Rumors…

Only Orvilles in the Building

.

I work with a guy named Carl. He once got on me for taking up too much room at the break table. If you ask him, he’ll say “one time, come on.” Carl often asks me how my book is coming along and lets me in on what he’s working on. For example, he recently attended an event at the Ladies Library here in Kalamazoo. Yeah, Carl is 6′ 3,” I’m sure he blended right in. He said he brought up Orville because he wanted to know if they knew anything he could pass along to me.

Their answer was that even though they admit they have no proof whatsoever that Orville ever gave a lecture or musical performance at the Ladies Library, they believe he probably did, so they say he did. The more I stewed, wait, where’s my Roget’s…the more I simmered over this, well let’s just say it gave me an idea for a blog entry.

I told Carl that it was probably a good thing I wasn’t there. I would not have been able to let that go in the moment. Not that they would have listened to me anyway. But, I also have no evidence whatsoever that Orville played there, And I seriously doubt that he ever appeared as a presenter of any kind at this particular library.

First, one needs to know a little of the history of the Kalamazoo Ladies Library. The Ladies Library Association was created in 1852. As we know, they presented a lecture series every year given at Union Hall. Until 1879, when they became the first women’s club in the United States to have their own dedicated building. It is a beautiful building. I’m partial to the original gargoyle that hung from the rain gutter near the front entrance. Gargoyles are actually a symbol of protection.

I don’t have a problem with the fact that the LLA is a product of the elite and that its paintings, sculptures, and book collection are also. These things have their place in our collective knowledge and experience of history and culture. But herein lies why I seriously doubt that Orville ever presented at this particular library. Just as classically trained musicians look down there nose at self-taught musicians, so goes the literary elite in its elevating work and refining influences.

Orville would have had too much vaudeville baggage hanging off him to appeal to their refined image of themselves. Now, we know that Sylvo Reams, a classically trained musician and music store businessman, appeared as a lecturer and performer here. Not only do I believe that Orville and Sylvo butted heads within the Gibson company, I believe this is why they did. I’ve said it before, classically trained musicians don’t approve of anyone who isn’t classically trained. I believe this includes those educated in the classical sense of the literary and art fields of the late 1800s.

So, as their long deceased predecessors stand next to them and say, “Oh, dear Lord, please stop saying that,” so do I, except for a different reason. I have no desire to throw the Ladies Library under the bus, I admire what they have worked for and accomplished. But I wouldn’t have been considered in their social circle either. And anyway, I’m on Orville’s side, with his extraordinary self-taught guitar playing and his self-made articulated elephant operating antics and his self-created vaudeville song and dance.

.

Secondly, it’s been rumored that Orville could speak German. This is entirely possible due to his friendship with Daniel M. Cohn, a fellow stage brother. Morris and Rika Cohn, Dan’s parents, were both born in Germany. They all belonged to several of the German social clubs, so they obviously held on to their roots, There was no shortage of German Societies and Clubs in Kalamazoo. Dan was a member of the German Song Club and the German Dramatic Club. Morris and Rika were members of the Alemania Society. A number of church services and wedding ceremonies were conducted in German.

.

Thirdly, was Orville left handed? Yeah, I think he was. The first piece of evidence is the photo of him sitting on a rug on the floor of a photography studio holding a guitar. Being a seamstress, I know that women’s jackets button right side over left and men’s jackets button left side over right. If you flip the photo so Orville is holding the guitar as a lefty, you can zoom in and enhance his jacket enough to see that it is buttoned properly as a man’s jacket, left over right.

Orville’s signature on his 1895 patent application shows a left handed slant to it. I have a couple letters from Orville that don’t show that same backwards slant. I believe it’s because while he may have dictated them, I don’t think he wrote them. But if he did…you have to remember that back then figures of authority would often tie a students left hand behind their back to force them to write with their right hand.

Some old-timey left-handers can write just as well with their right as their left. I’ve seen his sister Emma’s handwriting. She also has a backward slant that comes and goes. But, yeah, I think Orville was left handed. This also brings up his use of woodworking tools. It would not affect his use of hammers, awls, clamps, chisels or draw knives from that time period, but scissors, measuring devices and anything with a molded handle shaped for the right hand would have been a pain. Once he got to the Gibson factory, the band saw probably gave him a problem.

.

Last but not least, does Orville haunt the old Gibson factory on Parsons? I interviewed Jack French who started at Gibson in the very early 1960s. He has some great stories. He started out as a go-fer. A few weeks in, his boss handed him a rumpled up scrap of paper with a phone number on it and said, “Call Johnny Cash and tell him his guitar is ready.” Jack said Rosanne answered the phone “House of Cash.” She would’ve been about 7 or 8 years old. Speaking of B. B. King, did you know that there have been 17-18 “Lucille’s?” Ren Wall has lost count. He used to work on them.

It seems many employees have seen Orville over the years. Each with their own story. One guy was working late, alone, down in the lower level, on a guitar, at a work bench. Using only small hand tools. Every time he put down his chisel and went to pick it up again, it wasn’t there. He would get up and look around only to find it on another work bench. At one point, something across the room caught his eye. He said it was Orville, wearing the vaudeville costume from the photograph, but he was only wearing the striped trousers and white shirt, not the jacket. He said Orville stood there for a minute and when he looked back he was gone.

I asked Jack if employees got a vibe about what Orville wanted or why he was there. He said that everyone feels he’s there to watch over them, in a good way. He said nobody feels any animosity coming from Orville when he appears. It’s my view that even though company instruments have changed and changed and changed over the decades from where Orville started, it’s all still wood, glue and tools to him. It’s all still a matter of the process to make an exceptional instrument. That’s what snags him.

Isn’t that what snags all of us?