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57-552: The company operated independently until 1965 when they were purchased by the Seeburg Corporation , a jukebox manufacturer. In 1967, the company was sold to Valco citing decreasing profits due to imported Japanese instruments. In 1969, rights to name "Kay" was acquired by Weiss Musical Instruments (WMI) . The brand has been used by several manufacturers since then, mainly attached to Asian import guitars. Kay offered their first electric guitar in 1936 — five years after

114-454: A flat top with no f-holes, a free-floating arched back, and two braces running along the top. The result was a semi-acoustic instrument that was feedback-resistant while retaining natural acoustic resonances. In 1954, Kay added the K-160 bass to its catalog with baritone tuning, according to the catalog, " tuned like the first four guitar strings but one octave lower. " Structurally this bass

171-549: A 1.25-million-square-foot (116,000 m ) building stretching along nearly one-quarter mile of the Chicago River , north of downtown Chicago. The building, known as the Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House , served as the company headquarters until 1974, when the offices moved across the street to a new tower designed by Minoru Yamasaki . The catalog house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and

228-522: A Chicago historic landmark in May 2000. In the decades before 1930, Montgomery Ward built a network of large distribution centers across the country in Baltimore , Fort Worth , Kansas City , Oakland , Portland , and St. Paul . In most cases, these reinforced concrete structures were the largest industrial structures in their respective locations. The Baltimore Montgomery Ward Warehouse and Retail Store

285-716: A closed store in Panorama City , California, 2010 demolished In November 2024 /gallery> By the 1990s even its rivals began to lose ground to low-price competition from the likes of Target and Walmart , which eroded even more of Montgomery Ward's traditional customer base. In 1997, it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy , emerging from protection by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois in August 1999 as

342-668: A collective bargaining agreement. Eight months later, with Montgomery Ward continuing to refuse to recognize the unions, President Roosevelt issued an executive order seizing all of Montgomery Ward's property nationwide, citing the War Labor Disputes Act as well as his power under the Constitution as commander-in-chief . In 1945, Truman ended the seizure and the Supreme Court dismissed the pending appeal as moot. After World War II, Sewell Avery believed

399-550: A large number of other brands, Kay Musical Instruments would continue that practice. The company initially manufactured only traditional folk instruments such as mandolins , tenor guitars and banjos , but eventually grew to make a wide variety of stringed instruments, including violins , cellos , double basses and a variety of different types of guitars , including electric , classical , lap steel and semi-acoustic models. In addition to manufacturing instruments for sale under its own brands (like Kay Kraft and Kamico), Kay

456-605: A line of electric guitars endorsed by Barney Kessel . Kay sold guitars under their own name as well as a plethora of brand names such as Silvertone for Sears , Sherwood and Airline for Montgomery Ward , Old Kraftsman for Spiegel , Rex for Gretsch , Custom Kraft for St. Louis Music Supply Company, Truetone for Western Auto , ' Penncrest' for JC Penney, etc. The current line of Kay instruments sold by A.R. Enterprises include low-priced acoustic, electric and bass guitars, and moderately priced banjos, ukuleles, mandolins and resonators. All imported from China. One of

513-464: A nationwide strike by the company's 12,000 workers, U.S. Army troops seized the company's Chicago offices. The action was ordered due to Avery's refusal to settle the strike as requested by the Roosevelt administration, concerned about the adverse effect on the delivery of goods in wartime. Avery had refused to comply with a War Labor Board order to recognize the unions and institute the terms of

570-587: A new company formed by a previous Valco member, which has continued production (see #Kay basses for details). The Kay name (and some of its trademarks, such as Knox were acquired by Teisco importer, Weiss Musical Instruments (WMI, by Sylvain Weindling and Barry Hornstein), who put the Kay name on the Teisco products beginning in 1973, and continued on through the 1970s. In 1980, A.R. Enterprises (Tony Blair) purchased

627-570: A series of "coin-operated phonographs." Before it began manufacturing its signature suite of jukebox products, Seeburg was considered to be one of the "big four" of the top coin-operated phonograph companies alongside AMI , Wurlitzer , and Rock-Ola . At the height of jukebox popularity, Seeburg machines were synonymous with the technology and a major quotidian brand of American teenage life. The company went out of business after being sold to Stern Electronics in 1982. Automated musical equipment, such as coin-operated phonographs and orchestrions ,

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684-534: A single blade pickup as used on the K-161 and K-162 (tilted slightly towards the neck at the treble side), as well as a distinctive, oversized headstock. Valued among collectors, the headstocks from 1957 to 1960 featured a reverse painted plastic overlay similar to the Kelvinator logo. The guitars featured art deco patterns. It was difficult to get players to take Kay's high end entry seriously, and Kay discontinued

741-604: A small moneymaker into a large drain on profits. The company sold the chain's 18-store northern division to Bradlees , a division of Stop & Shop , in 1985. The remaining stores closed. In 1985, the company closed its catalog business after 113 years and began an aggressive policy of renovating its remaining stores. It restructured many of the store layouts in the downtown areas of larger cities and affluent neighborhoods into boutique -like specialty stores, as these were drawing business from traditional department stores. In 1986, fellow MARCOR firm, Container Corporation of America,

798-399: A stylus on each side. The tonearm assembly shifts right or left depending on which side of the record is being played. In machines manufactured during the 1950s, the entire mechanism was visible to the user. Later machines concealed the mechanism in favor of graphics and lights, but internally it was essentially the same mechanism. Seeburg started diversifying its product lines in 1959 with

855-561: A wholly owned subsidiary of GE Capital , which was by then its largest shareholder. As part of a last-ditch effort to remain competitive, the company closed over 100 retail locations in 30 U.S. states, abandoned the specialty store strategy, rebranded the chain as simply Wards , and spent millions of dollars to renovate its remaining outlets to be flashier and more consumer-friendly. GE Capital reneged on promises of further financial support of Montgomery Ward's restructuring plans. On December 28, 2000, after lower-than-expected sales during

912-475: Is featured early in the opening of the Happy Days TV series, although the actual spinning 45 rpm record shown is being played on a Rock-Ola. The Seeburg "Select-O-Matic" mechanism stores the records in a linear magazine and plays them vertically clamped to a flywheel turntable. The selected record is pushed forward from behind, then clamped in place. The tonearm is likewise oriented vertically and has

969-590: The Delaware Valley and Richmond metropolitan areas, and planned to convert one-third of Montgomery Ward's existing stores to the Jefferson Ward model. The burden of servicing the new stores fell to the tiny Jefferson staff, who were overwhelmed by the increased store count, had no experience in dealing with some of the product lines they now carried, and were unfamiliar with buying for northern markets. Almost immediately, Jefferson had turned from

1026-599: The Musical Museum , Brentford, England. The small number of selections changed with the Seeburg model M100A, which could play 50 records front and back for a total of 100 selections, more than four times greater than previously available. In 1950, Seeburg introduced the first commercial jukebox designed to play the then-new 45 rpm records. They increased the number of records from 50 to 100 in 1955, eventually settling on 50 or 80 per machine after 1958. The classic M100C

1083-881: The Rickenbacker Frying pan , and the same year as the Gibson ES-150 . However, Kuhrmeyer with Stromberg-Voisinet had announced the "Stromberg Electro" even earlier, in 1928, possibly making the short-lived model the first commercial electric guitar. However, no copies exist, and there is speculation that the Electro was never produced. The Kay Musical Instrument Company grew from the Andrew Groehsl Company (or Groehsl Mandolin Company) in Chicago, established in 1890. In 1921, Groehsl's company

1140-542: The Seeburg 1000 website continually livestreams the best of the Seeburg 1000 Background Music Library recordings. Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The current Montgomery Ward Inc. is an online shopping and mail-order catalog retailer that started several years after

1197-635: The Thin Twin guitar under the Silvertone ( Sears ) and Old Kraftsman ( Spiegel ) brands. In 1957, president Sydney Katz introduced the Gold "K" line of archtop and solid body electric guitars to compete with major manufacturers like Fender , Gibson , and Gretsch . The gold "K" Line featured the Jazz Special , Artist , Pro , Upbeat , Jazz II , and Jazz Special Bass . Gold "K" guitars used

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1254-580: The intellectual property assets of the former Wards, including the "Montgomery Ward" and "Wards" trademarks, for an undisclosed amount. DMSI applied the brand to a new online and catalog-based retailing operation, with no physical stores, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa . DMSI then began operating under the Montgomery Ward branding in June 2004, selling many of the same kinds of products as

1311-537: The 1970s. In 1965, the Seeburg Corporation announced that it was establishing a new music performance rights organization to compete with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. The society was called Coin-Operated Phonograph Performance Society (COPPS). The plan was for Seeburg to make recordings solely for play in jukeboxes. During the 1970s Seeburg was faced with debt and a declining market for their music products. The corporation headed into bankruptcy in 1979 and

1368-623: The Christmas season, the company announced it would cease operating, close its remaining 250 retail outlets, and lay off its 37,000 employees. At its height, the original Montgomery Ward was one of the biggest retailers in the United States. After its demise, the familiarity of its brand meant its name, corporate logo, and advertising were considered valuable intangible assets. In 2004, catalog marketer Direct Marketing Services Inc. (DMSI), an Iowa direct marketing company, purchased much of

1425-502: The Gold line in 1962. In 1937, Kay began to produce a 3/4 size upright bass , which is widely believed to be their Concert or C-1 bass. Like their guitar manufacturing, the basses were hand crafted by skilled craftsmen using special ordered machinery. They even had a hot stamping machine that could emboss the trademark KAY cursive script. After the dissolve of Kay/Valco in 1968, the Engelhardt-Link Company bought

1482-417: The Kay trademark. In 2008–2009, The "Kay Guitar Company" of California reissued 12 models of vintage Kay guitars and basses manufactured by Fritz Brothers Guitars. As of 2013, production and sales of these guitars have continued. Kay is best known for their large production of student-grade, budget instruments but also built higher quality instruments that were used by professional artists of the time including

1539-408: The bass and cello-making equipment, formerly owned by Kay, from Engelhardt-Link. Seeburg Corporation Seeburg was an American design and manufacturing company of automated musical equipment, such as orchestrions , jukeboxes , and vending equipment. Founded in 1902, its first products were Orchestrions and automatic pianos but after the arrival of gramophone records, the company developed

1596-524: The best known Kay electric guitars during the 1950s was the K-161 Thin Twin, most visibly used by blues artist Jimmy Reed . This instrument debuted in 1952, and featured a single cutaway body, a distinctive "fire stripe" tortoiseshell pickguard , and a pair of thin blade-style pickups . Also in 1952, Kay introduced the matching K-162 " Electronic " Bass , which was the first commercially available thinline- hollowbody electric bass guitar , and

1653-516: The company closed and now nothing remains. The Seeburg name lived again on Wurlitzer 1015 reproduction CD jukeboxes produced in Mexico for a short time. As of February 2010 , a touchscreen digital jukebox conversion kit bearing the Seeburg name was being offered under the name Seeburg Digital. Seeburg Digital was a division of Penbrook Amusements located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As of 2018,

1710-708: The company in the near future. In March 1988, the company management undertook a successful $ 3.8 billion (~$ 8.45 billion in 2023) leveraged buyout , making Montgomery Ward a privately held company. <gallery> File:Montgomery Ward Bluefield, WV.jpg|A Montgomery Ward Building in Bluefield, West Virginia File:Abandoned Montgomery Ward.jpg|A vacant Montgomery Ward store, Regency Mall , Augusta, Georgia File:Vacant Montgomery Ward Huntington Beach.JPG|A former Montgomery Ward store, Huntington Center , Huntington Beach, California , demolished in 2010 File:Electric Ave Logo - Montgomery Wards.JPG|An "Electric Avenue" logo on

1767-416: The company to become profitable before the end of the 1930s. Ward was very successful in its retail business. "Green awning" stores dotted hundreds of small towns across the country. Larger stores were built in the major cities. By the end of the 1930s, Montgomery Ward had become the country's largest retailer, and Sewell Avery became the company's chief executive officer. In April 1944, four months into

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1824-606: The company was taken over by Sidney M. Katz. The product line of Kay was shifted toward electric musical instruments on demands, and in 1964, the company moved to a new factory in Elk Grove Village, Illinois . In 1965 Katz sold Kay to Seeburg Corporation , and he became the head of Seeburg's musical instrument division. In 1967, Kay was resold and merged with Valco , but dissolved in 1968 due to financial problems. The assets of Kay/Valco were auctioned off in 1969. The upright bass and cello lines were sold to Engelhardt-Link,

1881-447: The conservative decisions of Avery, who seemed not to understand the postwar years' changing economy. As new shopping centers were built after the war, Sears was perceived to have better locations than Ward. Nonetheless, for many years Ward was still the nation's third-largest department store chain. In 1955, investor Louis Wolfson waged a high-profile proxy fight to obtain control of the board of Montgomery Ward. The new board forced

1938-468: The country would fall back into a recession or even a depression. He decided to not open any new stores, and did not even permit expenditure for paint to freshen the existing stores. His plan was to bank profits to preserve liquidity when the recession or depression he anticipated hit, and then buy up his retail competition. Without new stores or any investment back into the business, Montgomery Ward declined in sales volume compared to Sears. Many have blamed

1995-536: The following month. On August 5, 2008, the catalog retailer Swiss Colony purchased DMSI. Swiss Colony—which changed its name to Colony Brands Inc. June 1, 2010—kept Montgomery Ward alive and relaunched the Wards website September 10, 2008, with new catalogs mailing in February 2009. A month before the catalog's launch, Swiss Colony President John Baumann told United Press International the retailer might also resurrect

2052-434: The introduction of background music players such as the Seeburg 1000 , which used special 9-inch, 16⅔ rpm records. Seeburg acquired Williams (pinball and other games) and Gulbransen (electronic organs and drum machines) in 1964 and the H. N. White Company (King brass and woodwind instruments) in 1965. Gulbransen remained in production through the late 1960s, with limited production (mostly drum machines) revived during

2109-405: The mail order business, when Richard Warren Sears introduced his first general catalog. In 1900, Ward had total sales of $ 8.7 million, compared to $ 10 million for Sears , and both companies struggled for dominance during much of the 20th century. By 1904, Ward had expanded such that it mailed three million catalogs, weighing 4 lb (1.8 kg) each, to customers. In 1908, the company opened

2166-413: The original Montgomery Ward shut down. Aaron Montgomery Ward started his business in Chicago; conflicting reports place his first office either in a single room at 825 North Clark Street or in a loft above a livery stable on Kinzie Street, between Rush and State Streets. In 1883, the company's catalog had grown to 240 pages and 10,000 items. In 1896, Ward encountered its first serious competition in

2223-582: The original company. The new company does not honor its predecessor's obligations, such as gift cards and items sold with a lifetime guarantee. David Milgrom, then president of the DMSI-owned firm, told the Associated Press , "We're rebuilding the brand, and we want to do it right." Four years later, in July 2008, DMSI announced it was on the auction block, with the sale of its assets scheduled for

2280-597: The recent rise in oil prices and looking to diversify, bought a controlling share of MARCOR in 1974, only to acquire the company outright in 1976. The company was an early entrant in the home computer market with the CyberVision 2001 in 1978, developed by the Authorship Resource, Inc., of Franklin, Ohio , and primarily manufactured by United Chem-Con. However, mounting competition from other computer companies as well as manufacturing problems compelled

2337-449: The resignation of Avery. This fight led to a state court decision that Illinois corporations were not entitled to stagger elections of board members." In 1961, company president John Barr hired Robert Elton Brooker to lead Montgomery Ward as president in its turnaround. Brooker brought with him a number of key new management people, including Edward Donnell, former manager of Sears' Los Angeles stores. The new management team achieved

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2394-512: The same hardware as top manufacturers. However, there were truss rod and neck issues. Kay's "Thin Lite" truss rods introduced on mid-tier instruments in the 1960s often become dislodged and inoperable. They may be repaired by a luthier . Gold models had single coil pickups with clear silver plastic covers and phillips head bolt adjustable pole pieces. The Upbeat model came with an optional transparent black plastic cover. The Jazz Special Bass has

2451-618: The second production electric bass guitar after the Fender Precision Bass debuted in 1951. Due to the use of K-162 by a bassist of Howlin' Wolf , Andrew "Blueblood" McMahon, it is commonly known as the "Howlin Wolf" bass. These instruments are believed to be the first semi-hollow electrics (i.e., thinline-hollowbody electric with solid center-block), predating the Gibson ES-335 by six years. Their unique design featured

2508-576: The three companies to pull the plug on the CyberVision product by the early 1980s. By 1980, Mobil realized that the Montgomery Ward stores were doing poorly in comparison to the Jefferson stores, and decided that high quality discount units, along the lines of Dayton Hudson Company's Target stores, would be the retailer's future. Within 18 months, management quintupled the size of the operation, now called Jefferson Ward, to more than 40 units in

2565-449: The turnaround reducing the number of suppliers from 15,000 to 7,000 and the number of brands being carried dropped from 168 to 16. Ward's private brands were given 95 percent of the volume compared with 40 percent in 1960. The results of these changes were lower handling costs and higher quality standards. Buying was centralized but store operations were decentralized, under a new territory system modeled after Sears. In 1966, Ed Donnell

2622-538: The upright bass and cello lines at the asset auction in 1969, and continue to produce the same instrument lines until today. Manufactured in Elk Grove Village, Illinois , Engelhardt basses and cellos are sturdy instruments, widely used by students and touring professionals. The ES9 Swingmaster bass (formerly the Kay S9 Swingmaster ), is highly thought-of by jazz, swing, and bluegrass musicians. In August of 2019 Upton Bass String Instrument Company purchased

2679-480: Was a coin-operated 54 note player piano with its suction pump driven by an electric motor. An example can be seen at the Musical Museum , Brentford, England. In the early days of the jukebox, the 78 rpm record was standard and until 1949, only 10 to 24 selections could be played on one machine. The Seeburg Symphonola jukebox of 1938 (illustrated below) has 20 10" 78 rpm records and can only play one side of each. An example of this instrument can be seen and heard at

2736-625: Was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. In 1926, the company broke with its mail-order-only tradition when it opened its first retail outlet store in Plymouth, Indiana . It continued to operate its catalog business while pursuing an aggressive campaign to build retail outlets in the late 1920s. In 1928, two years after opening its first outlet, it had opened 244 stores. By 1929, it had more than doubled its number of outlets to 531. Its flagship retail store in Chicago

2793-430: Was also a prolific manufacturer of guitars for retailers across the nation who would order instruments with custom branding to be resold as "house brand" instruments. Kay also made guitar amplifiers , beginning with designs carried over from the old Stromberg company. Kay eventually subcontracted its amplifier production to Chicago music industry rival Valco in the 1950s. After the retirement of Kuhrmeyer in 1955,

2850-571: Was basically same as K-162 bass, except for the higher pitched tuning and the addition of a white pickguard. In the late 1950s, various guitars in the Kay line were assigned new model numbers; according to the 1959 catalog, the Thin Twin became K5910 and the Electronic Bass became K5965. Both instruments remained in Kay's catalog offerings with only minor cosmetic variations until 1966, when Kay revamped its entire guitar line to only feature budget instruments. Kay also manufactured versions of

2907-501: Was broken up in 1980. In Seeburg's reorganization effort, jukebox production came under the "Seeburg Phonograph Division," which the court closed in September 1979. Following the demise of Seeburg Phonograph Division, ownership of Seeburg's assets passed to their creditors and liquidation of the company began. The production assets were sold to Stern Electronics , who began producing "Stern/Seeburg" jukeboxes. The parts department stock

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2964-613: Was divested by Mobil. This effectively dissolved the MARCOR division and left Montgomery Ward as a direct subsidiary of Mobil. Analysts saw the CCA sale as an effort to go back on their diversification efforts, as the debts incurred since MARCOR’s acquisition began to weigh the oil giant down, and many predicted Montgomery Ward was next to be sold. These theories were confirmed in January 1987, when Mobil stated they would be looking into spinning off

3021-560: Was located on Michigan Avenue between Madison and Washington streets. In 1930, the company declined a merger offer from rival chain Sears. Losing money during the Great Depression , Ward alarmed its major investors, including J. P. Morgan, Jr . In 1931, Morgan hired a new president, Sewell Avery , who cut staff levels and stores, changed lines, hired store rather than catalog managers, and refurbished stores. These actions caused

3078-408: Was manufactured under the J.P. Seeburg and Company name for most of its early years. Until 1956, the company was family-owned. The company was founded by Justus Percival Sjöberg from Gothenburg , Sweden. He moved to the United States after graduating from Chalmers University of Technology and used an Americanized spelling of his surname for the company. The Seeburg Style L (Lilliputian) Nickelodeon

3135-547: Was named company president. Brooker continued as chairman and chief executive officer until 1976. In 1968, Brooker helped engineer a friendly merger with Container Corporation of America , the new parent company being named MARCOR. Despite the merger, the company continued to struggle into the 1970s. In 1973, its 102nd year in business, it purchased a small discount store chain, the Miami -based Jefferson Stores, renaming these locations Jefferson Ward. Mobil , flush with cash from

3192-433: Was purchased by Henry "Kay" Kuhrmeyer, Frank Voisinet, and Charles Stromberg and renamed to Stromberg-Voisinet. In 1928, with the help of an investor, Kuhrmeyer bought out his partners, renamed the company, and started producing electric guitars and amplifiers. The new company, "Kay Musical Instruments" was formally established in 1931. As its predecessor had primarily commercialized its products under its own brand as well as

3249-438: Was purchased by Los Angeles-based Jukeboxes Unlimited in September 1980. In March 1984, former Seeburg employees and a group of investors formed "The Seeburg Phonograph Company" and acquired its production assets from Stern, which was going out of business. It became the first manufacturer to produce a CD jukebox. It remained in operation for a few years and several models of CD jukeboxes were made during that period. Eventually,

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