The 1930s were important developmental years for the Gates Radio Company. The firm was in its new location at 115 North Fourth Street and the additional space, spread out over three floors including an elevator, gave them room to grow. The company continued to make motion picture equipment and those sales were responsible for keeping the company financially sound during the beginning years of the Depression. Helping immensely was a large order received from Australia in 1931 for equipping dozens of theaters with talking picture equipment.
The Motio-Tone, which added talking and music to the film strip thus creating a talking movie, sold throughout the United States, Spain, Mexico, South America, India, Australia, Canada, and Alaska. The federal government awarded contracts to Gates Radio to place motion picture equipment in several federal penitentiaries. Parker Gates went to the prisons to install the equipment.
Gates traveled to the Atlanta penitentiary which housed 8,000 men. There had been a hunger strike and threats of violence at the prison, and the warden hoped the showing of a motion picture would boost morale. The equipment was set up in an auditorium that held 2,000 men, and the room echoed when the equipment was tested. Gates calculated once the auditorium was filled, the echo would be absorbed. And he was correct.
The movie was “Is Everybody Happy” and opened with Ted Lewis playing the clarinet. When Lewis faced the screen and shouted, “Is everybody happy,” pandemonium broke out and the prisoners whistled, shouted, and stomped their feet. Gates was alarmed. The warden smiled and said, “These men have never seen a picture talk, and are overjoyed.”
This same equipment was placed in the Family Theater at 17th and Broadway, Belasco Theatre at the corner of Sixth and Hampshire, The Colonial on North Sixth in the Maertz building, Quincy Theatre adjacent the Quincy Hotel, and the Star Theatre in Hannibal, Missouri. The Star is the only one of the movie theaters still in existence.
One of the consequences of the Depression was that many banks across the United Sates experienced bank runs and closed. Henry Gates kept his personal money of $800 in the State Savings Loan and Trust Company at 428 Maine Street. When that bank failed in 1932, Henry lost every penny.
The Gates Radio Company kept its money in the Illinois State Bank. When a line of depositors a block long formed outside the bank, Henry called his friend and fellow Rotarian, Floyd Cashburn, head cashier at the bank, who told him to come to the back door and he would let him in. Parker went with him.
Henry said, “I want to withdraw the $18,000 Gates Radio has in its account, because if we lose that money Gates Radio will close for good.” Mr. Cashburn answered, “If you withdraw your $18,000, this bank will close right now.” They argued. Then Cashburn disappeared and came back later and said, “Here is $1,000 in cash, and $5,000 in Catholic School Bonds. Leave your $18,000 in the bank, take this money and bonds, and if this bank fails then cash in the school bonds and you have the $1,000 in cash. Leaving your $18,000 in our bank will allow us to stay open, at least today, and hopefully our bank will get through this crisis.”
Henry agreed, the bank stayed open, and Henry returned the $1,000 and school bonds three weeks later. The result was that a close relationship was established between Gates Radio and the Illinois State Bank that continued for years. Parker Gates later said in an interview, “What Mr. Cashburn did was probably illegal. But it saved the bank, and everyone knew it.”
Henry, Cora, and Parker also had personal and community interests. In 1932, Henry was elected president of the Quincy Rotary Club. Cora joined a Bible study. Due to the efforts of band director Paul Morrison, Parker learned to play the saxophone while in high school and began to play with local professional bands on weekends. About 1929, he joined, and then played exclusively, with the Tivoli (“I love it” spelled backwards) dance orchestra for several years.
The Gates family attended the Central Baptist Church where Parker met Mildred Lichtenberger. They were married on March 25, 1933, in Carmi, Illinois.
Parker continued to improve the “remote amplifier” that now sold for $600 and, although large and cumbersome, was of excellent quality and purchased by radio stations all over the country.
In 1934 the production of motion picture equipment was dropped, and the manufacture and supply of radio broadcasting equipment became the primary focus. Gates Radio immediately became a major competitor in the field.
The Gates Radio Catalogue published in early 1934 offered Speech Input Panels, Studio and Station Amplifiers, Remote Amplifiers, Mixers, Microphones, Trunks and Cases, Loud Speakers, Recording Units, Turntables, Volume Indicators, and Rectifiers.
Although the Depression years were challenging, the business was financially solvent. Then an unexpected tragedy occurred. Henry Gates died unexpectedly on September 4, 1934, from an embolism following surgery. “Dad ran the business and took care of all the details, and I was having fun inventing, building, and installing equipment. Overnight that all changed, and now I was forced to face the realities of running the company,” Parker said. He recently had been offered the position of station manager at WTAD Radio, “a plum position and a tempting offer.” But to accept that position, he would have to close the company.
After evaluation, deliberation, and prayer—Parker, Cora and Mildred Gates decided to continue the Gates Radio Company. This was a landmark decision in the history of the company. The Herald-Whig reported: “Parker S. Gates, the son, announced the business would be continued.”
Janet Gates Conover and her husband, Joe, are life members of the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County. This article is based on Gates Radio Company research and documents, interviews with her father, Parker Gates, and family oral history and letters.
Sources
Bank Run. History.com. 2022 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Banking in Quincy 1932-1933. Interview with Parker Gates. By Janet Gates Conover.
Bradshaw, Bill. First to bring sound to screen of silent movies. Quincy Herald-Whig. 11 April 1971. Section C, 1.
Gates, Parker. Brief History of Gates Radio Co., Year 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934. Quincy, IL. 1957.
Gates, Parker. Letter, page 2. Date unknown.
Gates Radio & Supply Company Equipment for Broadcast Stations and Recording Studios Catalogue. Gates Radio Company. 1934.
H.C. Gates Died Sunday Evening After a Busy Life. Was Business Man and Leader in Civic Affairs. Quincy Herald Whig, 12. 5 September 1934.
McFarland, Randy. Interview with Janet Conover regarding Illinois State Bank history and the bank run involving Floyd N. Cashburn, head cashier at the bank. February 2022.
Multiple Interviews with Parker Gates. By Janet Gates Conover. Some recorded. 1973 through 1986.
Wilson, Robert. Parker Gates—inventor, businessman, turns 75 years old. Quincy Herald-Whig. p. 10-A. 8 Aug. 1982.