Ceramic Mitten letters donated to Redlands Historical Museum These are some of the ceramic Mitten letters, including a musical note, and their packaging that Carolyn Hernandez donated to the Redlands Historical Museum. POSTED: 07/20/14 The Redlands Historical Museum recently received packaged ceramic letters from the Mitten company, which operated in Redlands from 1938 to 1986. They are the gift of Carolyn “YoYo” Hernandez, who served as general manager much of her career there from 1958 until the company closed down in 1986. Many in Redlands remember when the public was invited to go into the big brick manufacturing building on Fifth Street to retrieve leftover letters for a day or two when the factory shut down. As a result, the Redlands Historical Museum had previously been given some fonts of the heavy white plaster-of-Paris-type letters arranged on 36-inch Masonite boards. Hernandez’s donation, however, included five brown-paper-packaged sets of tiny letters as though ready for mailing to any company needing signage in its store or business. The letters, produced in nearly 130 sizes and font styles and shipped all over the world, were used by department stores, grocery stores, churches — any business or organization that needed a quick and changeable way to list names in a display directory or menu items for sale. “It’s difficult in this age of professional sign companies and computer-generated art to understand the demand for the Mitten letters,” said Hernandez. “Our letters were the first to be put up as logos in the directory system for Sage’s — the first directory identification over the aisles of food. “We had them on Masonite background, which we painted, and then glued our letters on both sides. We did the ironwork which held these letters on a plaque. We had big contracts, especially in Florida. All the Publix supermarkets had them for years until plastic came in.” Inventor Frank Mitten’s parents Frank S. and Mary Mitten had owned the Mitten’s Fountain ice cream parlor at 11 E. State St., the site that later became Blum’s dress company and now is Las Brasas Mexican restaurant. Young Frank, after the fountain closed at 11 p.m., worked late hours planning the designs and production of the ceramic letters. Despite an almost-fatal auto accident and business and manufacturing problems causing delays, he set up the letter-process business in a small storeroom and continually expanded until his parents acquired the 10,000-square-foot brick fruit-packing house next to the railroad tracks on Fifth Street. That building was erected in 1890 by Lon G. Haight, president and manager of the Haight Fruit Company. The building at that time was described as one of the most monumental in Redlands. In 1929, the building became the Jones Cider & Vinegar Company factory before being bought by Frank and Mary Mitten in 1938. Mitten letters donor Carolyn Hernandez, a native of Los Angeles, attended Franklin Elementary School (as have her grandchildren) and Redlands High School, but left her senior year to graduate from John Muir High School in Pasadena and then attend Sawyer School of Business. Her father, Claude Dorres, was chief chef for 31 years at Redlands Community Hospital, and her grandfather, A.G. Lerma, established the first Hispanic newspaper in Redlands. As a teenager, Hernandez played violin in the orchestra directed by Ed Tritt at the University of Redlands. She married RHS graduate Tony Hernandez in 1957. He attended Riverside Community College, then received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Redlands, later teaching five years at Rubidoux High School and then working 35 years at Riverside Community College as a Spanish and psychology professor and counselor. The couple’s plan had been that Carolyn would work and Tony would then send her through school, she said. “I went to work just by applying for the job at Mitten company as an assembly worker in 1958,” she said. “Then I transferred into the office, so that I learned the whole manufacturing procedure. I was in assembly three months, then accounts receivable 1958-60, then the general ledger bookkeeper in 1968 — all by hand with double entry in those days. I didn’t go back to school. I was already running Mitten’s, and we figured that was my education.” She was office manager from 1968 to 1978 and then general manager until the plant closed. “At times we were so busy that we had a day and night shift,” she said. “We had a contract with the government in 1965 to manufacture special letters used in titling their training films. In early 1960 we branched out to a sales office in New York City. At the high point, we had to have about 80 to 100 employees, because we were working two shifts for two or three years,” she said. “It was quite an operation. Frank and some of his friends invented some of the machinery that it took to make the letters. We were the only plant of its kind in the nation and had the market on all these display letters — until plastics came on the scene. “I see 1940 or 1950 films where I spot our Mitten letters used for names on the doors and other instances where these letters were being used. They were used in very nice office buildings on the door instead of painting.” Hernandez explained that Mitten developed five types of the three-dimensional letters. Best known was Pinbak, with the sharp pins sticking out the back, mainly for bulletin boards, “especially school systems’ bulletin boards,” she said. A second type was Sanback with no pins, but smooth-sanded backs. Also patented was Trakk — with the bottoms of the letters channeled to slide right into a wood or metal frame system. The company also made thicker stand-alone letters and Slantee, produced on an angle to be seen on sales counters. “When we went to work, we had to sign a contract that none of the formulas would be divulged,” Hernandez said. “A general worker could figure it out — gypsum, water and additives that made the mixture set up.” The company made the letters first in aluminum in their own die shop. These letters then were the originals around which the rubber molds were made for the ceramic. Perhaps 10 employees worked in that shop, according to Hernandez. “We had to watch the rubber market to order raw rubber for a good price,” she said. “Rubber molds wear out and have to be remolded over the years.” Tons of refined plaster of Paris were shipped from Oklahoma on rail cars. “They would pull up, open our doors and unload the sacks into the building on a conveyor. It was our other additives that made it the fine product it became,” she said. “We were checked by EPA all the time, and everything OSSIA required, we had. The only time it became dusty was the sanding of the Sanbak letters, which was a whole hooded operation, and EPA would come and check that we were not emitting particles of dust,” she said. Hernandez recalled some of the perhaps 20 fonts designed including Tempar, Kabel expanded and condensed, Broadface, Script, Gothic, Vista, Executive, Montclair and Showboat — not many when considering the many dozens available on computers today. Pinbak machines inserted the pin. “The machines were all invented by Frank and the engineers working for him,” she said. Hernandez said that when Mitten opened a New York office, he and Jessie moved there. Frank would return to Redlands three or four times a year, living in the apartment attached to the Mitten Building, which later became the offices of Thatcher Engineering. “He would be rummaging all night long in the factory, smoking his cigars,” Hernandez remembered. “Those letters were his baby. Jessie liked New York better than Redlands, but would come back periodically — only three times while I was there.” Scott Plastic of Sarasota, Fla., bought the company in 1986 and closed it in 1989. “They came in and wanted to learn the operation and played like they were going to keep it going, but we knew,” Hernandez said. “It did not surprise any of us (that they intended to close). It was an expensive operation to run in comparison with plastics, which were made so much cheaper and shipped so much easier. They were not interested in being in California at all. They had us pack up the machines and send them, and dump the rubber molds. They had a pretty close watch on all that. I had to take pictures and know what they were willing to let go. They really did not want any of the machinery, but sold some for parts, which they had us wrap up and ship. We had a big huge rubber press, and I don’t know what happened to that. After we closed down, they said they would dispose of that.” Both Hernandez and the Redlands Historical Museum would like to find examples of the aluminum letters and the rubber molds — but it’s been 25 years and rubber quickly deteriorates. The Mitten building received a Heritage Award from the Redlands Area Historical Society in 2005, and the Mitten house at 1321 La Arriba Drive received a Heritage Award this year, researched by Robin Grube. Those who have information or Redlands-area historical items to donate to the Redlands Historical Museum may contact Maria Carrillo or Nathan Gonzales in the A.K. Smiley Public Library Heritage Room, 909-798-7632. Source: Nelda Stuck, Redlands Historical Museum Association redlandsdailyfacts/lifestyle/20140720/ceramic-mitten-letters-donated-to-redlands-historical-museum
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 17:01:49 +0000
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