The Vertical Phonograph

While outside of the regular time frame for this blog, the information below might be of interest to some.

In the 1930s and early 1940s Jehovah’s witnesses were well known for taking portable phonographs on their house to house calls and playing recordings of J F Rutherford. A whole series of door step introductions were prepared, and longer recordings of convention talks were used for follow-up visits. These recordings were covered in an old article that was republished on this blog.

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-watchtower-ibsa-recordings.html

To assist with “quick off the draw” doorstep presentations, a special phonograph was invented, which could be played closed and upright. Here are a couple of scans from the patent document. The original runs to six pages.

The inventor was John G Kurzen JUNIOR and the patent was filed in 1940, and the model was released at conventions in 1940.

The Kurzen family had a long history with the Watch Tower Society. John G Kurzen SENIOR was John Gottleib Kurzen (1868-1963). He and his wife Ida were full time volunteer workers for the Watch Tower Society for decades. When they died, within months of each other in 1963, their grave marker had both their names and the words JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES in large full capitals on it. It also contained an extract of Revelation 20 v.6, crediting the New World translation.

The grave marker can be viewed here:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/84157906/john_gottleib_kurzen

The site also contains a very positive obituary for John and Ida as Pioneer ministers from a local newspaper.

John Senior and Ida had three children, a girl and two boys. The two boys, John G Junior (John Godfrey Kurzen) and Russell Kurzen both worked at the Society’s Brooklyn headquarters for decades.

When John G Jr. (the inventor of this special phonograph) died in 1980 he was buried at the Watchtower Farms Cemetery at Walkill.