Notes for Kurt Otto Willy "John" Schelle
Kurt O. Shelle Obituary - South Bend Tribune November 7, 1961
Kurt (John) O. Shelle, 68, of 1412 Kinyon St., ws dead on arrival at Memorial Hospital at 3:15 p.m. Monday after becoming ill in his home. He was born in Kottbus, Germany on Sept 7, 1893, and came to South Bend 45 years ago from Germany. In 1917 in South Bend he married Hazel Brown. Mr. Shelle was a former projectionist, retiring two years ago. Since then he had been employed as a business agent for Local 187, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the U.S. and Canada. Surviving are his widow; a daugher, Mrs. Russell Hartz of Dayton Ohio; two sons, Donald R. of South Bend, and Kurt O. Jr. of Goshen, and nine grandchildren. Friends may call after 7 p.m. today in the Orvis Funeral Home. Service will be at 2 p.m. Thursday in Our Redeemer Lutheran Church with Rev. John Kutz, pastor officiating. Burial will be in Mr. Pleasant Cemetery. Mr. Schelle was a member of the church and the American Society of Motion Picture Engineers.
Notes of Jo Shelle Sheldon:
Kurt's father died after an accident at a sawmill in 1902. The group responsible for putting his father in harm's way paid for Kurt to go to private school in Germany after his father's death. Kurt was known to be very outspoken. He received several academic awards. He played soccer, bowling, and was a state champ of Indiana in 3 rail billiards. Kurt worked as a cabin boy around 1907, when he was 14 years old, on a ship between Germany and the U.S. to pay for the trip for his Mom, sister, and brother to cross the Atlantic. He made 6 trips across the Atlantic Ocean to earn their crossing. He immigrated to the U.S. just before the U.S. entered World War I. He was at that time a sailor in the German Merchant Marine. The ship was docked in Baltimore, Maryland Harbor and he asked for shore leave to see his sister. He got the leave and never returned to the ship. He was taken in by his Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Piet Brickner living near Baltimore. Next, he moved to Chicago and lived with his Aunt Martha Schultz. Martha was a clothing buyer and designer for Fair Store, a part of Carson Pierie Scott. When Martha moved to California, Kurt took a job in Valparasio, wiring houses. He then moved to South Bend and worked for Edward Rhodes theatre chain. The theatres were closed in the summer, so he worked at Playland during the warm season. This amusement park in South Bend is where he met his wife. His wife's family was against their marriage because he was German and if she married him she would loose her citizenship. Kurt was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1940, and his wife was able to be repatriated shortly after. Kurt worked as the stage manager of the Blackstone theatre, and as the master electrician of all 15 theatres in the chain. He also developed the commercial artwork at the Blackstone theatre in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The theatre chain came on hard times and dropped to only one, so he took other jobs by servicing projection amplifiers in other theatres. Kurt belonged to the American Society of Motion Picture Engineers. He left the society for a time around 1940, then rejoined and became the president and business agent. He was the only person in South Bend at the time that carried a sound classification. In the 1930's he also fixed an EKG machine at a cardiologists office, using his electronic skills, when other attempts had failed. He was also the consultant of acoustics for the Indiana University Auditorium in South Bend, still in use in the late 1990s. His grandchild remarked on how he didn't have a German accent, even though he grew up there.
From the family notes of Kurt Otto Shelle, Jr:
Kurt Otto Willy Schelle was educated in a private school. When his father died the ternverein paid his tuition and would have paid it through the University, if his mother had permitted. However they did not pay tuition for his brothers, so Erich went to public school. Her decision to bring her family to the U.S. may have been the real reason for her refusal to let young Kurt continue his education. However, he didn't understand her motive and thought she was claiming she needed his help to support hte family. His situation deteriorated, in his mind, to where he came to believe she was really his stepmother and Erich and Katharina were his half-brother and half-sister, and she was favoring her children at his expense. In the middle of the 190s I was able to get a copy of his birth certificate from Cottbus and gave it to him for his birthday. In addition to learning he was a year younger than he thought he was the question of his true parentage was settle beyond question. He was stunned!
He talked very little about his childhood. For that matter he talked very little about his early live in the U.S. What we learned came largely from our mother. A few incidents are worth mentioning. He was one of three students in his school who received a scholastic award which was an autographed book presented to them by the Kaiser. He also was chastised severely for observing to his classmates that the Kaiser's one arm was shorter than the other...in fact it was. His school had a strong gymnastics program and the instructor thought Otto Emil Oskar Schelle was an outstanding gymnast. Consequently, young Kurt was frequently remined there was a considerable gap between his father's gymnastic ability and his. This criticism continued until young Kurt finally blurted out "Can you do it as well as my father did?". "Of course not", was the indignant reply. He was a champ. "Then how do you expect me to be as good as he was?", asked the boy. ONe other incident, one of the teachers chewed tobacco (snuff) excessively and when he died every youngster in teh class quietly threw a box of snuff into the open grave as they passed by to pay final respects.
However, young Kurt was well coordinated and a good athelte. His interests were more in soccer, swimming and in his atult years, bowling and three rail billards. I did see him on a trampline once and he was surprisingly good considering he hadn't been near one for many years. The last year he bowled in the Chicago Traveling League. His average was 207. He never comp;eted in the Indiana State Billiards Tournaments (couldn't get away from the theater long enough) but he used to beat the state three rail champion regularly. He also was an excellent marksman with a rifle.
When Kurt's mother brought her family to the U.S. she was able to get him a job on the North Gorman Lloyd steamship, S.S. Bremen (the small Bremen, not the large one), as a cabin boy. After the family's arrival in Baltimore he made six more trips between Baltimore and Bremerhaven, Germany before he remained in the U.S. permanently. It may be that his working on the ship paid for all of their fares to America.
Dad never mentioned that his family had come to America with him and had gone back without him. Hid did say, according to his mother, that each time he was in port in Baltimore the U.S. looked better and better so he just simply "jumped ship" and didn't go back...not the recommended procedure for entering this country. With what we know now it seems likely that his mother had made a similar arrangement for him for the return trip and that is when he "jumped ship". His mother, brother, and sister were aboard shiop and his mother through he was too, but he wasn't with them. So, it suggests he was supposed to be a member of the ship's crew. What a surprise and shock she got when she saw him waiving goodbye from the dock! He had to struggle with the uncertainty of the legitimacy of his entry into the U.S. and its possible consequences until he was able to get his citizenship in the U.S. In 1940, under a new law that granted citizenship to a spouse of an American citizen. However, my mother had lost her citizenship when she married an "enemy alien" and had to be repatriated, under the same new law, before he could apply. In any event, Uncle Sam never had a more patriotic or loyal citizen, native born or otherwise, than Kurt Otto Willy Schelle! Stories of his devotion to this country are too many and too long to include in this biological sketch.
We don't know how long young Kurt remained in Baltimore with his Aunt Elisabeth and Uncle Piet Brickner. He may not have remained there at all. According to the family in Germany, a strong bond developed between Kurt and his uncle, who got him an apprenticeship as a plumber or pipe fitter, which young Kurt disliked intensely. So they may have been less than thrilled with him not being on the boat with his mother and he was less than thrilled with the apprenticeshop and the parting of the ways may have come quickly. Whatever happened he lost all contact withthem and never re-established it.
Sometime, probably in his apprenticeship days, he picked up the nickname of John, which folowed him throughout his life. Mother didn't know his name wasn't John until they applied for a marriage license. She survived the shock but always called him John. Sometimes when she yelled at me when Kurt was sleeping wh would always wake with a start and answer as if he had been called. His nickname probably saved me from being called Junior. However, to the best of my knowledge, Dad always used his correct name on legal documents. It should be mentioned that he didn't know his given names included "Willy" until we received his birth certificate from East Germany. Otherwise the following two generations of Schelles may have been blessed with three names, too!
We don't know when he left Baltimore but we do know he came to chicago and lived with his Aunt Martha Schulz, who by this time was a designer and buyer for the "Fair Store" which later became part of Carson Pirie Scott. she probably also was the Miss Schulz who was one of his godmothers. She tried to fill the void left by the absence of his mother. LIttle things like behaving himself, going to church (reformed) on Sunday, writing regularly to his mother, sending money hom to help out, putting money in the bank, keeping up his personal appearance, etc.
While in Chicago he held two jobs we know about. However, we are not certain of the sequence. One was as a clerk at Hart, Schaffner, and Hart, the clothing manufacturer. The 191 Chicago city directory lists a "John Schelle, Clerk, 12th Floor, 160 W. Jackson St." We have been told by our mother that his aunt got him a job with this company, so I am satisfied this reference is him, although I am surprised at the date. The directory was probably compiled in 1913 and the employee list may not have been current. The other job was with the "Essanay Movie Studios". One of his superiors was Carl Laemmele (sp?) who was a director and producer. This is the job Dad talked about. He knew and worked with many of the early screen stars. Two he mentioned were Wallace Beery and Gloria Swanson.
Essanay was a major producer of movies. They also controlled the distribution of their films by owning manyh of the theatres in which they were shown. The federal government brought anti-trust action against them. The result was they moved the picture making operation to California and I believe they divested themselves of the teatres. Actually I think they company split into different operations. Dad was asked to go with the film making operation to Los Angeles and apperently intended to go. In anticipation of his move Aunt Martha took a position with a company in Californi. She moved and for whatever reason may have been Dad didn't. Instead he took a job in Valparaiso, Indiana wiring houses. Somehow he lost contact with his Aunt Martha and never regained it.
He wasn't in Valparaiso long before he migrated to South Bend, Indiana and took a job in a local theatre chain. In those days the theaters colosed during the summer and the theatre workers went out to the local amusement park (Springbrook Park, later named Playland) where they manned the various rides and exhibits. It was here he and mother met.
Their romance blossomed in spite of a pronounced lack of enthusiasm fo it by my mother's family, who weren't enchanted with the idea of their little sister marrying a foreigner, particularly a German. I have been told that only my Grandfather Brown showed no prejudice and accepted the new son-in-law without reservation. I have also been told Grandfather Brown evalueated a man by what he judged him to be and not by his background, country of origin, etc. Before their lives were complete everyone of them became indebted to Dad at one time or another and their animosity and prejudices dissolved into friendliness and respect.
In the early years with Ezra Rhodes and his chain of 15 theatures Dad did very well. He was given a small block of stock in the company, was the stage mamager int he flagship theater (Blackstone), master electrician for all the theatres, some management responsibility in all of the theatres, and did nuch of the commercial artwork at the Blackstone. This was a 12 to 16 hour per day, 7 day a week position. In fact, he took no cacations from about 1917 until the end of World War II. The majority stockholder made a stupid arrangement trying to avoid some taxes and almost overnight they were down to one theatre, the Castle in South Bend.
The great depression had starte and the theatre business felt the affects of it along with most other businesses. Dad did several things to supplement his income or help the theatre make a go of it. he had acquired the equipment necessary to take, develop, print, and edit black and white silent 33MM motion pictures. He filmed Notre Dame football games for Knute Rockne, Layman's retreats for the University, and football games (special ones) of South Bend and Elkhart High School. he also produced a weekly news reel (St. Joseph Valley News) for the Castle Theatre. He was a one man operation. He took the pictures, developed them, hand drew the sub-titles, filmed and developed them, spliced them into the proper spots in the news reel and then transferred the images from the negative film to a positive film for projecting ont he screen. Sound pictures drove him out of this buisiness because of the capital investment required. He did all of the commerical artwork that wasn't supplied by the film disributors. Being ambidextrous he stood in the middle of a big easel and drew everyting on his left with his left hand and everything on his right with his right hand. He also serviced, repaired, and installed the projection, amplifiers, and sound equipement and on occasion in other theatres.
Uon the major stockholders' death in the middle 1930's, Dad continued to operate the Castle Theatre until the spring of 1940, when a health problem and impending surgery forced the closing of the Castle Theatre...never to reopen.
A recovery period followed the surgery during which he continued to represent the Devry Portable 16MM Sound and Motion Picture Equipent in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan. He also did some commerical art work for Cloething and DeMann, a South Bend commericial art firm. In the fall of 1940 a family decision led him to have his withdrawl card from the IATSE (International Alliance of Theaturical and Stage Employees) re-installed and he went on the extra list. As soon as it became known he was available, Joseph Vogel, owner of the River Park Theatre insisted he wanted Dad as his projectionist and persuated the union local to agree. Dad finished his working career at the River Park and to keep Dad Mr. Vogel matched the top scale paid on the downtown theatres. In additon Dad didn't have to share his booth with anyone else. It was also here he started talking vacations, 30 days paid-starting about the end of WWII.
Before long he became president of the Union and later became the business agent, a post he held at his death. He was the only member in South Bend that carried a sound engineers classificaton. As such he was qualified to install and service all motion picture sound and projection equipment.
In June 1959 he had emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia, which no one, including Mother knew he had. The surgery was extensive and left him a partial invalid. It also left him with an abundant supply of clots in his blood. On November 6, 1961, he came home and said to Mother, "Why on't we have an early supper and then drive over to Goshen to see Kurt, Mary, and the kids. I'll rake some leaves off the front bank while you are fixing supper." A few minutes later he came walking in the back door, breathing heavily, walked into the living room, sat on his favorite chair and died. The paramedics were stationed within about 200 feet of the folks house but they could not revive him.
Perhaps a couple of incidents in his life are worth recording:
A. In the 1930s a cardiologist in South Bend had new EKG equipment that didn't function properly. He had the manufacturer's service man in and it still didn't work properly. Someone suggested he call Dad and he did. Dad was reluctant to look at the equipment because he had never seen such equipment and he didn't fell he was qualified. The doctor talked Dad into at least looking at the equipment, which he did and he fixed it! I asked him how he accomplished the task. He said when he looked at it the problem seemed to be similar to electronic in nature. So, he did what he would have done with his soun equipment in the theatre...he took the wiring diagrams and balanced the circuits. It worked.
B. When Indiana University built its South Bend Campus, at someone's suggestion, Dad was asked to be a consultant on the acoustics needed for the auditorium. His suggestions were followed and I have been told the University is very happy with the acoustics in the auditorium.
Addendum to Kurt's biographical sketch:
Since compiling this summary we have received from Aunt Hedwig, in Berlin, a copy (photo) of a letter Dad wrote to his borther, ERich, from Chicago in 1911. At that time he was working at the Kenwood Theater in Chicago as a "Kinematograph Operateur" (Motion Picture Machine Operator - Projectionist). Thus he must have worked three different jobs in Chicago, at least. The sequence of these jobs is confusing with our limited information.
One Sunday when I was about 10-12 years old we were in Chicago and Dad decided to visit the Uptown Theatre. We were in the lobby when a man came up, grabbed Dad's hand, and made a big fuss over seeing him afer so many years. the gentleman's last name was Balaban. He was a member of the family that was involved in the Balaban and Katz chain of theatres. Mr. Balaban told us that when he was about my age he used to hang around the theatre and make a pest of himself and Dad was the only one with the courage to "kick his butt out and send him home". It was obvious he had a lot of respect for Dad. I suspect these incidents may have taken place at the Kenwood Theatre.
I managed to get Dad's birth certificate from Cottbus in the 50s. His first name was spelled "Curt". It surprised him but he stoutly maintained it had never been spelled that way but always had been spelled "Kurt". In the 1911 letter to Erich he signed is name "Kurt". To the best of my knowledge even though everyone called him "John" he always used Kurt on all legal documents. He did learn about the name "Willy" from his birth certificate. This he had not known...nor was he particularly thrilled about it.
Signed
Kurt O. Schelle Jr
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