The Convention Hotel's Empty Ballroom
Closed mid-July 1992 · On stands late July 1992
The Front
Index of the Convention Season
Numbers of the summer — hotel-room blocks booked in two cities, bumper-sticker orders, the average length of a nominating speech
Field Notes: The Skybox
A count of who actually used the stadium skyboxes rented out for the summer's ballgames
The Essay
The Ballroom's Second Life
A furniture essay on convention hotels and the unglamorous economics of a citywide event's teardown week
The Foreign File
Lisbon, at Presidency's Turn
A stringer's dispatch on Portugal taking up the European Community's rotating presidency, a quiet handoff with quiet paperwork
The Feature Well
The Banquet Captain
A profile of a hotel banquet captain working back-to-back conventions in a single summer, one flag swapped for another overnight
The City
Subject: A service piece on the city's outdoor movie screenings, drawing a bigger crowd than the theaters this summer
The Back
Books: A review essay on the season's campaign-trail memoirs · Art: A gallery note on a photographer's contact sheets from two decades of convention floors · Film: Short notices on August's counterprogramming against the summer's tentpole