientific American magazine. Meeting the rep was like meeting a celebrity! We immediately became friends, spending our weekends in the desert, going to star parties and learning as much as we could about the 3.5 and 7 Qs and astrophotography in general. We were literally in heaven. We made a case to Ralph that we both would have probably bought a Questar years before had we had an opportunity to see and feel one before taking the plunge. Til that time, anyone living any distance from New Hope had to do their research, collect literature, and cross their fingers that the product was everything promised. Short of knowing someone who owned one, you had little chance of ever seeing one in the flesh. Would Questar ever consider having a dealer in California? Ralph took our request to the higher ups and was able to convince management that having an authorized reseller on the west coast was a good idea. It meant a modest inventory investment and a modest margin, but it would also mean that we could be a Questar dealer!! We would help Ralph represent Questar at local trade shows and, in short order, Terry's soon became a very successful representative. Most importantly, we were the only place to see and feel a Questar on the west coast.
We were a big Leica store (our specialty) and big fans of Leica’s special edition marketing concept. It was the spring of 1979 when it occurred to us that Questar would be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. Maurice and I thought to reach into Leica's Commemorative bag of tricks, and suggest to Ralph that Questar should acknowledge the milestone with a special scope. One late night in the Spring of ‘79, Questar Sales Manager, Don Cupitt, Western Sales Rep, Ralph Shook, and Maurice, discussed the idea of celebrating Questar’s 25th Anniversary by producing a commemorative model. Don agreed that it would be a great legacy to Lawrence Braymer, returning to New Hope proposing the idea to Marketing. We waited with fingers crossed. In literally a matter of weeks, he reported back with two thumbs up, so we huddled to come up with ideas for components that would make the telescope something special. We would ask for Broad Band and low reflection coatings and the higher performance Cer-Vit mirror. We thought that a commemorative brass plaque with serial number on the base would set the scope off perfectly, complete with brass scales and controls. Marketing loved the idea, but engineering nixed the idea of brass controls, claiming they would oxidize and look bad, and so went with a gold anodized finish for all rear controls. Marketing also suggested including a Brandon 5 eyepiece set to further distinguish the model from the average Standard 3.5 model and include them in a special box with plaque. That, and a full aperture solar filter in its own brass plaque wooden case finished off the special nature of the 25th Anniversary scope. Parts were sourced to produce 25 telescopes and we were given the green light to take orders. Retail price for the complete Anniversary package would be $2750, while a Standard 3.5 Q retailed at the time for $1600.
Maurice and I began talking to our customers about something special coming around the corner. Certainly, for anyone looking at a Standard, we would make a point of mentioning the Anniversary model, likely to be available in early 1980. In no time we had taken 3 deposits, so we put in our first order for 5 scopes. Numbers 2, 4, and 14 were for our customers, #1 for Maurice and #25 for myself. Number 2 went to a close friend of both Maurice's and mine, a fellow I'd known for many years and friend of the family. I don't remember who ordered #4, but #14 went to a good customer and hotel owner who was celebrating his 14th wedding anniversary. These first 5 scopes delivered all had Cer-Vit mirrors. I have a copy of my original invoice, dated February 21, 1980, but delivery was actually in mid December. My records show that I signed a receipt for #25 on December 17th, 1979. The first 5 scopes delivered were with Owens-Corning Cer-Vit mirrors (#s1, 2, 4, 14, 25), which excelled in their low compression-expansion characteristics. Having a scope in the flesh made our job much easier and by mid-January of 1980, we had taken orders for 5 more scopes. People were allowed to pick their favorite number (1-25) celebrating anniversaries, birthdays, and similar events. The second batch arrived by late February and we had already made additional reservations. Questar had switched over to Schott Zerodur as their premium mirror material supplier and I cannot verify that 25th Anniversary models delivered after the first 5 had Cer-Vit mirrors. It’s possible that some of the following second batch scopes did, but memory suggests that they were Zerodur after the first 5. We were told at the time that the switch was due to Owens-Corning not being able to economically provide the limited quantities Questar called for.
What puzzled us most was that whatever # we ordered, that had not previously been ordered, was always available. Wasn’t Questar selling any of these gorgeous scopes themselves? We hadn’t seen any advertising in magazines, no mention in any of the trades. How was it possible that we were the only ones selling these amazing telescopes?! What was up? Ralph went back to New Hope in March and inquired. What he learned was nothing short of a bombshell. The company was being run by Lawrence Braymer's widow, Mr. Braymer having passed years before. It seemed that engineering & marketing were so excited about the 25th Anniversary project that it was fast-laned without Mrs. Braymer’s authorization. All the brass and gold parts were fabricated for the 25 scopes, including plaques and boxes, ready for custom build-to-order. When the first 5 scopes were being assembled for us, (and I believe an additional one for display at the factory), Mrs. Braymer discovered them for the first time. Her intentions will probably never be known, but our take on it was that she was upset for having been out of the loop, as her reaction was extreme. She ordered the scopes disassembled and all parts destroyed. She claimed the product was distasteful and gaudy and that it would never leave the factory with her name on it. Engineering was devastated, because they loved it. Sales was mortified, as they had already taken deposits on 5 units from us. So what did they do? They built the scopes for us on the sly. No advertising, no official release, no recognition from the factory; they literally sneaked the scopes to us under her nose. You would have had to walk into our little camera store in Long Beach, California, between the winter of ‘79 and summer of ‘80 to have ever known that this beautiful instrument existed. After receiving our 14th scope, something hit the fan, as we never saw another one. And to the best of my knowledge, that story remained our little secret until I shared it in an eBay ad for 25th Anniversary Questar #2, sold for my good friend and original owner, in 2002.
Seven years earlier, in 1995, I had attempted to sell #25 at my camera store (before the world was to open up on the Internet). The paste up that I had printed at the time has been shown here before in a thread started by Optics Patent, 25th Anniversary Questar November 3, 2018.
(https://www.cloudyni...9-25th-ad-edit/)
The original photo, also posted in the thread, was one I took in the back parking lot of the store.
(https://www.cloudyni...m-maurice-edit/)
I did eventually sell #25 and the buyer was Maurice! It was not the first time he had come to my aid and so, thankfully, it had found a good home. He had, in fact, sold his #1 to the original buyer of #2. That original buyer had purchased #1 from Maurice and thought he’d save and store #1 for its provenance and use #2, but neither unit ever left their cases. When I sold #2 for him in 2002 on ebay, the scope sold for $7226. A year later, after the success that I had had selling #2, Maurice asked if I could find a home for his #25. I posted it on Yahoo Questar Groups and repeated the background history in the posting, then the second time the story was made public. I represented the scope as mine, as it had been most of its life. The main photo for the ad was then used as the Yahoo Group photo for some time. The new buyer for #25 had bid a year earlier on #2 and was just edged out, so he offered a matching amount and became its new steward. He was(is) a member here and he, hopefully, still has it. (It’s been 20 years!!)
In 2013, the owner of #1, suffering health issues, offered me his scope. I had had seller’s remorse since the day I parted with #25 and viewed this as true serendipity to be given another opportunity, to once again have a very nostalgic memory of my 50 year career in imaging, as well as a shared experience with Maurice and the wonderful Golden Age of photography that we both were so lucky to have been a part of. I simply couldn’t refuse. I mean, it was NUMBER ONE!! It had gone from Maurice to my family friend and then to me in the end and, to the best of my knowledge, has never been used in the field, always having been coveted as a collectible.
I had no idea how little was publicly known about the 25th Anniversary Questars, as I had posted brief histories when selling both #2 and #25, then I read a post on the Questar Facebook page recently and decided to explore what was known on Cloudy Nights. That is where I read the most recent thread by Cryhavoc38 and his experience selling his #4. I messaged Charles and it is he who suggested that I make this post, hopefully clearing up any misunderstandings and officially setting the record straight. While the story as related is accurate from Maurice's and my perspective, I would love to have been a fly on the wall in New Hope. I’m sure the real story was there! I Zoom with Maurice every Tuesday afternoon, our friendship enduring all these years, and we compared notes. Thanks to old emails and a paperwork trail, we think we got it all right. While there seems to be pretty strong provenance and history for the first 5 scopes sold (1, 2, 4, 14, & 25), I’d love to know whatever happened to the additional 9 scopes sold (or even their serial numbers!) We were crazy not to keep records back then.
In all, we sold 14 units at Terry’s and I always felt someone in New Hope hid a 15th, but have no proof of that. Now, over 43 years later, it is a fantastic tale of a very unique and very special product, one that I was happy to share. Sincerely, Jon Sagud
Below, a photo of me from September of 1980, #25 on the table in front of me in the plexiglass case.
Edited by skylark53, 23 June 2023 - 10:49 AM.
