Denmark, Iowa

 

 

How I Got Involved in Letterpress Printing: Boy Scouts Magazines had the Kelsey ads, and after I had been in business for several years, and the price of the antique gas engines went to extremely high figures to buy, "Oh! Flywheels are on printing presses, also." So, I bought the last item on the sale, a number 3 Pearl at an auction, but the cabinet did not sell. I asked the auctioneer about selling the cabinet. "No! That is for my lady friend," with his hand up to his mouth, so his wife would not hear. "Where is your Lady Friend?" "Sold to Larry for one dollar."

 

With the type and press home, I started to hand set my newspaper, but I ran out of the lower case e, almost instantly. "You need to get a Linotype. I know where there is one for sale for $200.00 with all of the things you need to go with it." I set the "etc. List" and then I needed a bigger press. A friend had a model B-2 Intertype, another #3 Pearl and a model 6 Little Giant. All of these machines and some more type cabinets followed me home. The next day another friend had a Ben Franklin Gordon 17 x 22 press For Sale for $75.00 and a lot more type came with it.

 

The race was on. The "etc. List" was published with the For Sale items and the Want Ads for those wanting to buy items. A Dog House Bass, 25 ton Crane, old Pottery, Coins, and altogether there were one hundred fifty two items For Sale or Wanted to Buy. The next day, I wanted to print more of the "etc. List", and after one impression, the whole page of type fell out of the chase onto the floor. That was the start of the ebay business, fifteen years before ebay started.

 

A four story factory building was purchased from a customer to house another Letterpress Printing Museum.  More machines, more mats, more type, and the list continues to grow. Fifteen years ago, while in another town, the town's very old newspaper building (which had been turned into a tavern was for sale, and it over looked my Mississippi River Railroad bridge, which I had owned with another man). I bought the building for a song and a dance. It turned into a weekly newspaper and a job shop and a Printing Museum, until the Great Flood of '93. That flood came ten days after I had hosted the APA's annual Wayzgoose.

 

Two annual show grounds asked me to put in a Letterpress Printing Museum in their buildings. One in their main building and the other Show, built a building just for the Letterpress "Print Shop" Museum. The State Fair was advising that a huge paper cutter was a "Model 8 Linotype". When questioned about that radio, "Is that a radio or a record player?" I asked. "Anybody can see that that is a radio." "But, THAT is not a model 8 Linotype?" I said. "Can you put a Linotype in it's place?" "YES!" and I have had a Print Shop Museum there, setting and casting over 5000 names for the guests each year, and publishing a small newspaper with that name on their front page.

 

But, several years later, I had a chance to sell the 30 ton locomotive with a contract to buy it back at a certain time and at a preset price and to be delivered off his property by a given date. I moved it to Denmark. The next day, Fred called my wife, Mary and said, "Tell Larry I want to sell him a century old caboose for one dollar, and I will pay the dollar." "NO! I won't tell him!", but she did. Over 800 feet of tracks have been laid and a switch has been installed, also.

 

The Low-Countries Tour in Europe was enjoyed, and an extra week was spent in London and Cambridge, England. The riding of over three dozen different trains was another enjoyable learning experience. The Private Libraries, the Museums and the Working Letterpress Printing and Casting businesses were enjoyed, as was the Windmill powered Paper Making Company, along with many small things to see.

 

After attending a private University to learn how to operate the type casting equipment, which was there, and with all of the equipment I have, I decided to try to educate others, thus the Linotype and other classes I am teaching. I have been inviting others to come to Denmark and rent newly built (old style looking) buildings to start up their businesses here, such as: Paper Making, Type Casting, Electroplating of Mats, Type Setting, Printing, Book Binding, Pottery and Wheel Turning, and Welding, etc., and bring all of my other buildings items to the confines of these buildings, next to the Sun Dance and Southern Railroad siding here in Denmark.

 

A Big Ten University has asked me to be the instructor at their Historical Printing Studio, and instruct their students in their Linotype Tutorial Classes. The Linotype Tutorial X Class will be in March, 2006. Fifty-five have signed up for this LT X Class.

 

Presses & Equipment: Over 185 printing presses in the ten Letterpress Printing Museums, with over 110 hot metal casting machines, several thousand fonts of mats and standing type and many of the other items associated with the Letterpress Printing trade.
 
Work History: I started my Pry Plastics, Inc., plastic injection molding business two days after I graduated from college.
 
Education: BS Degree in Industrial Education
 
Other Interests/Hobbies: Antique Gas Engines, Ancient Coins, Pre-Columbian Art and Works, Railroading, Mechanical Machines of the Past, Antique and Precision Tools and Wrenches, Caps, Roller Skating, Technical Books, Traveling to see and meet other Letterpress Printers and their shops, and I have written eighteen books, so far.
 
Group Memberships, if any: APA #572, St. Louis Letterpress Society,
 
Email Address: larryjraid@lisco.com
 
Website: www.linotypeuniversity.org
 
Birth Date or Birth Year: March 18, 1939