Transcribed by Michael A. O’Neill in Mar/Apr 2014
Transcribers note: This is a transcription of Mabel’s book, not an upload of the original of the document she created. It was transcribed using Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software, which will result in capitalization errors; misspellings of proper names; odd usage of prepositions or common words; and incorrect homophones. For true fidelity, you can request the book via Interlibrary Loan from the Greenville College or Azusa Pacific University libraries.
Darcy decided to incorporate the business in 1947. He needed more money to build the Eastern plant. Lawler, Felix, and Hall, affirmative attorneys, recommended to us, throughout the papers. Up to that time, Darcy and I were the sole owners. Some of our key employees put in some money and some family members can also. Darcy and I owned 73%, the rest was bought by those in the business or family.
I was always an officer of the Corporation and always attended board meetings. I helped with the advertising in the early days. I never did work at the office until the year and a half after Darcy died. I’d been teaching the city high schools until June 1944. From 1943 to 1947 we had been living in an apartment at the court. In 1938 we built a house high on a hill on Micheltorena street. The view was wonderful, but the site was too steep. Darcy’s doctor told me to get him off that hill. We sold it and move to the court in 1943. We hope to build another home. Instead we bought the place up on Waverly Drive. We wanted part of the garden for a new home, but we ended up renovating the big house and selling part of the estate. We moved in August 1947. When I moved to Rossmoor Towers in February 1982, I had lived in the house for thirty-five years. They were the happiest years of my life.
Darcy L Cage believes strongly and sincerely in his main product. His metal form for the fireplace saved heat that went up the chimney in the old-fashioned fireplace. In spring and fall it was usually the only heat needed in most climates. In many summer vacation homes it was the only source of heating home. In some cases water pipes went through the fireplace making hot water available. In other buildings the Heatform was supplementary heat, thus saving the expense of starting the central heating furnace too early in the fall, or keeping it going too long in the spring. We believe the Heatform Fireplace gives people pleasure of an open fire with economy and safety. It took a long time to develop the market and create the demand that would make our business profitable. Many men would’ve given up, but Darcy was determined and persistent.
During the time the company was shut down during the war, Darcy began planning. He bought two old buildings on East Fifteenth Street in Los Angeles; then he bought some lots adjoining. Then he was able to get some used machinery. This enabled him to begin making the Heatform Fireplace and the Heatform Damper.
In 1947, the Superior Fireplace Company opened the plant in Baltimore, Maryland. By that time we were doing some national advertising. That made it possible to ship from the East Coast as well as the West Coast. Our business was really growing. After that, for about twenty years, Darcy and I made two trips each year from California to the East Coast. At first we went by automobile and Darcy made calls along the way, stopping at building material dealers, giving out literature and making friends. Later we went by train. In those days the train service was wonderful. I love going through the mountains, over the desert or over the Middle West. It gave us a wonderful feeling of our great country.
After we have been operating on the East Fifteenth Street for several years, about 1956 or 1957, we were confronted with a real problem. The state decided to take our plans to make room for the Santa Monica Freeway. Darcy was really at retirement age then, but “no” he would just build another plant. He and I drove all over Los Angeles County trying to find a suitable location for a new plant. We had to have a location near railroad for shipping and near freeway so we would not lose employees. Besides that, we must have land strong enough to support heavy machinery. We found a suitable site in an open field between Fullerton and Buena Park in Orange County. Our bank, the Security Pacific National Bank, offered to finance us until we could settle with the state. So we went ahead and built the Fullerton plant. In the end, it was a good thing. We had a new plant, room for expansion, and newer equipment. I give my husband much credit for good judgment and integrity.
After I retired from teaching in 1944, for the first time in many, many years I had leisure time. As a child I had like drawing and painting with watercolor in school. Than in college, I’d take lessons in China painting. Now I wanted to try painting landscapes. When I went to exhibits, I would think to myself, “I know I could do something like that,” but when I tried it, it was harder than I thought.
About 1945 I called Otis Art Institute and asked how I could get a good painting teacher. I thought that if I did some painting, I wanted to do creditable work. The Institute gave me the name of Ralph Holmes who had a private class on Wednesday. He had at one time been the head of the Chicago Art Institute. I joined his class and stayed with it for six years (1945 to 1951). It was a delight. He chose a location and we met there at 9 AM. We took equipment in our cars and brought a sack lunch. We painted until 4 PM. The location was always where we could see mountains and trees and sometimes water. We would keep the same location for several Wednesdays, and move to another site. Four of us stayed with him for six years. After two or three years he encouraged us to send paintings to some exhibits. Sometimes the jury would turn them down, but when they were hung we were thrilled.
I just couldn’t stop painting. I painted it home, and when we travel by automobile I carried equipment in the car. When we went to the East Coast I painted in Maryland. Someone usually was with me. I soon had more paintings that I could hang in my house. If I won an award, even an Honorable Mention, I was encouraged. After I married Darcy, I found out that every vacation had to be a fishing trip. I was terribly bored with fishing. So, the painting solve the problem. Darcy was very cooperative. Whether I was at the beach or the high Sierra’s, he would find a spot where he could fish and I could see something to paint. As my painting improves, I was invited to have shows entirely of my paintings. Twice, I had shows at a headquarters of the Coast Federal Savings, and once at the gallery on Wilshire Boulevard. I had about thirty such one-man shows. When I moved to Leisure World, I brought equipment, but my vision has become so poor that I have given up painting entirely. Most of my family have paintings. During all those years, abstract painting had become popular. The public galleries that were controlled by city and country government would hang little else. About the only way for traditional artist to exhibit was through private clubs. I did belong to several clubs at one time. Now I am a life member of the California Art Club and the Laguna Beach Art Museum, but no others.
When I married Darcy Cage, he was a conservative Democrat from the south. He was born and raised in the South, were almost everyone voted Democrat. People used ask him if I had persuaded him to be a Republican. He always said, “oh, no. FDR did that when he tried to pack the Supreme Court.” Darcy left home when he was eighteen years old and was in the Army for about ten years, much of which he served in China.
One day he came home with two tickets to a $100 dinner. I said, “$200!” It was still depression days and not seem like a lot of money. He said, “Mabel, we won’t have a business if we keep this administration.” From then on, we were good Republicans. A few weeks later, I said to Darcy one evening at dinner, “someone called me today and asked me to come to a meeting to organize a Republican women’s club.”
He said, “Are you going?”
I said, “No, I belong to five art organizations and the Women’s Club, and I think that’s enough.”
He looked at me seriously and said, “Mabel, this might be the most important of all.” Of course he was right.
I went to the meeting and became a charter member of the Los Feliz Republican Women’s Club, Federated. There were fifty-six of us that day in 1951. Not one of the women there had I ever seen before. There is a lot of enthusiasm. It had been twenty years since we had had a Republican president, and it was about time we had a change. At the end of the year, I was elected president of the club. That office may be a member of the County Board, I began to meet many important Republicans. In two years, I was elected vice-president of the club [sic]. That office made me a member of the county board, I began to meet important Republicans [sic]. In two years, I was elected vice president of the LA County Republican Women [sic]. In that office for two years, I was Martha Janney County president [sic].
For many years, there had been a Federation of Republican Women, but we hadn’t heard much about them. Mrs. Mildred Llewellyn, a past president of the County, told me that people often shut their doors if they called for Republicans.
In 1952 in 1953 people were so happy to have President Eisenhower that women wanted to join our clubs. We would get calls from different areas. “Please help us organize the club.” Martha Janney and I made up sample bylaws and told them how to fill in the blanks. When I was elected County president for a two-year term in 1956, we had about ninety clubs with about 20,000 members. During the four years I was vice president and president, I was out speaking tour three times a week, driving all over the county. Many of the club meetings were lovely homes are elegant hotels. But we also had clubs and poor sections. For a long time, we kept the dues at one dollar per year so that any woman could afford to belong.
When I was elected president of the LA County, I was immediately appointed to the State Central Committee and the LA County Central Committee of the Republican Party.
Our LA County Federation of Republican Women annual conventions were big affairs. My convention at the end of 1956 filled the Coconut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel. We talked the women how to work the elections. They ran telephone banks, held coffee hours and invited all our candidates. What we did, cost the candidates nothing or very little. Now it is all done on television and cost millions. I went to Washington many many times. Our plant in Baltimore was operating so we both went to Washington political events. It was very exciting.