Steve Jobs once gave Andy Warhol an impromptu lesson on Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:APPL) Macintosh mouse at Sean Lennon’s ninth birthday party in October 1984, leaving the pop-art pioneer "spellbound" as he discovered digital drawing.
Jobs Shows Warhol How Macintosh Works
Journalist David Sheff, who attended the party hosted by Yoko Ono, recalled that Jobs brought Sean one of Apple’s new Macintosh computers and set it up in the child’s bedroom. Jobs opened MacPaint and showed Sean how moving the mouse controlled the pointer.
Warhol and artist Keith Haring soon joined the crowd around the machine. Warhol initially struggled with the unfamiliar device, lifting and waving the mouse "as if it were a conductor’s baton," Sheff wrote. Jobs then placed his hand over Warhol’s and guided it across the floor.
Once Warhol understood the motion, he became absorbed in drawing. "Look! Keith! I drew a circle!" he exclaimed to Haring.
