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Cap Kierulff was not only a witness to, but a key participant in, the
birth of the "Hi-Fi" phenomenon. Cap was the founder and owner of Kierulff
Sound Corporation of Los Angeles, California. It was the first, and
ultimately the largest, retail outlet in all of southern California for
James B. Lansing Sound products. What follows is Cap's account of those
early days as only he can tell it.
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Kierulff Sound Corporation was the main retail outlet
in all of Los Angeles, California, for all of Jim Lansing's consumer
products during the 15 years between 1946 and 1961 (after which time, I sold
the business to others).
Gradually, more dealers received franchises, but "Kierulff
Sound" was No. 1 in introducing, marketing and promoting post-war
"High-Fidelity" components and custom music systems (later, our customers
called it simply "Hi-Fi", and then we developed the follow-on "StereoPhonic"
market which our customers soon changed to just "Stereo").
In fact, it was Bill Cara, Kierulff Sound's Sales
Manager, who first introduced consumer "Stereo" to Los Angeles, when we
rented a big auditorium in downtown L.A.'s Alexandria Hotel, and we invited
the public at large to listen to the first ever concerts taped on Ampex
Corporation's only prototype stereo recorder (3-channels!). Guess what? We
filled in that "void in the middle of the stage" (between 2 wide-apart JBL
speaker-systems) with a third JBL speaker-system, and we as well as all our
guests were amazed at the "virtual" realism!
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I still remember, and "feel" the excitement of the
crowd which believed something "Out of this World" had been visited upon
them! And I'll tell you exactly why - Bill Cara had taken that Ampex
3-channel-recorder out to the Glendale train station the night before and
recorded, stereophonically, a steam engine and cars passing in front of his
3 widely-spaced mics. When all of us heard that train approach on
left-stage, roar across the center, and steam off into the distance through
those 3 JBL speaker systems, we couldn't contain ourselves - a new era had
been ushered in which we instantly knew would be embraced by the public!
A year or so later, Bill and I rented the downtown
L.A. Biltmore Hotel Theatre and staged another JBL and Pickering Stereo
Concert for the public. This time, it was the introduction to the world of
JBL's famous "Paragon" stereo system in an absolutely beautifully designed
"one-of-a-kind" piece of technically perfect cabinetry, along with
Pickering's introduction of the first ever stereo phonograph pickup
cartridge. Again, this was a free, several day, marketing event to sold-out
crowds who couldn't get enough of these post-war improvements in the still
young Hi-Fi era.
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We all know of Jim's tragic death. My memory of that
will not go away, because just two weeks before, Jim had attended one of
many Kierulff Sound "in-house" concerts for the public at our main-location,
Olympic & Figueroa, in downtown L.A. (We had expanded this growing stereo
business to 6 stores in southern California, but sold out before the big
Stereo-Super-Stores took over, many decades later.) We had many tuners,
amplifiers, speaker systems on working display, with the best turntables
available to play some of Bill Cara's 16-inch transcription records from his
friends at Capital Records. Kierulff Sound's customers, friends and
suppliers all gathered here from time-to-time to "really" enjoy these
pre-stereo components to the "Max!" James B. Lansing was here. Two-weeks
later he took his life.
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Another annual big Los Angeles "Sound" event must also
be mentioned. Bill Cara and I, as part of our professional zeal in our
"younger days," brought from New York to Los Angeles, and managed, the
well-known "Audio-Fiestas" which we started in the early '50s for the
benefit of manufacturers like Jim Lansing, and their representatives and for
all of their dealers in the southern California area. Again, we rented rooms
on several floors of the Alexandria Hotel, then moved several years later to
the Biltmore Hotel. We were supported by the entire Hi-Fi and stereo
consumer industry across the USA, contributing greatly to the advance of the
public's awareness of what early Hi-Fi and stereo was all about. Bill and I
remain quite proud of all these activities on the part of our good friends
and associates, then and now, within this world of consumer sound.
Let me give you just "one-more" memory from the past,
not specifically relating to Jim or JBL. Would you believe, Groucho Marx had
me march up to Hollywood, so he could get an answer to: "What is Hi-Fi,
Cap"? This was for his three million "You Bet Your Life" television viewers,
before stereo, in the early '50s! (His script-writer's, of course, put the
answer in "my" mouth - the whole dialog was pre-scripted, for both Groucho,
and me!) This was "Kinescoped!" There was no such thing as a video-recorder,
then. Years later I asked the producer for a copy for my grandkids. John
Gudel said: "Are you kidding? All copies "disintegrated," in their cans!"
Here's the "answer" which the Phd script writers
rehearsed into me: "Why, Groucho, Hi-Fi is just like having an orchestra in
your living room!" (I don't remember his scripted comeback punch line which
got all the laughs). But then, Groucho DID deviate, only once from the
script (which he had NOT memorized, but was reading, for the very first time
- no rehearsals for him, on the teleprompter in back of my head.) He asked
me an "off the script, on the air" question which I had never ever replied
honestly to before in all my then 40 years: "Cap, How did you get that name
Cap?" On Camera, I was momentarily flabbergasted beyond words! But not for
long! This had been my private secret for all of my life! Simply because of
the embarrassing way (I had always thought) in which I got it!
I knew "this" was the time to "tell all," even to the
three million! I was 40, and it was time I grew up, and honestly replied,
right? So I quickly gave Groucho (& the 3-mil) my long answer: "When I was
yeah high, my mother took me out for a walk and a nice man in a beard and a
hat asked her my name. She replied that she and my dad, Charlie, had not yet
decided, really, 'cause I was also a Charlie, the Junior Kierulff. Would it
be Charles, Chuck, Charlie Jr, What? The nice man said simply: He looks like
the "Captain of Your Heart," to me!
End of story! Needless to say, my mother grabbed onto
"Captain of her Heart" and that was it! I "worked" as a kid in the 20's and
30's in Charlie Kierulff's 2-3 employee pre-electronic, radio parts
distribution business counting insulators and wire. Since "he" called me
Cap, the employee's did likewise. To this day, age 81, my name has been Cap.
Long story, short name! (I must have boiled it down for Groucho. Only you
get the Full-Monty!)
© 2000 Cap Kierulff
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