This is my story about this clock - the Linden Model 969 from the Linden division of the Cuckoo Clock Manufacturing Company.
But it's also my feelings (rant?) about how much of clock history, and just the history of people in general is simply lost to time.
When I first started "researching" about this clock and the company, I repeated the first thing that I came upon - that the company was founded by Irving and Max Schulman - Jewish brother who were refugees from World War II that came to this country and set up the Cuckoo Clock Manufacturing Company in New York City.
And while that sounds good, it's evidently incorrect - by a long shot, really. And the error will probably live on due to a newspaper writer who didn't bother to do his research (Ref: 1). The writer was getting his details from Ray Schrug, new president of the company after it was purchased by the Colibri Corporation in 1992.
In digging around on the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors forum, I found a post from a person named Paul Schulman who claimed to be the son, of the late Irving Schulman. (Ref: 2) He had details that actually made sense and matched up with the very little that I could find about this about this man.
And that's the thing. Here's a man who established what some have called a notable American clock making company, and today, no one remembers his name or even his clock brand.
Here's the story, adapted from the recollection of his son.
Some History of the Cuckoo Clock Manufacturing Company
Irving Schulman's parents died when he was about 13 years old. The children were split up, Evelyn wen to New Jersey, Max to Rhode Island and Irvin went to live with his grandfather in the Bronx. Irving never went back to school and had to work to help support his new family situation.
Schulman married Anne Krieger, from Amsterdam NY, in the early 1940s and was drafted into the army during WWII but never left Fort Dix. It is said that his veteran's status helped him get an appointment with General Omar Bradley, who after the war, became the Chairman of the Board of the Bulova Watch Company, The details are unclear, but it seems that Schulman had obtained some European clock movements but did not have compatible cases for the clocks. Reportedly General Bradley was able to work out a deal with him, and Schulman was able to get into the clock business.
Schulman initially wanted to manufacture cuckoo clocks in the United States, but found it would much more economical to just import the clocks. The Cuckoo Clock Manufacturing Company became the largest importer of Black Forest cuckoo clocks in the country and eventually expanded into mantel clocks and music boxes and silverware, among other household wares. His clock brand name, Linden, came from the name of the tree used to make cuckoo clocks.
Mrs. Anne Schulman, and a few other relatives worked for the company. Max was hired by the company and later became a partner. Many of the clockmakers were refugees or concentration camp survivors from Germany (Paul Schulman remembers seeing the numbers tattooed on their forearms).
Paul Schulman indicated that he recalled that Parade Magazine (a supplement to many newspapers in the US) did an article on the company in the 1950s but he had not seen it. However, I was able to discover that the article actually came out in March 31, 1968 (Ref 3). This article featured a photo of Irving Schulman (shown above) and added some information to the history of the company.
Prologue
As I mentioned, it's amazing that all this clock information seems to be lost to history. In the era before widespread use of computers and the internet, all these records and history were just in the minds of the people involved and in dusty file cabinets. Check out the references at the bottom of this post for more details.
More History
Sometime in the mid-1950s the company started manufacturing mantel and other clocks under the "Linden" name. The numbers and types of clocks that bore the Linden name grew quickly. The Linden division of Cuckoo Clock Mfg. Co either made or imported all kinds of clocks. With the Linden name becoming well known from the mid 1950s to the 1970s.
In the 1980s the company was bought and sold a few times and eventually was acquired by the Colibri group in 1991. Up until about 1988 Linden clocks were made in New York city but then operations moved to Rhode Island - but this factory had closed by no later than 1992. After this, clocks were just imported from Germany, Taiwan, and Japan and the brand name Linden used on them.
In England, trees of this type (genus, Tilia) are called Lime Trees (Tilia × europaea). In the USA we have the American Basswood (Tilia americana) as a representative of this tree.
In the early 1970s the company marketed several different models of flip clocks, made in Japan and branded Linden. Just like this one right here in Flip Clock Fans Studios.
Back to the clock!
Well. The Linden Model 969 is a nice little flipper with a glass front. It uses the Toshiba V82 canned motor and thankfully this one is completely silent. Check out the video!
References:
1. "Still Cuckoo after all these years" by Drew Featherston -
Part 1: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1148...ticle-from/
Part 2: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1148...-article-from/
2. History of Cuckoo Clock Mfg Co., National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors, Inc Forum. Post by "Paul S"
https://mb.nawcc.org/threads/history...5/#post-838586
3. The Cuckoo Clock Manufacturing Company and Irving Schulman. The Fresno Bee
Fresno, California Sun, Mar 31, 1968 · Page 162
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1147...-company-a/
4. Irving Schulman Photo - Find a Grave entry.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...rving-schulman
Notes: I'm a member of "Find-a-Grave" and just added the photo from the Parade magazine article and have recommended that the person who maintains this memorial add the history above.
Photo Credit:
Irving Schulman grave photo
(c) Jon Andersen 2007-2019 Some Rights Reserved;
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.