Paul M. Fuller, 1897-1951
It
has over the years been believed that Paul Max Fuller was born on the island
Corsica on the 5th January, 1897, based on reasonably reliable family
information. If the latest genealogical findings are correct, he may have been born
in Switzerland (born name Paul Colland), and his mother Sophie Colland (1874-*), a seamstress born in the village St. Aubin, married Erwin Furler
(1877-*), a book binder born in Hüningen/Basel, on the 13th April 1899 in the village Gelterkinden. Paul Fuller stated once that he was born in
Interlaken on the 5th June, as stated officially on the birth certificate, but
apparently he celebrated birthdays on the 5th January. The first six months of his life in
Switzerland are subject to an ongoing genealogical research. As a young
man, on his honeymoon with his wife Friedel (Frida Schär), he went to Omaha in
Nebraska to visit Friedel's sister Louise, and Paul Furler may have thought that he could do well in the States
as an architect/designer. It is believed that Paul Furler
worked as a farm hand in Nebraska for a few years, while he learned the
Anglo-American language, and it is also believed that Paul Fuller took the
middle name Max from a friend when he applied for American citizenship. Max Peter
Hofstetter (born on the 19th May, 1899) was a good friend
and fellow designer, who travelled on the ship Rotterdam from Boulogne-sur-Mer to New York with Paul and
Friedel when they were on their honeymoon. Max Peter was
also the son of August Hofstetter, the founder of Möbelfabrik Aug. Hofstetter in
Basel, and Paul Furler served a four year
apprenticeship at the Hofstetter factory plus one
year at another major furniture factory. According to the U.S. Naturalization
forms Paul (Furler) Fuller arrived in New York on the
21st August 1920, after the marriage to Friedel on
the 7th May in Basel. In 1925 he designed and built his own house ‘Twin Oaks’
on Sunset Lane in Deerfield, and also rebuilt the Presbytarian
school in Deerfield/Bannockburn. At the same time Paul M. Fuller started
working for the firm Marshall Field & Co. (hundred years later the fourth
largest general merchandise retailer in the States). At the
During
the years at The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company Paul M. Fuller had a total of 17
phonograph (jukebox) cabinet designs patented in his own name. The classic
Fuller designs started with Model 312 (patent No. D:99,277 filed on the 8th February,1936) and ended with Model
1100 (patent No. D:153,675 filed on the 8th
September, 1947). Among the 17 designs was one for a Model 260 Console
Speaker and another for a very nice remote control unit for Model 1100
(filed the same day), but those two designs were as far as it is known today
never produced at The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in North Tonawanda. Paul M.
Fuller also filed an additional patent for a remote-control selector device on
the 17th August, 1945 (patent No. 2,612,710 granted on the 7th October, 1952),
and he also designed electric organs and keyboard covers for The Rudolph
Wurlitzer Company in 1946 and 1947. Paul M. (nickname: Malt) Fuller was together with general
sales manager Milton (Mike) G. Hammergren
and the famed illustrator Albert Dorne
responsible for the whirlwind national Wurlitzer advertising campaign around
1947, and the dean of jukebox designers finally left the major jukebox
manufacturer late in 1948 due to health problems and hospitalization, leaving
behind a legacy that transcended the mere product and helped to define an age,
the Golden Age of automatic coin-op phonographs. The last coin-op
phonograph model Paul M. Fuller was involved with as designer at The Rudolph
Wurlitzer Company was the Model 1250 introduced on the market early 1950.
In
the first months of 1949, soon after leaving the jukebox trade and the Fairfax
Hotel in Buffalo, where he resided during the years at The Rudolph Wurlitzer
Company, Paul M. Fuller purchased a factory building at 101-107 South Warner
Street in Oneida, and established his own design engineering company, the Paul
M. Fuller Co. Inc., designing mainly wooden chests and silver display boxes.
The company was active with up to 85 employees from the 1st April, 1949, until
around the 1st April, 1954. However, from the 1st April, 1951, and the next
three years the company was managed by James H. Keene and Philip V. Clonan, and the 30,000 sq.ft. production facility was finally offered for sale on the 2nd
May, 1954. Paul M. Fuller was working with wonderful furniture and piano
designs between 1949 and 1951, and many years before, in 1937, Paul M. Fuller
assigned a very nice patented desk design to the Chicago based The Clemetsen Co. (Clemco Desk Mfg.
Co.). After his employment at The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company Paul M. Fuller was
also vice-president in charge of design and production at the Chicago based SuperVend Sales Corp.. The SuperVend Corp. was acquired by a group of investors headed
by Milton G. Hammergren in 1950.
Paul
Max Fuller suffered a fatal heart attack during a general checkup
at the Millard Fillmore Hospital in Buffalo, and died at 7.30 a.m. on the 29th
March, 1951, only 54 years of age, and was cremated at the Forest Lawn Chapel
two days later. According to the obituary in the "Buffalo Evening News"
Paul M. Fuller was survived by his widow (married in July, 1944), the nurse Ruby Helen Rudd Fuller
(1907-2000), his son Paul Norman Fuller, and
also by his brother Hans Furler* in Zürich in Switzerland. Paul M.
Fuller's first wife Friedel (Frida
Schär) died in 1985 (born on the 30th December,
1896) and his son Paul
Norman died on the 5th December, 1999 (born on the 14th September,
1927). Unfortunately,
his second son Charles Frederick (born on the 5th December, 1929) passed away from meningitis at
Highland Park Hospital on the 15th March, 1938. According to the cremation
permit (Reg. No. 5417) Paul Max Fuller's ashes were scattered, and therefore no grave marker can be found at the
Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.
Gert J. Almind
* The editor needs copy of death
certificates to find the correct data of Sophie Furler
(☼ 15th October, 1874), Erwin Furler (☼
26th December, 1877), brother Hans Furler (☼
1901/1902), sister Elsa Furler (☼ 1908 in
Ziefen), and probably one or two other siblings. The
name of Paulˈs brother Hans was probably short for Johannes,
since his uncle Walter Furler also had a son named
Johannes about the same age. The name Johannes was in fact the name of Hansˈ grandfather
and great grandfathers on both sides in the Furler
family.