History of Puzzle Parleys

Introduction

Early 1994 Pagey Elliott suggested to me that we gather puzzle cutters together at a meeting to discuss mutual concerns, and that we call it a “Puzzle Parley”.  She asked me to organize it and volunteered to help.  I contacted Anne Williams who thought it was a good idea and also agreed to help which was especially important in supplying a list of cutters.  Thus was born the Puzzle Parley.

The Meetings

  1. September 10, 1994.   House of Debby Greeley, Pagey’s older sister, Maine St, Concord, MA.  Cost was $10 (including lunch).  Only puzzle cutters from the Northeast were invited.  @20 attended.  2 notable things happened:
    1. Hostess, Debby Greeley lay down after lunch and had a mini-stroke.
    2. Yours truly, who organized the meeting and was to chair it with Pagey, was lying in the Mt. Desert Island Hospital, Bar Harbor, Maine, after a serious mountain accident.  Our son, Conrad, stepped in and substituted for his missing father.
  2. April 27-28, 1996.  Museum of Our National Heritage, Lexington, MA.  Cost $10 (included refreshments but no meals).  Puzzle cutters from beyond the Northeast were invited.  @22 attended.  The actual meeting  was Saturday afternoon at the Museum in conjunction with Anne Williams exhibition “Cutting a Fine Figure: The Art of the Jigsaw Puzzle” being held at the museum.  The next morning, some of us went over to the AGPC convention being held elsewhere in Lexington and demonstrated cutting puzzles.
  3. October 25, 1997.  Worcester Public Library, Worcester, MA.  Cost $15 (including lunch).  Puzzle cutters from around the country were invited.  @32 attended.  Parley was in conjunction with my exhibition of puzzles at the Library, including puzzles sent me by active cutters, several of whom attended the Parley as well.
  4. February 14-15, 1999.  Seafarer’s International House, New York City.  Barry Benepe helped make all the local arrangements and he and Judith Spektor invited us to their home the day before, as did Amy Scott, well known New York City artist who cuts some of her original artwork into puzzles.  Cost $30 (including lunch).  For the first time, invitee list was expanded to include puzzle collectors and enthusiasts, and, also for the first time, we received the endorsement of the AGPC as one of their regional or specialty meetings.  @32 people attended.
  5. November 11-12, 2000.  First day was at Holiday Inn, Mt. Kisco, NY; second day was at the Katonah Art Museum, Katonah, NY in conjunction with an exhibition of jigsaw and mechanical puzzles curated by Anne Williams and Jerry Slocum and a panel discussion which included Will Shortz, crossword editor of the NY Times, as well as Anne, Jerry, Harold Raizer and myself.  Cost $50 (including Saturday’s lunch & dinner).  @60 people attended, with more showing up Sunday for the panel and exhibition.  Hildegard had a concert Saturday night but showed up for Sunday’s events.
  6. September 27-28, 2002.  National Arts Club, NYC.  Again, Barry Benepe and Judith Spektor helped make the arrangements and also invited us to their home for drinks.  Cost: $35 (including lunch on Saturday).  @38 people attended.
  7. September 10-12, 2004.  Colonial Inn, Concord, MA.  For the first time, Melinda Shebell joined me as a co-organizer and while I put on a restoration workshop Friday morning at my house, she held Open House at her place Friday afternoon.  Cost: $35/person(including lunch).  @65 attended.  Melinda designed and organized the cutting of the first of her collaborative masterpieces presented to Pagey Elliott at the meeting, clearly the high point of the meeting.
  8. April 12-13, 2007.  Holiday Inn Golden Gateway, San Francisco, CA.  Meeting was carefully coordinated with the AGPC Convention the same weekend, managed by our very own fellow puzzler, Joe Seymour.  Cost: $50/person (including lunch).  @55 people attended.  Melinda not only co-organized the meeting with me, she also designed and organized the cutting of two more collaborative masterpieces presented to Anne Williams and myself.  Speaking for myself, I was totally stunned by Melinda’s puzzle and recognition of my contributions to the puzzle world.
  9. November 7-9, 2008.  Sturbridge Host Hotel, Sturbridge, MA.  Melinda held an Open House at her home in Stow on Friday afternoon and Hildegard and I held an Open House at our home in Worcester Sunday morning.  Saturday's session included discussions on copyright laws, setting up a "mega-website" for jigsaw puzzles, personalization in puzzles, repair of Pastime boxes, the 3 incredible multi-faceted puzzles designed by Melinda and presented to Pagey Elliott, Anne Williams and myself at earlier Parleys, the Showcase puzzles made by current puzzle cutters for the AGPC Charleston, SC convention earlier in the year, how to make presentations of puzzles, and more.  For the first time, we arranged for puzzling after Friday and Saturday's dinners in a special room.  The basic charge for Saturday's session was $45 and @87 attended, our largest participation to that point.
  10. August 13-16, 2010.  Hawthorne Inn, Salem, MA.  Events were spread over 4 days, starting with a visit Friday afternoon to Jim Ayer's workshop where he demonstrated how he cuts wood puzzles using a waterjet.  Friday evening after dinner featured Mary Albitz describing her "Jigsaw Java.  From Dream to Fruition", a neighborhood coffee gathering spot featuring lots of jigsaw and mechanical puzzles to assemble and/or buy, followed by a giant "Yankee Swap" and then a swap among the cutters.  Saturday morning featured "Cutters' Conversation", Dee Rogers demonstrating a magnificent 3-D puzzle in which figure pieces lying in the puzzle could stand up in the puzzle and link together to form structures, and Anne Williams' speaking on "How Did They Do It? Parker Prothers' Pastime Puzzles".  Saturday afternoon featured Dana Haviland showing her "Bluebird Collection" via power point, Rob Jones demonstrating a prototype of a new website designed to allow anyone to display their puzzles to the world via the internet, Show & Tell, and table sales.  Saturday evening's program after dinner featured John Stokes describing his 100 puzzles project, the last puzzle of which had sold recently on Ebay for $25,100 and was on display at the meeting all day Saturday.  Sunday morning's program featured Melinda Shebell giving pointers on "Using Photoshop to Make Artwork for Replacement Pieces" and Bob Armstrong showing his power point presentation, "Pictures in Puzzles."  On Monday, those who stayed over drove up to Anne Williams' house in Lewiston, ME and viewed probably the greatest collection of jigsaw puzzles in the world.  Attendance broke all known jigsaw puzzle records with 117 people participating at one time or another in the various events. The charge for the 4 days of meetings and puzzling including Saturday's lunch was $50/person.  For the first time, we used an events planner, Kelly Taylor, who was absolutely terrific, as was the Hotel throughout.

Conclusion

  1. Meetings have grown over the years in attendance to unprecedented levels in the jigsaw puzzle field, probably reflecting the growth in puzzle interest, especially cutting new puzzles.
  2. Puzzlement Google Group has been a big help.  Lara Braithewaite set this up after attending our meeting in San Francisco.  Thank you, Lara!
  3. No organization behind the meetings: just Melinda's and my willingness to organize and underwrite them, my data bank of 1600 names and addresses of people who have shown interest in buying or cutting puzzles over the past 15 years, and those of you who help out at the meetings. However, we were fortunate enough to have brought in a professional events planner, Kelly Taylor (www.keljoy.com), for the 2010 meeting to guide us throughout the process.  Kelly was the best decision Melinda and I have made with respect to the Parleys and we will not do another without her! 
Event Series: