Klipsch Museum of Audio History

In late 1960 the Bulova Watch Company introduced the Accutron, a tuning-fork-based timepiece that was advertised as “the first instrument of the space age you can wear and use.” The tuning fork was powered by a transistor oscillator, becoming the first “electronic” watch.

Paul Klipsch has been considered by many to be the epitome of the “self-made man”. However, he would be quick to tell you that he “stood on the shoulders of giants”. Having friends in strategic places also greased the skids for Paul. While we do not have his earliest contacts with Sherman Fairchild, it is clear from over 200 pages of correspondence that this industry titan took many opportunities to help out “the little guy”. Never heard of Fairchild? Take a look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Fairchild.

The earliest correspondence so far discovered is from May 1944. Paul wrote to Sherman about the lack of bass response from Sherman’s 1943 “Klipschorn” woofer. The woofer was built by Sherman’s carpenter from early drawings supplied by PWK, and it still utilized a 12” driver. The system was illustrated in The Architectural Forum of April 1943. This was before Paul’s own HF horn was designed, so a Western Electric multicell horn was utilized. Paul’s bass performance “diagnosis by letter” took quite a while, but eventually resulted in his visit to Sherman’s  New York City penthouse, and the application of “about 2 pounds of putty” to stop some serious air-leaks. Earlier correspondence to Sherman from Altec Lansing’s John Hilliard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Hilliard  expressed Hilliard’s doubt in the performance of the yet-to-be named Klipschorn, as compared to larger cinema speakers. The putty removed those doubts!

In 1941 PWK was at the height of his 3rd career, oil prospecting. He worked in Houston, TX for Dr. E. E. Rosaire, initially at Independent Exploration, and then he followed Rosaire to Subterrex. It was his first job after receiving his graduate degree of Engineer at Stanford. Rosaire had a saying that PWK never forgot: “When any of you guys piss with your left hand, I want to get a patent on it!” In the seven years with Rosaire he received eight patents in electrical and acoustic methods of discovering oil.

About ten years after the Summer of Love, tolerance for such nonsense remained rare in Arkansas.  It was a sun shiny day when John Simmons entered the Post Office sporting his "disgusting afro" haircut.  He would soon regret his less-than-chivalrous act of not holding the door open for a city police officer since the back of John's t-shirt featured a "cartoon voice balloon" with a single word - Bullshit.  Such profanity was not tolerated back then, and because a Post Office is by definition on federal ground, the officer left the building and waited for John to re-enter his jurisdiction - the street.  As soon as John exited federal land, the officer promptly drove his car from across the street, and said "Hold it there buddy!"  John was arrested for disorderly conduct.