I'll just add this as told to me in an interview , I make no claims to it being fact only sharing information for the sake of discussion.
What I do know with almost certainty is that George's Father came to Chicago, is seen in the census records as employed as a sheet metal worker and then in a later census as president of the sheet metal works with the employer named as Weber Bros .
The Weber Bros started in the Chicago area in 1885 and built various items over their long history . By the 1950s Weber Bros was a 65 year old company and that becomes important in this story .
Although George's father had been President of the company by the time George Stephen came along he had stepped away as President and HK had assumed that role. George's father was the majority stock holder and so George it was said was an idea man. He was looking for a " home run " product to help the Metal Works. If you look at the Weber Brothers Metal Works Photo of HK and George sitting together they were producing almost all the items pictured , the lamps the table in the back with the phone on it and of course the grills . Early on the grills were low priority HK the President wasn't sold on the idea and George had to go along as the company continued focusing on being a job shop for sheet metal pieces and parts.
As time went on
George was able to market his kettle successfully and more and more pressure was put on the metal works to produce these grills , spinning the parts is slow and labor intensive plus the company located at 108 .N Jefferson was on the top floor of a 5 story loft building.
By 1955-56 I'm told the kettle parts were now being produced and supplied to the metal works and the company rented the basement of the loft building to assemble the grills . Things were really taking off at this point and the company and its shareholders had to make a decision, go all in on the BBQ with a big investment or don't, they would need a larger location more machines and employees. Not to mention giving up their other products and contracts they had supplied for years.
HK was not big on the idea of spending more money on the BBQ and then .
It was at this time that George's Father dies and everything changes. George Stephen now owns majority stock in the company and has decided to go all in on his Barbecue , HK also has interest and so the two strike a deal . HK sells his stock and buys the machine shop portion of the metal works from George and George gets the Barbecue company which he promptly moves to Wood Dale. There's also one other issue and that's the name Weber Bros , both men know that in splitting the company the longstanding name of Weber Bros is important and both men want it. It's then agreed that both men will use the name Weber In the new names of their business' and they part ways .
I'm told George took 2 lathes with him when he left for Wood Dale and the Metal Works eventually relocated to another state with all the machinery from the Jefferson St location.
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Topic: 1958 Weber Ad.... (Read 4222 times)
