The New York Guitar Show was an annual, two-day, vintage guitar exhibition and sale scheduled on the third weekend in September and held at the Mary Help of Christians Church on E. 12th St. and Avenue A in New York City. Over the span of a 15-year period (1986–2000) the New York Guitar Show was the only regularly scheduled vintage guitar event dedicated entirely to charity in the United States. Originally started by Ken and Kathy Heer, East Village music dealers (Saint Mark's Music Exchange) in 1983-84 at a midtown Manhattan hotel as a for profit event, the production was purchased by Skip Henderson, an ex-social worker turned vintage guitar dealer (City Lights Music) from New Brunswick, New Jersey, moved to the Mary Help of Christians church auditorium at E.12th St. and Ave. A, and changed into a not for profit venture primarily to support the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children in Newark, New Jersey. Henderson later went on to establish the non-profit Mt. Zion Memorial Fund to assist rural black churches in Mississippi.
The New York Guitar Show was also a venue for a Saturday night performance series which Henderson produced over the lifespan of the event. These shows featured an eclectic array of performers such as Nokie Edwards of the Ventures, guitar maker Semie Moseley, Junior Brown, The LeRoi Brothers, Lonnie Pitchford, Elliot Easton of The Cars, YouTube favorites The Otis Brothers featuring Bob Guida (an early financial backer of the event), and numerous others. In 1996 as Henderson became more involved with the activities of the Mt. Zion Fund, production of the show was transferred to another vintage guitar dealer James Pasch, with the contractual stipulation that it remain a fund raising event for the AIDS Resource Foundation for Children.
Primarily because of its East Village location, the event was known for attracting a diverse crowd of notable musicians and figures from New York City such as Billy Idol, Allen Ginsberg, Lenny Kravitz, Willy DeVille, and many others.
In 2013 Mary Help of Christians Church, the original site of the guitar show, was sold for $41 million and demolished despite protests from Greenwich Village historic preservationists.
[Guitar World magazine, "New York Guitar Show 1989" by Teisco Del Rey, December 1989, p. 95]
[Guitar Player magazine, "Elvis Spotted at New York Guitar Show", by Richard R. Smith, January, 1990, p. 17]