The century of the kazoo

By The Daily Progress Staff

Published: May 30, 2008

Can you kazoo?

Can you believe that the Original Kazoo Co. is still rolling out kazoos nearly 100 years after producing the first metal instrument?

And can you believe the company is still using the same equipment it started with back then?

The company in Eden, N.Y., began as a sheet metal workshop in 1907, manufacturing such products as stove and furnace parts. In 1916, its owner was approached about making a metal version of the wooden kazoo, an instrument that has been around since the 1840s in wooden form.

The company still makes kazoos. And although it’s been doing that for “only” 92 years, it is still using the same belt and pulley machines it started business with 101 years ago.

Today, though, the place is more of an operating museum. The previous owners sold the rights for making standard kazoos; and — by way of a donation — the factory itself went to Suburban A-dult Services Inc., an organization serving mentally and physically disabled adults. With the deal went the right to make 5,000 standard kazoos a year (the factory also makes specialty kazoos).

“It really would kind of spoil the fun of coming here if you couldn’t see things as they were,” said gift store operator Karen Smith. “It’s wonderful for our country to know that long ago, they invented this way of manufacturing and it still works today.”

The factory hasn’t been in continuous operation since 1907, so it can’t exactly compare to the Livermore Light. Still …

Oh, you’re unacquainted with the Livermore Light? That is an old-fashioned light bulb that has been burning continuously at a Livermore, Calif., fire station since 1901.

I’m too sexy for my …

Who knew that “sexy hair” could be such a liability?

Victoria’s Secret, purveyor of sexy lingerie, argues that nobody can own “sexy hair” — the trademark, that is, not the tresses.

Not just for lingerie anymore, Victoria’s Secret launched a line of fragrances and body care products, including hair-care items it named “So Sexy.”

Not so fast, said a company called Sexy Hair Concepts, which has its own hair-care line. “Sexy” is our trademark.

A federal board ruled in favor of Sexy Hair last year.

Now Victoria’s Secret has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that nobody can trademark the word “sexy.” It’s part of the English vocabulary. It cannot be owned as a trademark.

Sexy Hair says its use of the word “sexy” is special, trademarkable.

We’d say that if a word has long been a standard part of our language, then anybody ought to be able to use it. Even if they don’t have sexy hair.