Powel Crosley Jr. (September 18, 1886 – March 28, 1961) was an American inventor, industrialist, and entrepreneur. He was also a pioneer in radio broadcasting and owner of the Cincinnati Reds major league baseball team. In addition, Crosley's companies manufactured Crosley automobiles and radios, and operated Cincinnati radio station WLW. Crosley, once dubbed "The Henry Ford of Radio," was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2010 and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2013.
He and his brother, Lewis M. Crosley, were responsible for many firsts in consumer products and broadcasting. During World War II, Crosley's facilities produced more proximity fuzes than any other U.S. manufacturer and made several production design innovations. Crosley Field, a stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, was renamed for him, and the street-level main entrance to Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati is named Crosley Terrace in his honor. Crosley's Pinecroft estate home in Cincinnati, and Seagate, his former winter retreat in Sarasota, Florida, are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Early life and education Powel Crosley Jr. was born on September 18, 1886, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Charlotte Wooley (Utz) (1864–1949) and Powel Crosley Sr. (1849–1932), a lawyer. Powel Jr. was the oldest of the family's four children. Crosley became interested in the mechanics of automobiles at a young age and wanted to become an automaker. While living with his family in College Hill, a suburb of Cincinnati, 12-year-old Crosley made his first attempt at building a vehicle.
Crosley began high school in College Hill and transferred to the Ohio Military Institute. In 1904, Crosley enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, where he began studies in engineering but switched to law, primarily to satisfy his father. He dropped out of college in 1906 after two years of study.
Marriage and family Crosley married Gwendolyn Bakewell Aiken (1889–1939) in Hamilton County, Ohio, on October 17, 1910. They had two children. After his marriage, Crosley continued to work in automobile sales in Muncie to earn money to buy a house, while his wife returned to Cincinnati to live with her parents. The young couple saw each other on the weekends until Crosley returned to Cincinnati in 1911 to live and work after the birth of his first child. Gwendolyn Crosley, who suffered from tuberculosis, died at the Crosleys' winter home in Sarasota, Florida, on February 26, 1939.
Crosley married Eva Emily Brokaw (born in 1912) in 1952. She died in 1955 in Cincinnati.
Real estate Crosley's primary residence was Pinecroft, an estate home built in 1929 in the Mount Airy section of Cincinnati, Ohio. He also had Seagate, a winter retreat in Manatee County, Florida, built for his first wife, Gwendolyn. In addition, Crosley owned several vacation properties.
Pinecroft
Pinecroft, Crosley's two-story, , Tudor Revival-style mansion and other buildings on his estate in Mount Airy was designed by New York-based architect Dwight James Baum and built in 1928–29. Crosley's daughter, Marth Page (Crosley) Kess, sold the property after her father's death in 1961, and the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor acquired the property in 1963. Saint Francis Hospital bought a portion of the property north of the Crosley mansion in 1971 and built a hospital, which was renamed Mercy Hospitals West in 2001. The land surrounding the home has been subdivided into parcels, but the Franciscan Sisters have used the mansion as a retreat since the early 1970s. Pinecroft was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008. See also:
Seagate
Seagate, also known as the Bay Club, along Sarasota Bay in the southwest corner of Manatee County, Florida, was a Mediterranean Revival-style home designed for Crosley by New York City and Sarasota architect George Albree Freeman Jr., with Ivo A. de Minicis, a Tampa, Florida, architect, drafting the plans. Sarasota contractor Paul W. Bergman built the winter retreat in 1929–30 on a parcel of land. The two-and-a-half-story house include ten bedrooms and ten bathrooms, as well as auxiliary garages and living quarters for staff. The house contains and is reportedly the first residence built in Florida using steel-frame construction to provide protection against fires and hurricanes. After Crosley's wife, Gwendolyn, died of tuberculosis at the retreat in 1939, he rarely used the house.The bay-front property was platted in 1925 as a residential subdivision named Sea Gate. According to early official county documents and grandson Lewis L. Crosley's birth certificate, the name was spelled on early documents as two words, Sea Gate, but has become contracted in use over the years, including the name of the street leading to the building which was renamed as, Seagate Drive. During World War II, Crosley allowed the U.S. Army Air Corps to use the retreat for its airmen training at the nearby Sarasota Army Air Base. Crosley sold his estate property in 1947 to the D and D Corporation.
Mabel and Freeman Horton purchased the property in 1948 and owned Seagate for nearly forty years. The house and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 21, 1983, by a subsequent owner who intended to build an exclusive condominium project on the site using the historic house as a clubhouse, but the project failed when the economy faltered shortly thereafter. Kafi Benz, the Friends of Seagate Inc., a nonprofit corporation, and local residents saved Seagate from commercial development, and initiated a campaign for its preservation and public acquisition.Sarasota Magazine, May 1, 1992 In 1991 the state of Florida purchased the property and of the bay-front estate that included the structures that Crosley had built in 1929–30. A larger portion of the original property was developed into a satellite campus for the University of South Florida. The University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus opened its new facilities in August 2006. The present-day mansion, called the Powel Crosley Estate, is used as a meeting, conference, and event venue.
Vacation homes Crosley, an avid sportsman, also owned several sports, hunting, and fishing camps, including an island retreat called Nikassi on McGregor Bay, Lake Huron, Canada; Bull Island, South Carolina; Pimlico Plantation, along the Cooper River north of Charleston, South Carolina; Sleepy Hollow Farm, a retreat in Jennings County, Indiana and a house at Cat Cays, Bahamas.
Early career Crosley began work selling bonds for an investment banker; however, at the age of twenty-one he decided to pursue a career in automobile manufacturing. The mass-production techniques employed by Henry Ford also caught his attention and would be implemented by his brother, Lewis, when the two began manufacturing radios in 1921.
In 1907 Crosley formed a company to build the Marathon Six, a six-cylinder model priced at $1,700, which was at the low end of the luxury car market. With $10,000 in capital that he raised from investors, Crosley established Marathon Six Automotive inexpensive automobile, in Connersville, Indiana, and built a prototype of his car, but a nationwide financial panic caused investment capital to dwindle and he failed to fund its production.Banks, "Big Dream, Small Car," pp. 29–30.
Still determined to establish himself as an automaker, Crosley moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he worked for Carl G. Fisher as a shop hand at the Fisher Automobile Company. Crosley stayed for about a year, but left after he broke his arm starting a car at the auto dealership. After recovering from his injury at home in College Hill, Crosley returned to Indianapolis in 1909 to briefly work for several auto manufacturers, including jobs as an assistant sales manager for the Parry Auto Company and a salesman for the National Motor Vehicle Company. He also volunteered to help promote National's auto racing team. His next job was selling advertising for Motor Vehicle, an automotive trade journal, but left in 1910 to move to Muncie, Indiana, where he worked in sales for the Inter-State Automobile Company and promoted its racing team.Banks, "Big Dream, Small Car," pp. 30–31.
Early automobile and parts manufacturer After returning to Cincinnati, in 1911, Crosley sold and wrote advertisements for local businesses, but continued to pursue his interests in the automobile industry. He failed in early efforts to manufacture cars for the Hermes Automobile Company and cyclecars for the De Cross Cyclecar Company and the L. Porter Smith and Brothers Company before finding financial success in manufacturing and distributing automobile accessories.Banks, "Big Dream, Small Car," p. 31.
In 1916, he co-founded the American Automobile Accessory Company with Ira J. Cooper. The company's bestseller was a tire liner of Crosley's invention. Another popular product was a flag holder that held five American flags and clamped to auto radiator caps. By 1919 Crosley had sales of more than $1 million in parts. He also diversified into other consumer products such as phonograph cabinets, radios, and home appliances. Crosley's greatest strength was his ability to invent new products, while his brother, Lewis M. Crosley, excelled in business. Lewis also became head of Crosley's manufacturing operations.
In 1920, Crosley first selected independent local dealers as the best way to take his products to market. He insisted that all sellers of his products must give the consumer the best in parts, service, and satisfaction. Always sensitive to consumers, his products were often less expensive than other name brands, but were guaranteed. Crosley's "money back guarantee" set a precedent for some of today's most outstanding sales policies.
Radio manufacturer
In 1921, Crosley's young son asked for a radio receiver, a new item at that time, but Crosley was surprised that high-end receivers cost more than $100 at a local store, the Precision Equipment Company. With the help of a booklet called "The ABC of Radio", he and his son decided to assemble the components and build their own crystal radio set. Crosley immediately recognized the appeal of an inexpensive radio and hired two University of Cincinnati students to help design a low-cost set that could be mass-produced. Crosley named the radio the "Harko" and introduced it to the market in 1921. The inexpensive radio set sold for $7, making it affordable to the masses. Soon, Crosley arranged for the purchase of Precision Equipment, which was renamed the Crosley Radio Corporation, which manufactured radio components for the rapidly growing industry and made its own line of radios.Banks, "Big Dream, Small Car," p. 32.
By 1924, Crosley had moved his company to a larger plant and later made subsequent expansions. The Crosley Radio Corporation became the largest radio manufacturer in the world in 1925; its slogan, "You’re There With A Crosley," was used in all its advertising.
In 1925, Crosley introduced another low-cost radio set. The small, one-tube, regenerative radio was called the "Crosley Pup" and sold for $8.75. While Victor had the rights to "His Master's Voice", its famous trademark showing Nipper listening to a phonograph, Crosley adopted a mascot in the form of a dog with headphones listening to a Crosley Pup radio.A cute, pudgy little dog named Bonzo, the creation of British artist George E. Studdy, became the inspiration for a variety of commercial merchandise, such as toys, ashtrays, pincushions, trinket boxes, car mascots, jigsaw puzzles, books, calendars, candies, and postcards. The headphone-wearing Bonzo was also associated with the Crosley Pup radios. See
In 1928, Crosley's firm arranged for the construction of the Crosley Building at Camp Washington, a Cincinnati neighborhood, and used the facility for radio manufacturing, radio broadcasting, and for manufacturing other devices.