What Does Harry Katz Have to do with Valentine’s Day?

“I don’t know what the business men are getting out of radio, but it is certainly a big force let loose in the world…I pass on where this game is leading us. I don’t believe that anybody knows where radio is headed to – it’s all an unknown quantity yet, and who will ultimately profit most, time will tell. I recon that the public will – – anyway it keeps us merchants pushe’d along, and we have to keep up with it.” (The Cambridge Tribune October 11, 1924).

In addition to Valentine’s Day, February 14 is also National Radio Day. And, since Harry Katz was a radio salesman extraordinaire in the early days of Cambridge radio and beyond, we thought we’d use this chance to say a few words about him.

But first – here are some Cambridge and Mass-related fun radio facts:

• Marconi Beach on Cape Cod is named after Gugliemo Marconi, the Italian inventor of wireless radio. In 1903, Marconi famously transmitted the first transatlantic wireless communication between the U. S. and England from the cliffs overlooking this beach, which is now part of the National Park Service.
• At the outset of WWI, Harvard provided the Navy free use of its Cruft High Tension Electrical Laboratory on Oxford Street for the Navy’s new School for Radio Electricians. “By early 1918, more than 5,000 Naval recruits had enrolled in the program and 400 new radio operators were graduating and entering military service each week.” (“Cruft Laboratory goes to war”)

• The proliferation of commercial radio stations in the early 1920s led to the Radio Act of 1927 and the Federal Radio Commission, which established the first set of broadcasting regulations. Stations in the Boston area at that time included WNAC, WBZ (broadcasting from the Hotel Brunswick), WDBR (broadcasting from the Tremont Temple Baptist Church), WGBH (originally broadcasting from Fall River), WBZ, WEEI (licensed to the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of Boston) and WRSC (broadcasting from the Hotel Bellevue).
• In 1922, the MIT Radio Society “…announced that it will accept messages from any students at Technology for transmission free of charge to any part of the United States or the Hawaiian Islands.” (The Cambridge Tribune October 14, 1922)
• Cambridge venues of all sorts were advertising radio concerts. Some included dancing. Even the Manhattan Market grocery store on Mass Ave hosted a series of radio concerts in their store. The store manager proclaimed: “This will enable many to have a first glowing experience with this new electrical wave marvel.” (for more about the Manhattan Market, see our blog post “Before Their Were Supermarkets”)
• The General Radio Co. (later GenRad), founded in 1915, which manufactured electronic radio testing equipment, built a new facility in 1924 at the corner of Mass Ave and Windsor Streets.

• An item in The Cambridge Tribune (April 15, 1922) declared “$5,000,000 is spent weekly on radio. Already 75 broadcasting stations serve more than 600,000 radio operators through the country. Are our local electricians alive to possibilities?” Radio supply and service shops proliferated.  Among them were:

And then there was Harry Katz…

The Chronicle reported that “Harry Katz has been giving ‘day and night’ service to the radio ‘fans’ during the national Democratic convention. He had a crowd about his store at all times when the convention was on, even when the final ballot was announced about 2.30 a. m. Wednesday morning.” (July 12, 1924)

In October, Katz tuned the radio and amplified the World Series games to the public. As The Cambridge Tribune reported under a headline “RADIO CROWDS JAM SIDEWALKS”:  “it…kept the crowds spell-bound all through the week in front of the firm’s Central square store.” This was followed by his broadcast of the November 1924 election results:

Of course, Harry’s speakers  also relayed baseball games: 

Harry Katz was born in Lborow, Austria in 1890. His family emigrated to the Boston in 1903 on the inaugural voyage of the White Star Line Ship Cretic. Harry was a savvy entrepreneur: in 1909, he was given a license for selling used clothes, and had started a bicycle repair business at 85 River Street:

In 1912 he moved his bicycle business to 73 River St, where also serviced automobile tires “retiring” baby carriages to his services.

Finally, in 1917, he moved his radio and auto accessory business to 712 Mass Ave in Central Square, next to the Board of Trade building. This includes merchandise from his bike store in North Cambridge.

In 1929, he also opened a gas and auto service station at 125 Brookline Street:

“Harry Katz of Central square likes to be first in everything. Julius Caesar was just the same way. Not content with being one of the first bicycle dealers on a large scale in Cambridge, and the very first auto accessory dealer in the city, added to being the pioneer radio man of the town, now he has opened the first super-service auto station on Brookline street…” (The Cambridge Sentinel July 26, 1929)

Around 1932, Katz moved his entire operation from the 712 Mass Ave location to his 125 Brookline St service station. (For more about this location see our Instagram post on the former Katz Garage)

45 years before his death in 1972, The Cambridge Sentinel ran a remarkable encomium about Katz’ character:

“[Katz] is quiet, social, and sensible. His head for business has not hardened his heart. Those black eyes see more than a tactful tongue will talk about. He is Harry to a host of friends. People of the vinegar type are not saluted by their first names. It is a tribute to general worth, the mutual expression of familiarity with respect. It is the irresistible appeal of friendliness, the touch of nature, that makes the world kin, that explains the likableness of Harry Katz. He does not strain to please. He is more blunt than diplomatic in expressing what he thinks… Common sense is Harry Katz’s distinguishing train. It explains his quiet, thoughtful manner, his courtesy and amiability…For more years than he looks, Harry Katz has been and is a greatly respected personality in the business of Central square. In his modest way he has led organized trade in that busy section. This constitutes leadership, even if so modest a man would protest the claim. Most would be apt to ignore the denial. The facts to not sustain the objection.” (November 4, 1933)

Harry Katz died on August 2, 1972 at Brookline Hospital. He was 82 years old. The headline of his obituary sated that he “was in real estate here for many years.” Katz and his wife Annie Perlstein, who predeceased him, lived at 61 Austin Street in Cambridge.  He left his daughter Gertrude [Katz] Kagan; and a sister, Sarah Kaufman. (The Cambridge Chronicle August 10, 1972)

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The advent of radio had an enormous impact on society, connecting the social fabric as never before. For the first time, people were united by hearing the news, election results, a baseball game, the local high school glee club, or a concert all simultaneously. Geography no longer mattered. As always, shared experiences of this kind informs how society in all its aspects evolves– reinforcing community engagement, shaping public opinion and politics, and bringing an enhanced knowledge of the wider world. The advent of television did the same thing, just as today the countless sources of information available on the internet continue to shape our society.

Today’s post was written by Kathleen Fox

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SOURCES

Cambridge Historical Commission

Cambridge Public Library Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection

“Cruft Laboratory goes to war” by Adam Zewe. Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. November 11, 2015. https://seas.harvard.edu/news/cruft-laboratory-goes-war.

Eastern Massachusetts Radio Timeline: The First Fifteen Years, by Donna Halper and edited by Garrett Wollman. https://bostonradio.org/timeline/timeline-20s.

Harvard Property Information Resource Center (PIRC)

National Park Service: Marconi Beach. https://www.nps.gov/caco/planyourvisit/marconi-beach.htm.

USAHistoryTimeline.com