By Floyd A. Paul
Kemper Radio Beginnings
Radio Doings magazine of Feb.12, 1928, had an article on the Kemper Radio Lab. The following paragraphs paraphrase that article.
In the summer of 1925 Guy A. Kemper started a business manufacturing a portable radio in his garage. This radio had a chassis, a loop antenna, and a carrying case. The initial effort was truly a garage shop operation. Guy made one or two radio sets at a time, offered them to some acquaintances, and made several sales.
Drawing of the Kemper Super-Harmonic, the first model he made.
His early problems stemmed from selling the sets too cheaply and he wasn't making any money. He might not have survived the year of 1925 with his initial efforts, however a Harold E. Cluff came into his life. Harold had been an ore miner in Nevada, had his fill of trying to find gold, threw his pick away and headed for Los Angeles. He met up with Mr. Kemper, saw the possibilities of selling the radio that Guy was making and offered his services. Guy accepted the challenge to work with Mr. Cluff and the two of them started working together.
Guy made a few sets a day and Harold would put one set under each arm and walk Los Angeles city streets in the mornings. By noon he had always sold the two sets. He would return for more. Harold apparently had a good feel for getting the business going. He found he was selling sets faster than Guy could make them. Guy then hired a new technician to assist him in making portable sets. Now there were more sets available than could be sold. They added another man to help sell them. Soon Harold became sales manager, as he hired more salesmen.
By the Spring of 1927 the company became Kemper Radio Corp. Their motto had become "Direct factory to consumer, no middle man."
In 1927 Mr. Percival Townsend became production manager and created the Radiomobile set in that year. The sales personnel moved to the Ambassador hotel where all of their sets were displayed. ( In a Radio Doings ad of April, 1927, a Kemper Radio was being offered to hotel guests for a nominal rental charge.) The Radio Doings article concluded with the statement that the company was doing very well financially in 1928.
The first model of the Kemper portable radio was called Super-Harmonic and was made in 1924. It had four tubes and had holes in the panel to allow the tubes to be seen from the front. The second set was also called Super-Harmonic but had five tubes all mounted inside with no panel holes. By summer of 1926 the next portable which as labeled the K-5-1 was being manufactured. In the next two years the K-5-2 and the K-5-3 followed. The K-5-1 and K-5-2 had a meter in the center of the panel while the K-5-3 had a meter on the left side. The K-5-3 came in at least two styles, two thumb-wheel tuning knobs and two separate tunable condenser knobs.
Kemper Model K-5-1
Kemper Model K-5-2
Kemper "Amplifonic", the K-5-2 with table and cabinet.
Kemper "Amplifonic", the K-5-4. Stew Oliver collection
The Radiomobile floor set (K-5-5) was a unique design with three inch castor wheels, a loop antenna, an AC power supply, Sovereign tubes, an upper and lower chassis, and an Aerofonic air column speaker (which was made in Los Angeles).
The Ampliphonic, the Duophonic, and the Electrophonic models were attempts to make a console radio out of the portable set. The company assembled tables, portable sets and AC power supplies into a console arrangement.
The SG7 model, with screen-grid tubes, came out in 1929-1930. The chassis in that model was used in the SG71 model, as well as in the grandfather clock radios. The grandfather clock radio was made in two models: with and without a phonograph.
Kemper Model K-5-5. Stew Oliver collection.
Kemper Grandfather Clock.
Karl Manthei of Fairfield, California, collector of grandfather clocks, told the author that all U. S. grandfather clocks were made between June and Dec. of 1931. (See the radio set listing for an organized compilation of models and dates.)
Guy Kemper was born in 1894 in McComb, Illinois. He died in 1968 in San Louis Obispo, California. He served in WW I as a part of the 347th Field Artillery. He started the Kemper Radio Laboratories in Los Angeles in the 1924-1925 period.
Guy Kemper joined the Institute or Radio Engineers in 1927 and remained a member until 1930. By the time the company went out of business in late 1931 or 1932 Kemper built a successful business with outlets in Santa Monica, Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach, and Los Angeles, as well as outlets in San Francisco and Seattle. His Sales staff numbered some 150 representatives at one point in the 1928-1929 period.
Guy A. Kemper
Plant Locations
Mr. Kemper's first assembly site was in Los Angeles in his home at 2718 Moss Ave. In Sept. of 1925 the shop moved to South. Hope St. In Dec. of 1925 the plant moved to 219-221 Venice Blvd. near Hill St. In April of 1926 the company moved into the Kotzin Bldg. at 1236 So. Santee. In 1927 Guy Kemper moved his assembly line into another manufacturing company's facility. (Author note: this may have been Jackson-Bell or The Wireless Shop ).
Financing
During the first few months of his business the company was called Kemper Radio and survived on Guy Kemper's own capital money. During the manufacturing of the first "Super-Harmonic" portable radio, investors were brought into the business. Then in 1927 the company changed its name to Kemper Radio Corporation. and went public.
RCA Licensing
The author found archival records of ITT-Gilfillan showing Guy Kemper came to Mr. Gilfillan in January of 1929 and asked if he could bring his chasses to the Gilfillan factory, have them assembled and obtain an RCA licensing tag for his sets. Mr. Sennet Gilfillan said "Yes." Guy Kemper was one of the first manufacturers in Los Angeles to do so.
A tribute to Kemper design (Author's note) Mr. Ed Fowler, of Avalon Radio Shoppe, once told the author he had gone to visit the Kemper plant, circa 1928. He was impressed with the design of the portable, and had purchased a set, brought it back to his employer's shop and reproduced a few "look-a-like" sets for Avalon to sell. (See Los Angeles Radio Manufacturing, The First Twenty Years, Supplement No. 1 for Avalon Radio Shoppe article.)
Tom Kemper's Recollections
Guy Kemper's son, Tom Kemper, of Northridge, California, gave the author copies of Kemper Company bulletins, photographs, and much information about his father. Tom said he remembers his father saying, "Our company made some 90,000 sets". Tom also found a National Radio Institute lesson well annotated by his father. Notes indicated he knew the lesson material very well. Tom also remembers his father saying he helped build a radio transmitter in the Los Angeles basin. With this background in radio understanding Guy Kemper started his company that spanned some seven years (1924-1931).
Chronological Kemper Radio Model Listing
Derived from Lefax handbooks, McMahon's book Radio Collector's Guide,
and Kemper Co. sales bulletins.