South Coast Orchid Society

Orchid Judging in Long Beach, 1954 and Beyond!

Eulophiella Rolfei 'Roke' FCC/AOS, the first award photo we recovered from AOS judging in Long Beach, February 26, 1968. The plant was exhibited by Emerson "Doc" Charles of Costa Mesa. After months of searching, we eventually were able to recover almost all of the 1968 award photos.

Judging under Orchid Digest Corporation standards began at SCOS meetings in December, 1954, as a result of an earlier discussion and vote by the membership. Judging under the auspices of Orchid Digest Corporation continued at the Long Beach site, first with certified judges "borrowed" from the Orchid Society of Southern California, and later with our own, home-grown judges, until December, 1967, when the ODC judging program was merged with the AOS judging program, which started at the SCOS meetings in Long Beach in January, 1968. During the period when ODC standards were used, the judging team in Long Beach gave each award a sequence number, which, along with other award information, was regularly published in our newsletters and in some cases republished in Orchid Digest.

Between the SCOS newsletters (we have recovered almost all issues from 1958 through 1973 — these were donated by Rita Crothers, probably to the library of the Orchid Digest Corporation, which was transferred later to the Huntington Botanical Center, where Brandon Tam brought them to our attention) and the reports of SCOS activities and ODC awards published in Orchid Digest, we have been able to reconstruct about 85% of the 522 awards conferred at Long Beach during that period.

The practice of assigning a sequence number continued when AOS judging started at our meetings in January, 1968, starting again with 1. The sequence numbers continued to be used at least well into 1973, as the AOS awards were regularly published in our newsletters until late in 1973. Eventually, not only the sequence numbers, but information about the awards themselves was dropped from our newsletters. Nevertheless, the existence of a numbered sequence of awards in our newletters, from 1 to 226, allowed us to compare the activities of the Long Beach judging center with the award records published in the AOS Bulletin, the Register of Awards (covering AOS awards up to the end of 1968) and its successor, Awards Quarterly (covering AOS awards 1969 until about 2006), a separate index, American Orchid Society Awards 1932-1989: A Combined Index (we will cite this as "AOS awards index 1932-1989") compiled by systematically extracting information from the Register of Awards and Awards Quarterly, as well as the AOS awards databases Orchids Plus and the current online database, OrchidPro. We were also able to compare these records with information extracted into the proprietary OrchidWiz database, which contains award descriptions as well as photographs obtained from a variety of sources, including what have turned out to be some Long Beach award photos. We discovered that some awards conferred at the Long Beach site did not find their way into OrchidPro, or else had been miscopied or otherwise corrupted in ways that made them unrecognizable. At least a couple photographs in OrchidPro were attached to the wrong award records, and a number of "Long Beach" awards turned out to be from other judging sites.

As a result of these investigations, we can now present a relatively complete view of the Long Beach AOS awards for the 11 years 1968-1980 — a set of virtual orchid shows that have never been seen together before! The pictures are glorious, many of the exhibitors are well known from SCOS history (and in some cases, still with us). They show the activities of some of our most industrious members from the past, and remind us just how good the old orchids were.

Orchid Digest Corporation Judging at Long Beach, 1954-1967

Only a few photographs have been recovered, although we expect there are more to be found! An official index of ODC awards was published, but it is little known and does not identify the judging center responsible for each award (our thanks to Tim Culbertson for alerting us to the existence of this index). However, the index may still allow us to identify some of the missing Long Beach awards, if enough of the awards from other ODC judging centers were published for that period in Orchid Digest, or if we happen to know something about the exhibitors and the award history of particular cultivars.

American Orchid Society Judging at Long Beach, 1968-1980

Complete (?) list of awards from the Long Beach judging center, 1968-1980, with photos and additional information from diverse sources:

We will continue the list as time permits! Our goal is to continue the investigation, year by year, until we reach a point where the award records appear to be complete and accurate. In order to accomplish this, we are reviewing all available sources, but for the years after 1967, the most significant source is Awards Quarterly, for the reason that an award published there can be taken as definitive proof that AOS recognized the award as valid. However, it is already clear that not all award photos were included in Awards Quarterly, at least for some years.

Some observations about the content of OrchidPro, as of March, 2022:

For awards before about 1968, many lack the actual award date and other information. Most of the missing information (but usually not the award photos) can be recovered from official AOS publications. We think a thorough review of these awards against the published sources is worth the effort!
A few awards that were officially published are found in OrchidPro under an incorrect award date, or an incorrect location, or some other combination of erroneous data that makes them difficult to find. There are even cases where the award is correctly identified, but the description is clearly from some other award.
A few awards that were officially published are not found in OrchidPro in any form.
For the years 1974 through most of 1978, at least for the Long Beach judging site, most awards in OrchidPro are not accompanied by photos, even though we believe that the photos were made and were distributed in the form of color slides. For the last couple years in this period, photos for AM and FCC awards, but generally not for HCC awards, were published or found their way into the database .
The Huntington Botanical Center now holds the donated collection of color award slides from the AOS Pacific South regional judging program. The search for the missing award photos has just begun, but the results are impressive: about 80% of the photos that were either missing or of very poor quality in OrchidPro that were on our first search list have been found, and almost all of them proved to be of good quality.
Some award photos have turned up among images contributed to OrchidWiz (notably by Steve McNerney and William Merritt), in the form of excellent scans with superior color and resolution. Many of these are mirror images of the photos now in OrchidPro, which suggests that scans have been made without attention to the correct orientation of the color slide.
Many award photos were later published as illustrations for articles in the AOS Bulletin. Some of those illustrations involve photos that are not found in OrchidPro, although the quality of the published illustrations varies tremendously. With careful attention to the award history of individual cultivars, it is often possible to establish with reasonable certainty that the illustrations are in fact from the original award photos. We hope to be able to confirm some of these from color slides, such as a collection now deposited at The Huntington Botanical Center. However, we have already encountered several awards where there is no photo in OrchidPro, and no slide has been found, but the award photo was published in the AOS Bulletin or Orchid Digest. Were these slides loaned out but never returned, or might they just be misfiled?
The quality of the award photos found in OrchidPro varies tremendously. Some are from very poor scans made decades ago, possibly from badly faded color slides, but more likely due to technical issues in the preparation of the scans. In other cases, the scans appear to be of good quality, but the slides themselves are badly faded. New scans from the color slides should be made. We had occasion to examine some slides that were found by the family of a former AOS judge in Long Beach, dates ranging from 1977 to the 1980's, none of which showed any evidence of fading, from which we were able to make excellent digital images using an inexpensive film scanner. In fact, there are several distinct problems evident in the Pacific South Region's collection of award slides, in addition to the problems noted above:
- From many sources, we know that the slides are almost certainly duplicates of the originals (at one point, the judging centers were required to send 12 duplicates to AOS headquarters — are the originals still maintained there as a separate collection?), and there is clear evidence that the copies were not always prepared with care.
- Photographs of whole plants are often not correctly illuminated, resulting in badly overexposed flowers (frequently with no markings visible at all) and very dark foliage.
- Some slides are badly overexposed, especially for white or pale flowers (e.g., many Phalaenopsis), to the point where the original color and pattern cannot be recovered at all.
- Some slides show extreme color saturation (reds, and sometimes yellows), resulting in tones that do not match the descriptions.
- We found examples where OrchidPro has a well-balanced photograph (although the tone is frequently not ideal, and many of the photos are too dim), but the award slides (duplicates) are badly overexposed or show major distortions such as oversaturation.
- Some photos from awarded plants published in the AOS Bulletin are vasty better than the award slides. Clearly, the editors of the AOS Bulletin had access to the original slides or else to better copies.
- The slides from the Long Beach site bear a sequence number on the reverse, matching the sequence numbers that were published in the SCOS newsletters 1968-1973.
- All of the Long Beach award photos for the genus Lycaste for the period of our search, and indeed, for all of the Pacific South region for that period, are missing from the collection. They might be misfiled in some other part of the alphabet, or they might have been loaned out to someone writing an article, or for some other purpose, and never returned.
For Paph and Cymbidium awards from the Long Beach site, the same flowers were often judged and awarded within a few days at CSA judging, so that CSA photographs of the same flowers can be found, either contributed to OrchidWiz or published by CSA in Orchid Advocate. The latest information we have indicates that the Cymbidium Society of America has ceased judging, publication, and other activities, but has not yet dissolved or liquidated its assets. To the best of our knowledge, it should be acceptable to use CSA award photographs that have been donated to OrchidWiz with appropriate credit. We have not yet done so, as we expect to find most of the photos in the AOS awards slide collection.
Overall, we estimate that about 18% of the AOS awards from the Long Beach site prior to about 1990 have or had some sort of data problem in OrchidPro (not counting issues with the photos). If that figure is at all representative of what has happened to awards from other sites, a thorough audit of the data would be useful. For the Long Beach site, we have a nearly complete record of the AOS judging activities from 1968 through 1973, published in the SCOS newsletter — the judging team assigned a serial number to each award! For other sites, the awards published in the AOS Bulletin, the Register of Awards, and its successor Awards Quarterly should be regarded as the official record of awards, that should match OrchidPro, and should serve as a basis for identifying photos and resolving data issues.
It appears that the compilers of the AOS awards index 1932-1989 were aware of the problem of duplicate award numbers (these would have become apparent when the extracted records were sorted by award number) and that some attempt had been made to resolve the duplications, by assigning different award numbers so that each entry had a unique number, even though that procedure caused the award numbers in the index sometimes to differ from what is found in Awards Quarterly. Unfortunately, these changes seem not to have been carried successfully into the later awards databases, including the current version, OrchidPro. Many of the original duplicated entries from Awards Quarterly have instead suffered a variety of fates, such as being conflated, assigned to other numbers, or, not infrequently, being omitted entirely.
From time to time, corrections were published in Awards Quarterly. It is not clear yet whether the published corrections were accounted for in the AOS awards index for 1932-1989. The corrections need to be checked.
In addition to the errors already noted, we discovered some award records in OrchidPro that are not found by a "long beach" location or event search, but which are attributed to the Long Beach judging site on a date corresponding to our normal meeting schedule, but are nevertheless found to come from other sites and on other dates in AOS Bulletin and/or Awards Quarterly. There are a number of other complicated situations where "location" or "event" data are misleading in various ways. Each such record needs to be investigated carefully.

Recovering "Lost" Award Photos: A Test Case

20 "Lost" Photos for Dr. Norito Hasegawa's Awarded Plants 1968-1980

We were surprised to discover that so many of Norito's awarded plants lacked photographs entirely, and there were several that had photos in OrchidPro, but the color was exceptionally bad. There was also one award where we found a black and white photo in Awards Quarterly, but the color photo was not found in OrchidPro. Brandon Tam gave us access to the Pacific South award slides collection at the Huntington Botanical Center, where we quickly found 15 of the 20 problem photos, presented below.

March 25, 1968

**Cym. Mimi 'Mocha' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South Region award slide collection

23 Cym. Mimi 'Mocha', HCC/AOS 76.7 points, Norito Hawegawa. AOS Award No. 19680245, listed in OrchidPro with date January 1, 1965, no other useful data. This plant received BM/CSA the next day, March 26, 1968, with color photo. Published in AOS Bulletin 37(11):1015, November, 1968. Award text: "Fifteen tawny brown flowers on one spike; cream-white lip with black-maroon edging and stripe at center of lip. Natural spread of flower 2½"; dorsal sepal ¾" wide, 1-9/16" long; petals ⅝" wide, 1½" long; lateral sepals ⅝" wide, 1½" long; lip 15/16" wide, ¾" long", exhibitor Dr. and Mrs. Norito Hasegawa, Orange, CA.

December 28, 1970

**Phal. Ann Linden 'Lisa Hasegawa' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South awards slides

142 Phal. Unnamed 'Lisa Hasegawa' (Phal. Ann Lovelace × Phal. lindenii), HCC/AOS 75.0 points, Dr. N. Hasegawa. Hybrid is Phal. Ann Linden, originated and registered in 1972 by Hugo Freed, Malibu, CA. AOS Award No. 19700697. OrchidPro has complete information but no photo. Published in AOS Bulletin 42(6):54, June, 1973, and in Awards Quarterly 4(3):70 (1973) without a photo. Award text: "Thirteen flowers with eleven buds on one spike; delicate, near-white, overlaid with a rayed pattern of pink veins on tepals; lip with same pattern of darker veins", exhibitor Dr. Norito Hasegawa, Orange, CA.

March 27, 1972

**Vanda Meda Arnold 'Caramel' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

187 Ascda. Meda Arnold 'Caramel', HCC/AOS 76.3 points, Dr. and Mrs. Hasegawa. Now correctly Vanda Meda Arnold. AOS Award No. 19720272. OrchidPro has complete information and color photo. Published in AOS Bulletin 41(12):1113, December, 1972, and Awards Quarterly 4(1):11 (1973) with black and white photo. Award text: "Forty-two flowers plus twenty buds on two spikes; bright-orange sepals and petals with reddish stripes and spots; lip yellow with dark-brown tip", exhibitor Dr. and Mrs. Norito Hasegawa, Orange, CA. Award photo is too dark and the color is far less saturated than the description suggests.

**Vanda Meda Arnold 'Caramel' HCC/AOS**, photo from OrchidPro

**Vanda Meda Arnold 'Caramel' HCC/AOS**, same photo adjusted to conform better to the description

May 22, 1972

**Ascda. Ophelia 'Red Torch' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

197 Ascda. Ophelia 'Red Torch', HCC/AOS 75.8 points, Norito Hasegawa. Now correctly Vanda Ophelia. Should be AOS Award No. 19720291. Not found in OrchidPro. However, OrchidWiz has the correct information under this number. Published in AOS Bulletin 42(1):65, January, 1973, and Awards Quarterly 4(1):18 (1973) with black and white photo, with all information correct, with award number 72-291. Award text (OrchidWiz, copied from Awards Quarterly): "Fifteen flowers, eleven buds on one spike; brilliant-red tepals with slightly darker tessellation; lip maroon with yellow-green side lobes", exhibitors Dr. and Mrs. Norito Hasegawa, Orange, CA.

November 26, 1973

**Vanda Bonanza 'Star Spangled Banner' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

___ Ascda. Bonanza 'Star Spangled Banner', HCC/AOS 75.62 points, Norito Hasegawa. Now correctly Vanda Bonanza. AOS Award No. 19730662. OrchidPro has complete information but no photo. Published in AOS Bulletin 44(10):915, October, 1975, and Awards Quarterly 6(1):5 (1975) without a photo. Award text: "Twelve flowers on one spike; dusky pink background on tepals with overall deep rose spotting; lateral sepals chartreuse, overlay on lower half; lip magenta, side lobes and throat chartreuse", exhibitor Dr. Norito Hasegawa, Orange, CA.

**Vanda Memoria Jim Wilkins 'Midnight Flame' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

___ Ascda. Mem. Jim Wilkins 'Midnight Flame', HCC/AOS 75.0 points, Norito Hasegawa. Now correctly Vanda Memoria Jim Wilkins. AOS Award No. 19730663. OrchidPro has complete information but no photo. Published in AOS Bulletin 44(10):916, October, 1975, and Awards Quarterly 6(1):5 (1975) without a photo. Award text: "Eighteen flowers of good substance and nine buds; dark raspberry red tepals with darker lip and yellow side lobes", exhibitor Dr. Norito Hasegawa, Orange, CA.

February 25, 1974

**Paphiopedilum Papa Röhl 'Giraffe' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

AOS Award No. 19740253 Paphiopedilum Papa Röhl 'Giraffe', HCC/AOS 77 points, Norito and Joyce Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 6(2):36 (1975) without a photo.

August 26, 1974

AOS Award No. 19740593 Vanda Peggy Foo 'Violets Are Blue', HCC/AOS 78 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 6(4):90 (1975) without a photo. This hybrid was originally registered as an Ascocenda in 1970. Photo not found in Pacific South award slide collection.

AOS Award No. 19740594 Vanda Bonanza 'Hot Pink', HCC/AOS 77 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 6(4):90 (1975) without a photo. This hybrid was originally registered as an Ascocenda in 1970. Photo not found in Pacific South award slide collection.

April 28, 1975

**Vanda Peggy Foo 'Ultraviolet' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

AOS Award No. 19750460 Vanda Peggy Foo 'Ultraviolet', HCC/AOS 76 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 7(4):94 (1976) without a photo. In OrchidPro, 19750460 is labeled as Vanda Peggy Foo 'Ultraviolet', April 28, 1975, exhibitor Dr. Norito Hasegawa, at Pacific South Supplemental Monthly Judging, Long Beach, CA. However, the description for this award in OrchidPro includes text for three separate plants: (1) "Eleven flowers with white background entirely marked with concentric maroon markings, two spikes; lip bright thistle, side lobes maroon; substance exceptionally heavy, texture excellent"; (2) "Eighteen flowers of overlapping form and good substance, one spike; tepals a moderate purple-red, lip purple with yellow side lobes"; and (3) "One spike with one bloom; deep fire engine red shading to bright orange with overlay of red suffusion; bright red lip". The second plant mentioned in the description matches the description in OrchidWiz of award 19750955, Vanda Peggy Foo 'Ultraviolet', but the award date is listed as April 28, 1976, thus repeating the typographical error in Awards Quarterly 7(4):94-95 (1976). In OrchidPro, the award 19750955 does not exist. The third plant matches the description of Masdevallia Falcata 'Signal', see above, first item in March 24, 1975 awards and in OrchidPro as Award No. 19750928. The first plant turns out to be Phalaenopisis Natasha 'Eye Dee', see above, in the group for March 24, 1975, in OrchidPro as Award No. 19750926.

August 25, 1975

**Vanda Mangkiatkul 'Ultra Violet' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

AOS Award No. 19750681 Vanda Mangkiatkul 'Ultra Violet', HCC/AOS 77 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 8(3):118 (1977) without a photo. This hybrid was originally registered as an Ascocenda in 1968.

**Rhyncholaeliocattleya William Stewart 'Sunny Side Up' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

AOS Award No. 19750682 Rhyncholaeliocattleya William Stewart 'Sunny Side Up', HCC/AOS 77 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 8(3):118 (1977) without a photo. This hybrid was originally registered as a Brassolaeliocattleya in 1973.

October 27, 1975

**Laeliocattleya Louise Farrell 'Midnight Velvet' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

AOS Award No. 19750896 Laeliocattleya Louise Farrell 'Midnight Velvet', HCC/AOS 79 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 8(1):24 (1977) without a photo. This hybrid is now correctly a Cattlianthe

July 26, 1976

**Vanda Hilo Queen 'Hawaiian Dawn' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

AOS Award No. 19760673 Vanda Hilo Queen 'Hawaiian Dawn', HCC/AOS 78 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 8(3):110 (1977) without a photo.

January 20, 1977

AOS Award No. 19770318 Paphiopedilum ciliolare 'Stand Tall', HCC/AOS 76 points, Dr. Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 9(1):22 (1978) without a photo. Photo not found in Pacific South award slide collection.

June 27, 1977

**Cattleya Cherry Pie 'Piping Hot' AM/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

AOS Award No. 19770563 Cattleya Cherry Pie 'Piping Hot', AM/AOS 82 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 9(4):111 (1978) with black and white photo. This hybrid was originally registered as an Sophrolaeliocattleya in 1970.

**Cattleya Cherry Pie 'Piping Hot' AM/AOS**, photo from OrchidPro

August 22, 1977

AOS Award No. 19770834 Paphiopedilum Saint Swithin 'Todd Hasegawa', HCC/AOS 78 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 9(4):128-129 (1978) without a photo. Photo not found in Pacific South award slide collection.

March 27, 1978

**Catasetum tenebrosum 'Charcoal' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

AOS Award No. 19780357 Catasetum tenebrosum 'Charcoal', HCC/AOS 77 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 10(3):91 (1979) without a photo.

AOS Award No. 19780359 Vanda Darcey Starr 'Gold Adventure', HCC/AOS 76 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 10(3):91 (1979) without a photo. This hybrid was originally registered as an Ascocenda in 1971. Photo not found in Pacific South award slide collection.

November 24, 1980

**Catyclia Dowsett Gem 'Tall Chief' HCC/AOS**, new scan from Pacific South award slides

AOS Award No. 19801305 Catyclia Dowsett Gem 'Tall Chief', HCC/AOS 78 points, Norito Hasegawa. Published in Awards Quarterly 12(4):247 (1981) with black and white photo. This hybrid was formerly an Epicattleya. The deep purple background in the photo attached to this award in OrchidPro alerts us that the color is likely not true in this award photo, or at least, too dark. The description says the sepals and petals are rose-violet with deeper violet venation, "lip cream at base, shading to medium rose-violet at outer edge, central lobe with red-violet venation". We adjusted the contrast and brightness slightly here.

**Catyclia Dowsett Gem 'Tall Chief' HCC/AOS**, from OrchidPro, with adjustments to contrast and brightness