Triumphs & Trials of an Organ Builder
The Venture Resumes
By early-to-mid 1945, the return of American
industry to peaceful pursuits seemed apparent. I was
eager to get back to being an electronic organ builder.
Also, I was hoping that as the country returned to
peace, I would be able to dust off the operation I had
mothballed years earlier and get back in the game. After
all, my efforts in the organ business up to that point
had "only" gotten me to first base. I was determined to
go farther.
There were plenty of problems back in '45. For
openers, parts were very scarce and funds were low.
Fortunately, the lessons and survival skills I learned in
my "early" years were still intact.
I remember that somewhere in this time frame I got
an inquiry from Harold Steinbright, an executive at a
chemical company who was an organ enthusiast. He
told me an amazing story. The former owner of the
chemical company, Mr. Grevel, had also been an organ
buff who had commissioned an electronic organ
experimenter—someone I had vaguely known about—
to build him an electronic organ. Before the organ could
be made to function, Grevel died. Because he had no
surviving family or close associates, Grevel left the
entire company to the employees along with the
incomplete organ and parts inventory. As I recall, some
of this story was covered by newspapers at the time.
The company's new owners terminated work on the
organ and put it into storage. The experimenter,
Spencer McKellip, later became a consultant for C. G.
Conn's organ division, which produced electronic
organs from approximately 1947 into the early 1980s
when production ceased.
Mr. Steinbright decided that he, too, wanted an
organ and called me for a proposal to be tied into the
unfinished organ and parts. I suppose he heard about
my earlier successes by word-of-mouth and concluded
that I could provide what he wanted. I jumped at the
chance. I sorely needed the parts from that unfinished
organ and the associated inventory being stored at his
factory. We struck a deal. He obtained an Allen organ;
I received a goodly quantity of scarce parts. These parts
eventually helped me get some more organs out into
the field which, in turn, exposed me to still more organ
enthusiasts. At this stage in the venture, getting this
kind of exposure was of prime importance.
|