I have written many installments on my hometown of Fullerton, California. I was brought home from St. Joseph's Hospital in Orange to our 5 year-old home on West Southgate Avenue a few days after my July 10th arrival in 1960. Just a few miles from my home, at that very time, the world was being changed one guitar and amp at a time in a factory called Fender Musical Instruments.
The Beatles, Clapton, Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix and a host of others, transformed the music world with the instruments designed and built in this little space. I look at the wood stacked high in the video below and can only imagine the guitars made from that stock, and the money those instruments might bring today in the vintage market. Even though I came into the world a year later, this was my culture. Notice the bay doors opened to let the warm, desert air blow in to cool the employees. I don't remember air conditioning growing up except for the doctor's office, the theater, or the market--we didn't need it. I'm sure the workers could catch a whiff of the Hunt Foods catchup fragrance floating from the factory a few miles away, as tomatoes and spices melded. My folks may have known some of those who worked for Fender at certain times. I grew up kind of taking the whole thing for granted until I became old enough to appreciate my heritage. I am a Fender guy to this day--not because I went to the same school as Leo Fender, but because he made some sick guitars and amps!
This video is from actual restored home-movie footage taken casually at the factory. The factory is no longer located in Fullerton. Leo sold the company in 1965 to CBS, and Fender has changed ownership several times since. The main factory of their American-made guitars is in Corona, California, some 30 miles in-land from Fullerton. The images below take me back to my Mad Men beginnings.
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