The name of the place says it all: The Original Kazoo Co. And boy, do its owners mean original.
The same belt and pulley machines that stamped and shaped the world’s first metal kazoos circa 1900 still stamp and shape kazoos today. The machines are still in the same building, making the same ker-thwunk sound as they perforate, fold and shape.
The finished product hasn’t changed, either. The palm-sized, submarine-shaped musical instrument still makes a tinny vibration when someone hums into it.
PHOTO: AP
If there was ever the temptation to modernize the kazoo-making operation as the business changed hands over the years, it didn’t last.
“It really would kind of spoil the fun of coming here if you couldn’t see things as they were,” Karen Smith said as she scanned the factory floor, now more working museum than manufacturing facility. “It’s wonderful for our country to know that long ago, they invented this way of manufacturing and it still works today.”
The Original Kazoo Co operates on Main Street in a farm town southwest of Buffalo known as much for its yearly corn festival as kazoos.
The plant opened in 1907 as a sheet metal workshop, producing stove and furnace parts and peanut vending machines. It began making kazoos in 1916 after its owner was approached about creating a metal version of the wooden instrument that had been around since the 1840s.
Inside her gift shop, Smith demonstrates the songs heard most often when adult visitors get hold of a kazoo: Old MacDonald Had a Farm and I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.
Children?
“Jingle Bells,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s July or August, they’re all playing Jingle Bells. It’s amazing.”
The place gets its share of tours by students and senior citizens, all eager to try out the product. To say it gets pretty noisy is “putting it mildly,” shop forewoman Sue Cruz said with a laugh.
CHANGING HANDS
What has changed over the years is ownership. Today, the site is operated by Suburban Adult Services Inc (SASI), a nonprofit organization serving mentally and physically disabled adults. It inherited the factory in 2002 as a donation from Robert and David Berghash, after the Berghashes sold the rights to make the standard kazoo to its largest distributor, Woodstock Percussion in New York’s Hudson Valley.
As part of the deal, the original factory stayed in Eden and is allowed to make and sell 5,000 standard kazoos a year. They sell in the gift shop for US$1.99. The part-time work force of about 15 people from SASI spends the rest of the time making kazoo trumpets, french horns, trombones and other specialty kazoos that are sold on site and to distributors.
The deal also included rights to the name, Original American Kazoo Co, so the Eden operation became the Original Kazoo Co.
“It’s someplace I enjoy walking into,” Tony Annunziato, associate executive director of SASI, said of the shop, where more than 20 machines are run by a 10-horsepower motor spinning overhead shafts and leather belts. “It’s a nice atmosphere. You don’t see that in industry.”
The operation gets visitors and orders from around the world, including a recent request for 200 kazoos destined for an orphanage in South Africa.
“Music transcends all language and kazoo really provides that to everyone,” Smith said. “You don’t have to be a practiced musician in order to participate.”
TECHNIQUE
There is a technique — albeit a simple one — to playing: Hum, don’t blow.
Some people struggle with that, Smith said.
The key is the small circular Mylar resonator covering a hole on the top of the kazoo, which is vibrated by the humming.
“If you were to blow into a kazoo, absolutely nothing would happen,” Smith said.
The kazoo is believed to be the only musical instrument to be invented and produced in the US.
Today, the Eden factory produces the only US-made metal version.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
RSS