The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga Part VII

When we last left the Saga Part VI, we were discussing whether Malcolm Gregory was ever involved in Gale Products, Inc. (GPI) and the rumor that Cesar Tschudin's Gale (CTG) was in possession of the "M.C. Gregory" molds and subsequently sold them to Charles Bay in 1969.  

We have direct evidence that shows the improbability of Gregory being involved in Gale (any Gale).  Why wasn't Gregory listed as a officer or director in the Articles of Incorporation for Gale Products, Inc.?  Why was he never added as an officer, director, or shareholder of the company?  We now know that some assets of Gale Products, Inc. were sold to a local jeweler, Cesar Tschudin, within one year of GPI being incorporated and subsequently failing.  Why wasn't Tschudin brought on board as a Director?  Or sold shares?  Or sold the corporation?  Why pay an attorney to incorporate a Gale Products, Inc. and then liquidate its assets and allow the corporation to dissolve within a year?  Why sell any assets if Malcolm Gregory was actually running the operation, i.e., if Gale was simply a continuation of his existing business?  

And look at what was sold to Mr. Tschudin.  Thousands of unfinished mouthpiece blanks.  Why didn't Gregory just help out his son-in-law if Gregory had his own mouthpiece business or was in any way involved in Gale?  Gregory is alleged to be a successful producer of mouthpieces (he rented a very nice house and, according to Gale Satzinger, was a neighbor of the actress and Hollywood sex symbol Jane Russell).  He could have simply taken all of those unfinished pieces "in house" as he was already employed in mouthpiece production for Rico Products.  And if Gregory owned GPI, why the apparent infusion by Rico of $17,600 in capital shown in the Articles of Incorporation?  And the kicker for me, if Malcolm Gregory had been directly involved with either Gale Products and/or Cesar Tschudin, why would Mr. Tschudin need to recruit an experienced partner like Elmer Beechler in 1949?   (Well, we actually saw why in Part VI, but I'm going to ignore that for the present.)

In light of the documentary evidence, continuing to claim that Gregory was involved in Gale doesn't make sense without a very elaborate (some might say fanciful) explanation.  It appears that Cesar Tschudin may have provided some of the required story.  And it could be that Charles Bay "filled in some of the gaps" where Mr. Tschudin didn't know the history.  In order for Malcolm Gregory to be connected to Gale Products, the M.C. Gregory Saga needed to go something like this.

Malcolm Gregory, a great studio woodwind musician, makes mouthpieces, some of which are distributed by Rico.  Gregory decides to change his business name to Gale Products, Inc., gets glaucoma, commits suicide in 1950, leaves his business to his devoted daughter Gale, she immediately dies in a house fire, and the family attorney (Mr. Tschudin) runs the "M.C. Gregory" business for 20 years.  In the end, JJ Babbitt makes the blanks and so ends up with the real "M.C. Gregory" molds.  Charles Bay buys what is left of Gregory's old company.  

There's your story.  We would need to ignore a lot of factual evidence that we have uncovered in order for this story to still seem plausible, but you can see that this tortured narrative is really the only way to make a tenuous connection between Gregory and either Gale Products, Inc or Cesar Tschudin's subsequent mouthpiece business.  

Most of the Rico advertising that we found only stated that Mr. Gregory was part of a design team on the Rico mouthpieces with little information on him as a fabricator.  Even the text of the M.C. Gregory Saga only states that Gregory designed a mouthpiece with the help of musicians.  It was the claim in the Saga that Gregory committed suicide in 1950 because of glaucoma that implied that Gregory was involved in the fine finish work. But from the incorrect glaucoma claim, people have since concocted an "M.C. Gregory factory" where M.C. personally performed the fine finish work on "his" mouthpieces. In effect, Malcolm Gregory only became a fabled mouthpiece fabricator after September of 1992, when people continued to embellish the M.C. Gregory Saga as it appeared in that month's Saxophone Journal.  We only found a few instances where Malcolm Gregory stated that he was involved in the manufacture of woodwind mouthpieces, sometimes on his "own account" and sometimes as an employee of Rico.

I don't think that Mr. Tschudin came up with the whole M.C. Gregory Saga by himself. He was aided by the passage of time, the interpretation of Charles Bay, the retelling by Ralph Morgan, and possibly the narrative provided to him by a "company attorney." After all, there actually was a company attorney involved.  Remember Nathan Snyder, the attorney who signed the Articles of Incorporation as a member of the Gale Products, Inc. Board of Directors?  He would likely have also been involved in the sale of any Gale Products, Inc. assets to Tschudin.  He wouldn't have to reveal the identity of his clients (the Rico principals Roy Maier and Frank de Michele) and they, important though they were, simply never appeared in the M.C. Gregory Saga.  Maybe Mr. Snyder even knew that Malcolm Gregory's daughter (Maxine) had died in a house fire the year before (it was national news for reasons unrelated to the mouthpiece business).  And somewhere along the line Malcolm Gregory's suicide got moved backwards from 1955 to 1950 in order to make the story plausible.  And Carl Satzinger became just some engineer and not Mr. Gregory's daughter's ex-husband and a founding principal in Gale Products, Inc.  And Mr. Gregory suffered from glaucoma.  Things had to get really, really jumbled up in order to claim that Gregory was ever involved with Cesar Tschudin or with Tchudin's decision to resurrect the Gale brand name for his own mouthpieces.

Speaking of jumbled up, let's go back and look at another alleged Gregory/Gale mouthpiece.  On several websites, the Rico "Reloplex" is alleged to be a Gregory/Gale mouthpiece with no explanation or factual support.  As we have seen, both the "M.C. Gregory" and the "Reloplex" brands were Rico mouthpieces.  

Fortunately, there is no mysterious Mr. Reloplex, a fine studio musician, about which we can make up a saga.  The Reloplex is just a Rico mouthpiece.

There isn't any evidence to indicate that the Rico Reloplex was made by either Malcolm Gregory, or GPI, or CTG.  The only "evidence" that we could find is that these two Rico mouthpiece advertisements appear on the same page.  The Reloplex is reported to have been available from 1950 into the 1970's, at which point Rico introduced a new line of mouthpieces.  The above advertisement is mid-1955, so Gale Products, Inc. had been out of business for six years and Mr. Gregory was dead.  For the Reloplex to have been made by CTG, that would mean that Rico Products went to Cesar Tschudin, the ski instructory/car washer/jewelry salesman who had purchased some of the assets of their defunct business venture, Gale Products, Inc., and contracted with him to produce their new flagship injection molded Reloplex mouthpiece.  I had my doubts, given Judy Beechler Roan's statement that "Tschudin was a jeweler and knew nothing about mouthpieces."  

Then, in a subsequent email with Judy, she mentioned that her father had once contracted to produce mouthpieces for Rico.  That contract was for the fabrication of the injection molded Rico Reloplex.  

It is time to take another look at Elmer Beechler.  Like Maier and de Michele, he was a musician from Chicago and showed up in various directories listed as a "dance hall musician."*  Married and with a small child, his wife died suddenly and he moved to New York.  In New York, he remarried (Sadie Roan, mother of Judy Beechler Roan).  From Judy's email:

"My Dad was playing with Joe Venuti and my Mom said he had been on the road long enough. Arnold Brilhart was a friend of his and offered him a job in the business he was starting.  My Dad, along with a gentleman named Dave Brucato made all of the original Brilhart mouthpieces.  My Dad worked with Arnold until we moved to California. We came to California around 1947."

We learned in Part VI that Elmer partnered with Mr. Tschudin for a very short time but left to continue his own mouthpiece business.  A few years later, when Rico Products was looking for somebody to produce a new model of mouthpiece for them, they approached Elmer Beechler.  Elmer had experience with the fabrication of both hard rubber and plastic/resin mouthpieces, something that Mr. Tschudin appears to have lacked.  In fact, during the start-up phase of Remlé Musical Products, Inc., Beechler had taken on contracts for the production of injection molded items in addition to mouthpieces (some for the aviation industry).

By 1953, Elmer Beechler's mouthpiece business was up and running.  He had earlier incorporated as Remlé Musical Products, Inc. (notice the acute "e" pronounced like the French word for father "pére".  (Sounding French is still good business).  No similar advertisements have been found for Gale Products, Inc.  I have never found even a mention of Cesar Tschudin's subsequently named Gale business.

Correspondence with Judy Beechler Roan is ongoing, and she is coming up with some more rather remarkable documents and evidence.  Some of it has to do with the Gregory molds.  The 1949 Tschudin inventory, shown at the end of Part V, lists a die (presumably a mold) and nothing is listed that has anything to do with Rico Gregory mouthpieces.  We have seen that it was also unlikely that Malcolm Gregory had anything to do with Gale Products, Inc. and its collapse, so it isn't likely that GPI had any "Gregory" molds to sell to Mr. Tschudin.  

But the Gregory Mouthpiece Saga implies that Mr. Bay ended up with the mold(s) that were in Tschudin's possession.  What exactly did Tschudin have?  Based on the documents and time line, it is unlikely that he had the Rico "M.C. Gregory" molds.  If the Gregory molds were the property of Rico, as it appears, it is unlikely that Rico would approach a jewelry salesman with no knowledge of mouthpiece fabrication, who purchased part of their failed business (Gale Products, Inc.), and whose first mouthpiece business venture (Remlé-Tschudin) also failed, and contract with him to make additional Gregory mouthpieces, including the new "Master by Gregory" (during Gregory's lifetime) or, still later, the new Rico Reloplex (also during Gregory's lifetime).   

And if Mr. Tschudin had sold any M.C. Gregory molds to Mr. Bay, that would mean that Bay could reproduce the mouthpieces used by Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, and others.  That was sort of hinted at in the Saga, but then there was this odd statement.  "In 1969 the making of mouthpieces was done in part by the J.J. Babbitt Co."  Does that mean that J.J. Babbitt ended up with the Gregory molds?  

There must currently be 10 different knockoffs of the vintage Otto Link Slant Signature hard rubber mouthpiece, so the demand is out there for famous vintage "tribute" pieces.  If you were in the business of making mouthpieces (like Mr. Bay) and you were a big fan of Gregory mouthpieces (like Bay) would you use the Gregory molds?  What would you do if you had the mold necessary to begin production of the very mouthpiece used by Paul Desmond?  Just think if you had any Gregory mold.  If only, if only, if only.  Yeah, it doesn't look like that part of the Gregory Mouthpiece Saga is accurate, either.  Sure enough, when the molds in the estate of Charles Bay were liquidated, there were no Gregory molds.

What would those old M.C. Gregory molds look like if we were to find them?  They would look like these.  Hey, look!! Right in the middle is the alto 18 chamber plug we could use to make the exact chamber for a new Paul Desmond tribute mouthpiece!

Those are recent pictures of the mold pieces used for making the various Rico "M.C. Gregory" chambers.  They are stored in old cardboard tubes that are stamped with the "M.C. Gregory Los Angeles" diamond logo (a Rico Products trademark).  That's what we would expect Mr. Bay to have purchased if Mr. Tschudin had run Malcolm Gregory's mouthpiece business for 20 years.  But these didn't come from Bay.  They came from boxes that Elmer Beechler had in storage.  After our contact with Judy Beechler Roan, she decided to go back through some boxes that her father had in storage. 

We now know that Mr. Beechler was retained by Rico to produce the Reloplex.  It appears that Rico may have had other molds in their possession, some of which ended up with Elmer Beechler.  Hmmm, we should look more closely at old Beechler hard rubber mouthpieces!  It is more likely that those old Beechler pieces are M.C. Gregory clones than it is that Gale ever produced any Gregory pieces.  Wait, I'm just kidding!  You can see how easy it is to start new saxophone lore. 

After Charles Bay passed in 2016, the molds in his possession showed up on Ebay.  As expected, they were the molds used for the Gale Companion and other pieces not associated with Rico's M.C. Gregory line of mouthpieces.  And further, many of the finished and unfinished mouthpieces were blanks produced by Babbitt and Riffault.  So Mr. Bay's statement that "In 1969 the making of mouthpieces was done in part by the J.J. Babbitt Co." might more accurately be interpreted as Cesar Tschudin had been purchasing blanks from Babbitt for years, maybe decades, as did Mr. Bay after purchasing Mr. Tschudin's "Gale" business. 

I'm going to end Part VII here.  I think that I said at the start that there would be three more parts, and now I have already written four.  And I'm going to write a fifth, maybe a sixth.  Along the way, I've included some of my best guesses as to what happened just because it is difficult to not make conclusions when presented with new facts (or maybe the only facts).  In Part VIII, I'll give my theory of what probably happened and how one might further find out what actually happened.  




* Although the original Saga states that M.C. Gregory was a "fine studio musician," he is really the only "player" in the Saga for which there is no evidence of this.  Roy Maier is listed all over the place as a sax player.  Frank de Michele was listed in various places as an orchestra leader, had copyrighted music scores to his name, and was given credit as the clarinetist Walt Disney's classic Pinocchio.  Even the early Rico partner Lloyd Broadus is listed as a musician (from the age of 14).  Malcolm Gregory's known musical experience is several months in the army and (after working in an L.A. shoe store) three years working as a "department manager" in an L.A. music store.  We could find no musical credits to his name.

The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga Part V

When we left Part IV of the Gregory Mouthpiece Saga, we were looking at Gale Products, Inc., incorporated in 1948, and supposedly (one person claims) a continuation of Malcolm Gregory's mouthpiece business.  It was implied in the original Saga that Gale Products, Inc. continued production of Gregory mouthpieces until it was sold to Charles Bay in 1969.  Further, the original Saga, when published in the Saxophone Journal, stated that the newly formed Bay-Gale Products began producing mouthpieces "one of them being the Gregory sax mouthpieces."  I can't wait to find some evidence a Bay-Gale-Gregory mouthpiece.  I'm not holding my breath.  The entire Bay-Gale-Gregory Saga is based on a strange theory of "corporate inheritance" that is factually inaccurate and legally impossible.

First, let's go back to the founding of Gale.  The 1948 Articles of Incorporation list the founding shareholders and the complete Board of Directors for Gale Products, Inc.  They are Carl Satzinger, Roy J. Maier of Rico Products, Ltd., Frank V. De Michele of Rico Products, Ltd., plus a well known L.A. attorney, Nathan H. Snyder, and his secretary.  (It's not unusual for an attorney, and even his secretary, to sign incorporation papers at the inception of a corporation if there are insufficient principals to comprise a full five-member Board of Directors.)  The business venture was named Gale, after Carl Satzinger's daughter.  

There are two immediate things in the Articles of Incorporation that don't support the story related in the original Gregory Mouthpiece Saga.  First, Malcolm Gregory is nowhere to be seen in the newly formed Gale Products, Incorporated, which was claimed in the Saga to be "his" company.*  The company needed five directors to incorporate under California law, yet Malcolm Gregory was not one of them.  Second, Maier and De Michele, the primary partners in Rico Products, are listed as Directors of Gale Products, Inc. and the Articles seem to indicate that there was a $17,600 infusion of capital to start the new company.  Why would all of this be necessary if Gale Products, Inc. was merely a continuation of Malcolm Gregory's existing mouthpiece business?  Why would Malcolm take on the principals of Rico Products as business partners and leave himself out?  The short answer is he wouldn't and he didn't.  Gale Products, Inc. was a distinct business entity completely separate from whatever Malcolm was doing for Rico.

We have two choices here.  Either Malcolm was never an officer or director in "his" new company or it was not Malcolm's company.  That is an easy choice for me.  I should also note that the attorney, Nathan Snyder, was not just any attorney.  His father, Herman Snyder, was an employee at Lockie Music Exchange in Los Angeles and, along with the Lockie family, was a silent partner in Rico Products.  So on the Board of Directors for Gale Products was Roy Maier of Rico Products, Frank De Michelle of Rico Products, and Nathan Snyder of Rico Products.  Given this new evidence, can anybody now seriously claim that Gale Products was M.C. Gregory's company and not a subsidiary of Rico Products?

There is no evidence at all that Gale was any type of continuation of Rico's prior "M.C. Gregory" line of mouthpieces (which was never independently incorporated) or that Malcolm Gregory was ever involved in any way with Gale Products, Inc.  In fact, there is really no evidence that Malcolm Gregory was anything other than an employee of Rico Products.  Based on what we now know, to support an extraordinary claim that Malcolm Gregory was involved with Gale Products we are going to need some extraordinary evidence.

At about this time, the catalogs that had featured Rico's M.C. Gregory Model A and Model B stopped advertising those mouthpieces.  It is not clear whether those pieces continued in production and, if so, who produced them.  The newly incorporated Gale Products, Inc. began making completely different models (a torpedo shaped piece, and later, the Gale Companion, apparently the same model re-badged, although the Gale Companion went through several changes over the years.)  There were also some oddball pieces like the Gale Triple Rail.     

Early Gale pieces were imprinted "Hollywood" in script.  On Rico Gregory pieces, "Hollywood" (and the earlier "Los Angeles") were always in block text.  Gale pieces never had serial numbers.  M.C. Gregory pieces always had serial numbers.  Looking only at the models and stamping on the mouthpieces, it is difficult to assert that any Gale Products mouthpieces are related to any Gregory pieces, as was alleged in the original Gregory Mouthpiece Saga.  It appears more likely that the pieces were fabricated at different facilities.  

This is a quote from the website Saxophone.org Mouthpiece Museum "From what we have seen Gale Hollywood mouthpieces were kind of all over the place as far as stamping goes.  It seems they never stuck to one thing."  Further, Gale mouthpieces never used the embossing stamps used on known Gregory pieces.  Gregory pieces seem neat and tidy compared to Gale pieces.  If Malcolm Gregory was directly involved, how did things get so loosey goosey?

Satzinger family members were familiar with Carl Satzinger having developed a logo for Gale Products, Inc.  Carl was proud of the round circle formed by the letters GALE.** Here is the custom logo on a Gale Products, Inc. metal tenor piece.

Here is Satzinger's GALE logo on a hard rubber piece.

The Rico partners involvement with Gale Products, Inc. didn't have nearly the success that Rico was having with the M.C. Gregory brand.  Gregory brand Rico mouthpieces, when advertised in the 1930's and 40's, sold at a slight premium even over the Otto Link hard rubber Tone Edge mouthpieces of the era.  Then, the Gregory brand was dropped from the Selmer catalogs, but Gale Products, Inc. mouthpieces were not picked up.  In fact, it appears that paid advertising for Gale mouthpieces is non-existent, although other Rico Products accessories continued to be offered in the later Selmer catalogs and advertised elsewhere.  And none of the Gale mouthpieces ever stated "Rico Products, Ltd. Distributors" even though we now know that the partners of Rico Products were directly involved with Gale Products as members of its Board of Directors (and certainly shareholders and investors.)

So how long was Gale Products, Inc. in business?  Some people, based only on what Charles Bay claimed, think that it was sold to Bay in 1969.  Not true.  Gale Products, Inc. was incorporated on April 5, 1948, as shown in Part IV of the Saga.  In order to remain a California corporation in good standing, it would make yearly corporate filings and pay excise tax by April 15th of each succeeding year.  That never happened.  Here is the record of the Franchise Tax payments made by Gale Products, Inc., which I also obtained from the California Secretary of State.  



It is blank.  That means that the corporate status of Gale Products, Inc. was revoked and it was administratively dissolved in 1949 for failure to make its mandatory corporate filings.  Gale Products didn't last a year!  A legal courier service in Sacramento was hired and found that there are no further documents or filings of any kind at the Office of the Secretary of State.  Malcolm Gregory was never added to the Gale Board of Directors.  By April of 1949 the corporation was dissolved.  Satzinger, De Michele, Snyder and Maier were "out" of the business and it was shut down.  There is no evidence that Malcolm Gregory was ever "in" and there is plenty more incontrovertible evidence, as we will see, that he was never involved with Gale Products in any way.  

Going back to the Articles of Incorporation for a moment, Carl Satzinger lists his address as 1096 Stueben Street, Pasadena, in April of 1948.  In the 1949 LA City Directory, Carl is back temporarily living at his mother's home (where his daughter Gale lived) with no occupation listed.  Satzinger family members said that this was not uncommon, based on his life-long battle with alcoholism and drugs.  It looks like something went wrong with Gale Products, Inc.

We also found evidence that when Gale Products, Inc. was dissolved in 1949, some of the corporation's assets were sold to a local jewelry salesman named Cesar Tschudin.  Remember Cesar Tschudin, alleged to be the "company attorney" who "tried to run the business for some 20 years" after Gale died until it was sold it to Bay in 1969?  When I first read this I thought it was goofy.  In what world does a "company attorney" inherit a client's business when his client dies?

Okay, first we know that there was no Gregory company, so there was no Gregory company attorney.  The California Bar Association has no record of Cesar Tschudin (no surprise).  And there is no evidence that Cesar Tschudin ran the family business after Gale died (which she did not).  Or that Tschudin ever met Malcolm Gregory.  Or that Tschudin ever worked with Rico Products.  Or that Tschudin played a musical instrument.  But we do now know that Cesar Tschudin was a really good ski jumper, photographer, and later a jewelry salesman.  I'll bet Charles Bay and Ralph Morgan did not know that.

Cesar Tschudin emigrated to the United States from Switzerland.  He worked in New York as a newspaper photographer before moving to Estes Park, Colorado, where he taught ski lessons in the 1920's.  Here is an excerpt from the newspaper Estes Park Trail from January 18, 1924:

Swiss Ski Expert will Direct Activities in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park 

Cesar Tschudin, a Swiss army ski instructor, will arrive in Estes Park Monday from New York City, New York, to take charge of the winter sports season in Estes Park. Mr. Tschudin for years was director of winter sports at the famous winter sports resort in Bergen, Switzerland, previous to his connection with the army ski corps, and is well versed in all the winter sports activities, as well as the Scandinavian sport of ski jumping. He will not only direct the winter sports activities in Estes Park, under the supervision of the Outing Committee of the Estes Park Group of the Colorado Mountain Club, but he will give instruction in the various sports as well, being at the command of all who wish to spend a few days in Estes Park during the winter season from 15 January 1924 to 15 April 1924, this being a part of the service the community wished to extend to its winter visitors. Free instruction is offered the visitors in the following sports: Ski jumping, fancy skiing, tobogganing, bobsledding, and crosscountry skiing.

He later moved to L.A. where city directories and census reports list him as a salesman of redwood novelty items (1930) and jewelry (1940).  There is no evidence that he manufactured redwood novelty items or jewelry (i.e., that had any fabrication experience).***  In between these two occupations, several L.A. city directories list Cesar Tschudin's occupation as "auto washer."

Here he is in a 1937 petition for the naturalization of his Swedish wife.

 At the time, he was living here in Apartment number 6 as an auto washer.

In late 1948 or early 1949, Cesar Tschudin purchased some equipment and the remaining inventory of the defunct corporation Gale Products, Inc. and attempted to start his own mouthpiece business (it is still unclear whether he continued his auto washing or jewelry business while trying to start a mouthpiece business).  How do we know that he purchased some of the assets?  Here is an inventory (on his jewelry business letterhead) that Tschudin prepared in April of 1949.  

We don't know if he prepared the inventory in order to recruit a partner or to secure a lender for the purchase of some of the remaining assets of the defunct Gale Products, Inc.  It appears that he was going to call his new business "GEM," a good choice for a jewelry salesman.  He already had a two embossing stamps for GEM (final items in the inventory) and a "California" stamp, neither of which were used on the Gale Products or M.C. Gregory brand mouthpieces.  We will see Cesar Tchudin's use of both of these stamps in a subsequent blog.

That's enough for Part V of the Gregory Mouthpiece Saga.  In Part VI, I will continue with some of the additional documentary evidence and my theory as to how all of the history got jumbled up.


*  The claim that Gale was M.C. Gregory's company has been repeated all over on the internet, but all of them rely on the same source, i.e., the original misstatement in the Saxophone Journal that M.C. Gregory had a daughter named Gale and incorporated a new company using her name.  We now have documentary proof that is not true.  The duration and repetition of the Gale/Gregory claim makes the incorrect assertion hard to correct, but it does not change the facts (for me).  The same is true for the internet claims that Malcolm Gregory had his own business, or that Cesar Tschudin was an attorney, etc., etc.

**  Carl's niece told me that Carl was watching his mother knit one evening when the idea came to him.  That information required me to do some crazy research (just like with everything else in this blog).  Carl's mother and father (Anna and Otto Satzinger) had close connections to the old country.  Otto was born there. Apparently, so were Anna's knitting needles.  There is a well known Swedish company, Gunnar Anderssons Vävskedsfabrik, that started making knitting needles in 1926.  The abbreviation GAV appeared on the round head of their wooden knitting needles in the shape of a circle.  Carl used the same design for his logo GALE.  You can still see the old logo at the top of the Gunnar Anderssons Vävskedsfabrik website, although the company has since changed its name.

***  Not that being a jeweler, as opposed to a jewelry salesman, is a bad background for metal mouthpiece fabrication.  Arthur Goldbeck was a Chicago jeweler who patented a metal mouthpiece in 1920 that was used by others, including Mr. Otto Link.  The design patent (good for 14 years) was for a metal mouthpiece, cast in two pieces, that was then carefully brazed together.  When that patent ran out in 1934, the spectrum of metal mouthpieces increased.  Otto was able to change his metal design to the Tone Master.

I should note that the actual design in the patent was petitioned and held by Frank Kaspar (1888-1979), a noted mouthpiece facer.  For some reason he partnered with Goldbeck and used the Goldbeck name on the mouthpiece.

After the patent ran out and others started using the two-half process for metal mouthpieces, the Goldbeck metal mouthpiece was discontinued and Mr. Kaspar returned to using ebonite blanks and concentrating on clarinet mouthpieces, for which he was well known.  Frank Kaspar clarinet mouthpieces using a Riffault blank, sometimes mistakenly called a "Chedeville" blank, are discussed at the end of this blog.


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The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga, Part IV

In 1992, a three-part article appeared in the Saxophone Journal written by Ralph Morgan.  In addition to his talents and accomplishments as a fabricator of mouthpieces, Mr. Morgan was also a woodwind historian.  The article, The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga, gave an accounting of the history of M.C. Gregory, allegedly a Los Angeles mouthpiece maker.  The basics of the article were from Mr. Morgan's interview of Charles Bay, another well known mouthpiece maker.  M.C. Gregory had been dead for almost 40 years by that time, so the article was based primarily on secondary sources, i.e., what people remembered about what other people had said.  Other parts seemed to have been just made up.  This blog, Parts IV through VIII of The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga, if you will, is based on more direct evidence.  

This information was gathered in a collaborative effort, almost a full year, with Paul Panella (bluto on Sax On The Web).   We went back and forth, round and round, and back and forth some more on trying to decipher what we were learning and trying to align that with the prior stated history of M.C. Gregory.  It was frustrating to find evidence that just couldn't be reconciled with prior allegations.  For me personally, I basically decided to ignore most of the prior assertions and just go with what evidence we could uncover.  We found "dots" of evidence, but connecting the dots requires some (ongoing) guess work.  And if we had a picture in our minds of what the dots would create, that could effect how we tried to connect them.  All in all, a frustrating and fascinating endeavor. 

Why so many new parts to the Saga?  Because there is so much to correct.  Where the new parts of the Saga are based on conjecture, I'll try to make that apparent so that you can draw your own conclusions.  I will also include my own analysis and conclusions.  

A partial cast of characters:

• Malcolm Culver Gregory
• Carl Max Satzinger
• Arnold Koenig Satzinger
• Gale Satzinger
• Roy John Maier
• Frank Vincent De Michelle
• Cesar A. Tschudin
• Elmer Harold Beechler
• Judy Beechler Roan
• Nathan Harris Snyder

To begin at the beginning, M.C. Gregory was born in Beloit, Wisconsin on April 26, 1891.  On his 1917 World War I registration card, he lists himself as a postal clerk in Redfield, South Dakota, with a wife and one daughter.  He went into the service on August 10, 1918 and was honorably discharged on February 4, 1919, having attained the rank of "Musician 3rd class" in a Texas regiment.  

The picture is not of M.C. Gregory, just what he might have looked like had he played the saxophone as a doughboy.  Well, maybe not the cape.  Unfortunately, there is no evidence that he played a woodwind and I have yet to locate his service records, although they may exist.*

The war ended November 11, 1918, so Mr. Gregory was only in the U.S. Army several months and he never left the country.  (His contemporary, Mr. Otto Link, had a similar, even shorter, military experience, but that will have to wait for the Link Mouthpiece Saga).  Shortly after being discharged, Mr. Gregory moved his family to California, where his parents had previously moved.  His father Wallis was a private investigator in southern California.
Gale mouthpiece Gale Mouthpiece Gale Mouthpiece 
We next find him living with his wife Hazel and daughter at his mother-in-law's house in Glendale, California in 1920.  The 1920 census shows that there was also a guest at the house; Gregory's 60 year-old mother, Mary Gregory,(nèe Culver) who lists her occupation as a piano teacher.  That could be the source of Mr. Gregory's musical training (if any).  He lists his occupation as a clerk at a shoe store.  Ten years later in the 1930 census, he lists his occupation as a salesman at a music publishing house.   He had remarried (Gladys) and his then 13 year-old daughter was living with his first wife Hazel (who had also remarried).
Gale Mouthpiece Gale Mouthpiece Gale Mouthpiece 
We should now go back and look at The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga as printed in the Saxophone Journal.  The following words in italics and quotations marks are a direct transcription of the assertions made.  The article picks up where the above history stops and, based on Charles Bay's understanding of events, states that M.C. Gregory was "a fine woodwind man in the Hollywood studios" who developed a line of mouthpieces in the 1930's and named his company (Gale Products) after his daughter, Gale."  Mr. Gregory distributed his mouthpieces through "the Rico company, then based in France."  Mr. Gregory later "contracted glaucoma and lost the sight of one eye" and committed suicide.  Charles Bay told Ralph Morgan that "Gale, in fact, was M.C.  Gregory's daughter, to whom he was very devoted, and who took a great interest in the firm." Gale Gregory ran the business until she "lost her life in a house fire."  The company was then run for 20 years by the "company attorney, Cesar Tschudin," who many years later sold the company to Bay.  The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga also mentions Carl Satzinger as an engineer who developed the molds and equipment used by M.C. Gregory.  There is also a claim that a super-secret special rubber compound was provided by a local rubber manufacturer.  We've heard that one before.  And there is quite a bit of text about how Bay really admired M.C. Gregory mouthpieces and jumped at the opportunity to own what he believed was "Gregory's old company."
Gale Mouthpiece Gale Mouthpiece Gale Mouthpiece 
We might as well stop at this point because the facts don't support any of this story.  In prior blogs, I have advocated that we should use Carl Sagin's rule of critical thinking - "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."  I generally find that evidence, let alone extraordinary evidence, tends to be lacking in claims about musical instruments and accessories.  I'm going to give you my theory as to why that is. 
Gale Mouthpiece Gale Mouthpiece Gale Mouthpiece 
Musicians like things that sound good.  That's what making music is all about.  If an instrument or an accessory sounds good, musicians will buy it.  This also holds true as to assertions about musical instruments and accessories.  If an assertion about a musical accessory sounds good, musicians will buy it.  If the story sounds fantastic, they'll buy it.  If it sounds incredible, even unbelievable, they will still buy it.  I will try to resist this tendency of "musical make-believe" in telling a different version of The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga. 

Right from the start, we should note that nowhere in the original Saga is Mr. Gregory referred to by his actual name.  He is called "M.C." Gregory because that is the brand name Rico used on their mouthpieces.  His actual name was Malcolm Culver Gregory.  One would think that Mr. Bay and Morgan would have known that had they done any research.  Further, our research showed that he didn't use the nickname "M.C.," but rather, Malcolm went by the nickname "Greg."  Hmmmmm.

Malcolm Gregory did not have a daughter named Gale.  He did not have a company named Gale.  In fact, he never had a company, ergo, he did not have a company attorney named Cesar Tschudin.  Cesar Tschudin was not an attorney.  It is extremely unlikely that Malcolm even met Cesar Tschudin.  There is no evidence that Carl Satzinger developed any molds and equipment used by Malcolm.  We have no evidence that Malcolm played a woodwind or was a fine musician (nowhere is he listed as a musician of any type, unlike other characters in this Saga**).  In fact, we found scant direct evidence that Malcolm Gregory was actually involved in the physical production of mouthpieces.  We found more credible evidence that Malcolm was not involved in the actual fabrication, only the finish work for Rico.  I could go on, but maybe we should just go back to what we actually know about Malcolm Culver Gregory and his involvement in the mouthpiece business.  
Gale Companion Gale Hollywood Gale Companion
Most of the new information comes from public records.  Some of the information comes from my conversations with Gale.  Remember Gale?  Malcolm Gregory's daughter who died in a house fire?  Since both Paul and I have recently talked with her, that integral mistaken part of The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga is easy to correct.  Gale's alleged operation of the "company" after Malcolm's death in 1950, her subsequent death, and the 20-year operation of the company by her attorney are all essential and fundamental parts of the original Saga.  If those allegations aren't true, then the Saga isn't true.  (Gale doesn't remember Malcolm ever playing a musical instrument or fabricating mouthpieces.  Not that he didn't.  It's just strange that she never saw or heard of him playing woodwind mouthpieces.  Back to our story.)
Gale Companion Gale Hollywood Gale Hollywoood

Malcolm Gregory's only daughter was named Maxine.  She was married at the age of 17 to Carl Satzinger, age 25.  She was married in Arizona, apparently under an alias, and the marriage certificate was signed by her birth mother, Hazel, as Maxine was a minor at the time.  All of this, and much more, was learned by accessing census records, city directories, phone books, draft registrations, marriage licenses, the California Secretary of State, etc.  Hard evidence tells a much different story than the one alleged in the original M.C. Gregory Saga. 
Gale Companion Gale Hollywood Gale Companion

Malcolm Gregory listed himself as a "Department Manager" at Platt Music in 1934 through 1936.  Platt Music had a business model where it leased space in larger department stores (as the store's music department).  Malcolm either worked in the music department at a store or in the Platt Building in downtown Los Angeles.  Either way, he had a day job as a music store department manager, not as a studio musician as alleged in the original M.C. Gregory Saga.***

In the 1937 Los Angeles directory, Malcolm lists his occupation as "musical instruments."  Also in 1937, the "M.C. Gregory" line of mouthpieces first appears in the Selmer U.S.A. catalog.  In 1938, a city directory states that Malcolm worked at 1008 Hill Street in Los Angeles.  Here's a picture of it.  You can see that it's available for rent!

In 1939, Gregory worked at 5907 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles.  That store front is also still standing and was available for rent, but when I recently went back to Google Earth, the sign had been taken down.  

Neither location is what anybody would call a "factory."****  They are of sufficient size to run a music store or maybe a one or two man mouthpiece finishing operation.  Since they were storefront properties, it would be expensive space for just a fabrication business.  Unfortunately, we never found any proof that Malcolm Gregory actually fabricated a mouthpiece at these locations or paid the rent at these locations.    

You may have read something about an M.C. Gregory "Company" as was asserted in the Saga.  If we want to engage in musical make-believe, we can even invent a name like Gregory Musical Instruments.  That company did exist in 1938-39.  Unfortunately, it was in Bridgewater, Pennsylvania.  I could not find any reference to a Los Angeles business name under Malcolm, M.C., Greg Gregory, etc.  No California corporations were ever formed under that name.  From that, I conclude that there never was a company.  I should say that there never was a Gregory company.  And we can support that with documentation.

There was a yearly Los Angeles directory for musical instrument manufacturers.  Here is a page from the 1942 Los Angeles city directory.  Listed under musical instrument manufacturers are names that you might recognize.  F.E. Olds and Sons.  Reed Corporation of America (at 407 E. Pico Blvd.)  Rico Products Ltd. (at 5905 Melrose Ave.).  Note that Rico Products specifically states that they manufacture "mouth pieces" at that address.  Also note that the Rico Products (5905 Melrose) is the same addresses given by Malcolm Gregory has his places of employment (5907 Melrose).  5905 is the "man" door and 5907 is the "garage" door at the same site (shown above in the Google Earth photo above).  In the 1942 L.A. directory, Malcolm lists himself as "manager at Rico Products."

The Los Angeles woodwind mouthpiece fabricators listed in the 1940 LA city directory.  William Naujoks and Everett McLaughlin (shown under Instrument Repair) also made mouthpieces, including a collaborative effort called the Sil-Va-Lae.  Check out the address for Mr. McLaughlin.  Small world, as he was also "next door" to Rico.  Earl Strickler, listed under repair, also fabricated instruments and is associated with F.E. Olds.  So it appears that every LA mouthpiece company of note is listed.  There was no listing for Mr. Malcolm Gregory or his "company" like there is for Rico Products, his employer.  So what was the model name of the mouthpiece that Rico Products Ltd. made at the time?  I'll give you a clue.  It starts with the initials M.C.

We also researched the 1940 United States census, which for the first time included a category called "working on own account."  I even found the instructions given to the 1940 census workers as to how to determine whether a person was an employer, an employee, or working on own account (abbreviated "OA"), the three possible designations for that census period.  While "OA" is not exactly a clear statement of what was going on, it does provide some insight as to how Malcolm was earning a living.  

First of all, according to the directions given to census workers at the time, if you were employing anybody, you were listed as an employer.  So we know that Malcolm was not an employer.  Not of his wife Gladys, or Karl Satzinger, or his daughter Maxine or granddaughter Gale, or anyone else.  That makes it impossible to assert that he had a "company."  

Second, if he was working both on his own account and as a Rico employee at the same time, whichever source of funds was greater would have determined his census status.  The 1940 direction to census workers gave an example.  If a doctor works solely for fees, he is working on his own account.  If he employs an assistant, even if it is his wife, he is an employer.  If he also works at a hospital, and derives more funds from that, then he is an employee even though he works on his own account at other times.

The 1940 instructions to census workers goes on with other examples.  If a "washerwoman" (1940 terminology) works at a laundry, she is an employee.  If she also washes laundry at home at night (e.g., shirts at 15 cent each), she might be working on her own account if she makes more on the piece work than at her daytime employment.  A person could work for the L.A. Times newspaper as an employee, but if they were only selling papers on the street on a commission basis ("Read all about it!"), then they are working on their own account.

The census shows that Malcolm was working on his own account with his wife Gladys as a "helper," not as an employee of "his business."  In fact, he could not have any employees and still be listed as "OA" on the 1940 census.  

Line 44 is Malcolm Gregory working on his own account (OA).  Line 45 is Gladys Gregory listed as "NP," a "not paid" helper.

Malcolm Gregory never incorporated a business and it doesn't look like he ever had an actual stand alone business.  I think I know why that was.  No matter where he claimed as a business address, the first "M.C. Gregory" Model A and Model B mouthpieces were all stamped "Rico" or "Rico Products, Ltd. Distributors."  In the original Gregory Mouthpiece Saga, Charles Bay believed that Rico Products was a French company that distributed "some" of M.C. Gregory's mouthpieces.  The Saga states "The Rico line of mouthpieces was a carbon copy of the Gregory, but with the Rico logo also imprinted above the Gregory name."  That gives the impression that Mr. Gregory personally fabricated mouthpieces in his own business, some of which were distributed by Rico.  Unfortunately, there is no evidence of any early Gregory pieces that were not stamped "Rico" or "Rico Products, Ltd. Distributors" and distributed exclusively by Rico (in the U.S. and not in France).  That led us to suspect that Malcolm Gregory was very closely affiliated with Rico and might have been part of Rico Products, Ltd. from the start.  

Mr. Gregory's association with Rico Products appears to have been more than a close business relationship.  In the same 1939 Los Angeles directory consulted above, Rico Products' business address was also listed as 5907 Melrose Ave.  We now know that Malcolm Gregory was an employee of Rico when Rico was producing the "M.C. Gregory" brand of mouthpieces.  We also know that Mr. Gregory was never included in any directories as a mouthpiece fabricator.

Malcolm's 1941 WWII draft registration card shows him as a self-employed "reed instrument mouthpiece maker," but he states that his then business address was 407 E. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles.  That was the business address of Rico and the Reed Corporation of America at the time.  So while he was listed as working on his "own account" pursuant to the definition in the 1940 census, in 1941 he also considered himself employed at Rico as a "mouthpiece maker."

In the 1942 Los Angeles City Directory, Mr. Gregory lists himself as a "manager" at Rico Products.  Not as the owner of a woodwind mouthpiece business, but a manager at Rico Products, i.e., an employee of Rico.  As we have seen in the 1942 directory, Rico lists themselves as the "manufacturer of mouthpieces" at a time when the M.C. Gregory brand was Rico's only brand of mouthpiece.

All woodwind players know Rico Products because of Rico reeds.  They might even be familiar with some of Rico Products major partners at the time, Roy J. Maier, Lloyd G. Broadus,***** and Frank V. De Michele.  More on them in later blogs.

Based on the historical evidence, it is difficult to see any distinction between Mr. Gregory and his employer, Rico Products.  There might have been some business justification for making "M.C. Gregory" brand mouthpieces appear distinct from Rico Products, with Rico only being a "distributor," but in reality the businesses seem to have been one and the same, with Malcolm Gregory being an employee of Rico during some of, and maybe the entire, relationship.  Maybe a mouthpiece embossed with the name M.C. Gregory "sounds better" to a musician than the same mouthpiece embossed with just the name Rico Products?  But the fact is that we could find no evidence, other than the garbled claims in the original M.C. Gregory Saga, that Malcolm Gregory ever played a woodwind and surprisingly little evidence that he was involved in the fabrication of mouthpieces.

Gregory's 1940 census designation as "OA" (working on own account) is perfectly in line with producing mouthpieces for Rico on a piece rate basis.  Piece rate work, like the 15 cents per shirt laundry example above, was common at the time but fell out of favor because it was so easy for an "employer" to take advantage of workers.  A classic case of the era was a trucking business that paid workers piece rate for every pallet that they unloaded.  If a freight truck wasn't there, they got nothing.  Since they weren't considered employees, they had to wait outside on the loading dock until the next truck showed up.  Examples like this (the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court) lead to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which then lead to a reduction in piece work contracts.  

(2022 Update: Since this blog was posted in 2017, the 1950 census reports were released to the public.  As suspected, Malcolm (age 57) was listed as an "employee" of a "private musical instrument company" working "20 hours a week" as a "processor."  His wife was not listed as working.  So everything still points to him working for Rico Products (part time in 1950) and never having a stand alone mouthpiece business).

As we will see in a subsequent blog, it is likely that Malcolm Gregory was producing mouthpieces for Rico on a piece work basis (OA) and making more money from that than from wages at Rico (if any).  Rico could request 100 tenor mouthpieces in a certain chamber/lay and Malcolm would receive X cents per piece when they were completed.  That also comports with Rico being the sole source of Gregory mouthpieces and Gregory not having a company, or a business, or even control of the mouthpiece molds.  It also makes sense that the M.C. Gregory line of mouthpieces had serial numbers (not true with later Gale Products mouthpieces) in order to keep track of the number of pieces that Mr. Gregory produced for Rico.

Here is the first public advertisement we could find for M.C. Gregory mouthpieces or, more accurately, Rico's M.C. Gregory brand of mouthpieces.  In the 1937 and 1938 Selmer catalog, the Rico trademarked treble clef and staff lines logo is embossed above the Gregory diamond logo.  

The text claims that Rico enlisted a group of people to develop the "RICO" model mouthpiece for them.  It was designed by M.C. Gregory with a team of musicians and technicians.  No claims were ever made in the early advertisements that Mr. Gregory actually had anything to do with the fabrication of the Rico mouthpieces.  "RICO" model mouthpieces were available for several instruments and in many different lays and chamber configurations.  But it is a "RICO" model mouthpiece featuring Rico's new trademark (at page 2).  Thank you, Mr. Gregory, for participating in the development of a line of mouthpieces for Rico Products, Ltd. 

Back in the day, if you wanted to buy a Link, Dukoff, or Beechler mouthpiece, you could contact Otto Link, Bobby Dukoff, or Elmer Beechler directly.  They each advertised at the time and were included in various trade journals.  You could simply look up their name, address, and phone number if you wanted to contact them to purchase a mouthpiece.  If you wanted to buy an M.C. Gregory brand mouthpiece, you contacted Rico Products.  Until we started this research, nobody even knew that M.C. stood for Malcolm Culver.  Apparently, not even Mr. Bay.  Not that it matters, as Malcolm went by the nickname Greg.  But his anonymity and fusion with Rico indicates that he was never a stand alone business.

Decades later, it was claimed (only by Charles Bay) that M.C. Gregory produced mouthpieces, only some of which were distributed by Rico, and some people lost track of the "RICO" model and "Gregory by Rico" history.  And, just like Betty Crocker is considered a great cook, Malcolm Gregory is now a stand-alone master mouthpiece fabricator.  What he actually did regarding mouthpiece fabrication isn't clear.  In the 1940 census, he lists he and his wife as involved in mouthpiece making, but as to who did what, that part is lost to us.  It is entirely possible that Gladys Gregory is the one responsible for the fine hand finishing on the "RICO" aka "Gregory" mouthpieces.

Let's look at some more of the earliest advertising.  In 1938, the mouthpieces were still advertised as "RICO" mouthpieces designed by M.C. Gregory (sorry about the low resolution).

The Gregory Mouthpiece Saga says that the logo in the middle bottom of the page was Rico's registered trademark in France.  Nope, but it was intended to look like Rico had some connection with France.  The M.C. Gregory Saga also states that the Rico Company was "then based in France."  Also not true.  At the time, it was run by two guys (Broadus and De Michelle) from Chicago.  Roy Maier officially joined the venture a year later.  Like other woodwind ventures at the time, implying a French connection "sounds better."  Broadus and De Michelle probably also thought that "Ltd" sounded classy, although it may have meant nothing.******

In 1943, it still appeared as a "RICO" mouthpiece with the "M.C. Gregory" model name.  In a 1943 picture advertisement, the diamond logo had moved above "Rico Products, Ltd Distributor."  

"Jimmy Simpson" mouthpieces came out at about the same time and have been lumped in with Gregory pieces, although it was just another Rico mouthpiece.  There is no evidence anywhere that Rico assigned Mr. Gregory to design or manage any aspect of the production of Rico's distinctly different "Simpson" mouthpiece.  And as with Rico's "M.C. Gregory" line of mouthpieces, there is no evidence that Mr. Simpson himself fabricated and/or finished "Jimmy Simpson" mouthpieces.  Mr. Simpson was the manager at Lockie Music Exchange, an early retailer of Rico Reeds.  A little more about the involvement of Lockie Music Exchange and Rico Products is in this blog.

We also looked at published tables for the tip openings and lays for mouthpieces of that era.  Here is a 1938 chart that has the facing numbers for Selmer, Goldbeck, Link, and other popular mouthpieces of the time.  It includes the facing numbers for the Rico tenor mouthpiece.  Notice that the Rico tip and chamber designations are what some now call "M.C. Gregory" tip and chamber numbers, because that is the only model of mouthpiece that Rico was making.  

Here is an old advertisement for both the Rico Reloplex and the Rico Gregory.  Actually, the ad says "Reloplex by Rico" and "Gregory by Rico."  Rico may have been producing the Reloplex and the Gregory models at the same time.  The Reloplex is injection molded plastic, a completely different manufacturing process, requiring the use of radically different equipment from any mouthpiece carrying the Gregory brand name.  

I understand that most musicians are not familiar with the difference between injection molded thermoplastics, cast resin, and compression molded vulcanized rubber, but come on.  Just because the advertisements are on the same page is not proof that Malcolm Gregory ever had anything to do with the Rico Reloplex.

Somehow this all got interpreted as Rico was only distributing mouthpieces for Mr. Gregory, and further, every Rico mouthpiece, including the Reloplex, the Mickey Gillette, and the Jimmy Simpson were handmade by M.C. Gregory.  Don't ask me how.  We actually found about as much evidence that Mr. Simpson fabricated the "Jimmy Simpson" pieces as we did that Mr. Gregory fabricated the "M.C. Gregory" mouthpieces, i.e., none.  I'll get to more evidence in Part VII that Gregory as the fabricator of these mouthpieces is not correct.

But let's move on to another player in the Saga.  In 1936, Carl Max Satzinger, who had married Malcolm's daughter Maxine in 1934, was working at a battery business in Monrovia, California.  Thus, he was working full time at a different location in a different industry when Rico first began marketing its "M.C. Gregory" brand of mouthpieces, so it is unlikely that Carl (a non-musician) somehow developed the first mouthpiece molds and equipment for Rico.  Carl later came to work with Gregory for a short period, but not "for" Gregory, as we now know that Malcolm did not have any employees.  In a later Los Angeles City Directory, Carl Satzinger listed himself as a "clerk" working with M.C. Gregory, whatever that means.  So there is some evidence of Malcolm Gregory and Carl Satzinger working together.  Apparently, Satzinger learned about woodwind mouthpieces from somebody, as Satzinger had no woodwind or musical experience.  

Oddly, by the 1940 census, Carl lists himself as a "manufacturer of musical instrument parts" with his "own business."  Like Malcolm Gregory, he was also working on his own account (OA), meaning that he was neither an employee or an employer.  He could have been another "helper" (like Gladys Gregory) in producing mouthpieces at piece rate for Rico Products.  Also strange is that in the 1940 Los Angeles City Directory Carl's younger brother, Arnold Satzinger, is listed as a machinist for musical instruments.  Arnold's 1942 WWII induction papers also list him as a machinist of musical instruments.  In speaking with his surviving children, none of them were familiar with this part of Arnold's work history.  Maybe Arnold Satzinger helped his brother Carl start a mouthpiece business by machining the molds?  It appears that may be what happened, as a business venture started by Carl (Gale Products, Inc.) had molds completely different and incompatible with the Rico Gregory molds, as we will see in a later blog.

Satzinger family members were familiar with the idea that Carl figured out a way to get around the rubber shortage during the war (Arnold went off to become a Navy pilot).  Carl developed a way to make mouthpieces out of resin (as did other mouthpiece makers).  What isn't as clear is what happened after the war.  Carl's brother Arnold went into the insurance business.  We can tell from newspaper articles that Carl and Maxine divorced in about 1947 (no divorce decree found yet).  Maxine died on Valentine's Day, 1949, apparently from smoking in bed in her LA bungalow apartment.  But the strangest thing that happened during this time is that a new mouthpiece venture, Gale Products, Inc., was incorporated on April 5, 1948.  

The Articles of Incorporation that I obtained from the California Secretary of State claim that Gale Products, Inc. had been in business since 1946.  That may or may not be accurate.  As with trademark and patent claims, incorporation claims are sometimes generously backdated.  It isn't clear just how much of a going concern Gale was in 1946.  Gale Products, Incorporated is not listed in either the Los Angeles or Hollywood business directories for the years 1946-48 (or ever).  

Gale brand mouthpieces are often claimed to somehow be M.C. Gregory brand mouthpieces.  The only "evidence" for this proposition was the garbled story as told in the original M.C. Gregory Mouthpiece Saga about Gale being Malcolm's daughter and Malcolm's attorney inheriting the business upon her death (instead of his surviving wife, Gladys???)  But there is a simple way of finding out if the assertions are accurate.  We can examine the Articles of Incorporation to see if Malcolm Gregory continued his company by naming it after his daughter, Gale.  Okay, we now know that he didn't have a company and that he did not name a new company after his daughter Gale because he didn't have a daughter named Gale.  But forget about all of the logical impossibilities shown so far.  Could it be possible that Gale Products being Malcolm's company is the one correct statement in the original M.C. Gregory Mouthpiece Saga?  Is there any plausible evidence that Malcolm Gregory was ever involved with Gale Products, Inc?

That is probably enough for Part IV of the Saga.  I'll pick up in Part V with what happened at the time Gale Products, Inc. went into business.

---

*   It appears that Malcolm Gregory's military service file may have been one of the thousands that were destroyed in a fire at the St. Louis National Personnel Records Center in 1973. I'm still exploring other avenues to try to determine whether he may have played a woodwind or if that is just another myth.

**  Research shows that Frank De Michelle was a bandleader in Chicago before coming to California.  He is listed as the writer of copyrighted music.  He was given musical credit for playing clarinet in Walt Disney's famous animated feature Pinocchio in the late 1930s.  Lloyd Broadus (the first partner in Rico) was listed in an early census as a full time musician (at the age of 14) before coming to California.  Roy Maier was a well known saxophonist with the Paul Whiteman orchestra (featuring a young singer named Harry Crosby but using the nickname "Bing").   We were unable to find a single mention of the supposed "studio musician" M.C. Gregory, Malcolm Gregory, or "Greg" Gregory as was apparently Malcolm's nickname.  For a little more history on Rico Products, check out this blog.


***  Mr. Gregory's employers, Roy Maier and Frank De Michele had worked as studio musicians, so this might be the source of the confusion regarding Mr. Gregory playing an instrument, although it appears that neither Mr. Bay or Mr. Morgan was familiar with Maier and De Michele's involvement.

**** The same is true of the "Meyer Brothers Factory," which some claim to have existed.  The Meyer brothers finished mouthpieces in New York and I traced the address to the factory, which was still standing a few years ago.  Here is a picture.

A title search would reveal whether it was Frank or Ed's home.  Obviously not a factory.

***** 11/22/17 update: While researching the startup of Rico Products, Ltd, for another blog, I came across the name of an original partner, Lloyd G. Broadus, who helped form Rico with Frank De Michele in about 1934. While looking for information on Mr. Broadus, I also checked the 1930 census for him and saw that he was a musician. I also recognized that I had seen that same census page before out of what must be tens of thousands of pages for the 1930 census. Several doors down from Lloyd Broadus was the home of Malcolm and Gladys Gregory. I may have found how M.C. Gregory, then working for a publishing business, became employed by Rico Products. I will link to a subsequent blog on Mr. Broadus when written.

Lloyd Broadus is at line 66 and Malcolm Gregory at line 75.  They lived a couple of houses apart in Los Angeles in 1930.  Broadus was employed in "musical instruments" and Gregory was employed by a "music publisher.



*****  We may have to "get legal" from time to time to keep the story straight. Sorry. Some people hate the accuracy, especially when trying to tell/sell a saga. But the term "Ltd" or "Limited" isn't really used in the United States and doesn't necessarily mean anything. It does sound "European," and that is generally why it is used. In a limited company, directors and shareholders have limited liability for the company's debt, as long as the business operates within the law. Its directors pay income tax and the company pays corporation tax on profits. Responsibility for company debt is usually limited to the amount a person has invested in the company. In some companies, a shareholder's liability is limited to specific predetermined amounts, drawn up in a memorandum. These businesses are known as "private company limited by guarantee," and shareholders are called guarantors. But in the U.S., there is no legal status resulting from claiming that the business is XYZ, Ltd.

Here, we have identified partners, Roy J. Maier and Frank V. de Michelle (and maybe Lloyd G. Broadus), running a business. The California Secretary of State has yet to locate any corporate or limited liability corporation (LLC) status. Gale Products, Inc. was incorporated, but at the time, Rico apparently was not. It was just some guys calling themselves Rico Products, Ltd. Other than the stampings on the early Gregory mouthpieces and several old applications for trademarks, you won't find the Rico Products, Ltd name anywhere. It appears to have been only a business name for their partnership. As is the case with partnerships, when one dies (in this case de Michelle was first in 1954), the business basically transfers to the remaining partner(s). Maier continued to use the name and, later, Rico Corp. The California Secretary of State can't find any record of a Rico Corp. in the musical accessory business (although they also once told me that they didn't have any records for Gale Products, Inc.)  I am continuing to make records requests to the CA Secretary of State.


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