The Kalamazoo Gals

Cool story. I don't understand why Gibson is in such denial. This would be major positive press for Gibson.
 
Some PR/marketing executive is probably afraid that a reporter will ask Henry J. questions about women in factories and the response will summon internet shitstorms.
 
Cool. Bought the book looks like an interesting read.

The only thing I can think of is Gibson was contractually obligated to not build guitars and only focus on the war effort?

Or maybe Gibson be just dumb. Yeah. That's probably it.
 
xStonr said:
Cool story. I don't understand why Gibson is in such denial.
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"This is a guitar made during World War II," Thomas says, grabbing a hold of a vintage Banner and resting it on his knee. "And the reason I can tell that is there’s a little golden banner on the head stock that says 'Only a Gibson is Good Enough.' "
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Only a Gibson is Good Enough to Divert Resources from the War Effort.
 
I agree with Doug, Gibson doesn't want to admit that they weren't a good little company, that mainly shoved guitar making off to the side during WW2, to concentrate on making items for the war effort.

This is not new to me, I've known for some time both Gibson and Martin, continued making guitars during the war, but I assumed that Gibson was like Martin, and made fewer of them, and made them with cheaper materials, that weren't as critical to production of military related items.
 
Or the author is drumming up business for his book by creating some sort of conspiracy theory. I have no idea what's going on in this case, but it reminds me of what my great grandpappy used to say: "How do you know when a salesman is lying? Watch his lips - if they are moving, he's lying."

I've not heard anything about the "Kalamazoo Girls" until that article, so again, I know nothing of the specifics. But when I read the guy's claims my bullshit detector did jump into the yellow territory.
 
I think that Gibson's treatment of Thomas is pretty shitty. They are stonewalling for reasons that probably do come from some paranoid corner of Henry J's twisted-fuck mind. But as for the misinformation as to what Gibson was doing during the war, that could just be chalked up to a loss of institutional memory in what is a fairly large and very old company. It could be that the details of that period of production just didn't get passed on in the official company narrative. Probably as a result of the prevailing sexism of the times. Personally, I would be thrilled and honored to own one of those instruments.
 
Hubert Stumblin said:
It could be that the details of that period of production just didn't get passed on in the official company narrative.
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That’s probably true. Not many American companies have employee records going back that far. They were probably trashed as soon as the men came back from war and the women were sent home. If not they probably got trashed when the company moved to Nashville.
 
The stonewalling makes no sense if no documentation of women workers exist. If the book was a scam, Gibson should open up and disprove the fraud. I do think Gibson is hiding something, and may even believe that to this day, there could be repercussions. While else would they not set up and speak about this issue? You would think that the women workers could somehow verify their work for Gibson.
 
Stratguy said:
The stonewalling makes no sense if no documentation of women workers exist. If the book was a scam, Gibson should open up and disprove the fraud. I do think Gibson is hiding something, and may even believe that to this day, there could be repercussions. While else would they not set up and speak about this issue? You would think that the women workers could somehow verify their work for Gibson.
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Gibson supported Hitler during the war.
 
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