This began as a story about the SAE bell that isn’t a bell, and why it rang so much last year, and then suddenly stopped. It became part of a story that spans over a century of history and includes instruments from marimbas to xylophones and trees that are thousands of years old. And it ended up being a story about the things we choose to preserve, and why. Mika Ellison has more.
This story originally aired as part of our WNUR News: Unsolved special broadcast.
BEFORE I GET STARTED, A NOTE. THIS STORY CONCERNS A BELL LOCATED WITHIN THE SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON FRATERNITY, SPECIFICALLY THE NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS. THE NORTHWESTERN CHAPTER OF SAE HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF SEVERAL RECENT CONTROVERSIES, BUT THIS STORY FOCUSES ON THE BELL AND THE BELL ALONE.
WHEN I WAS A FRESHMAN, I LIVED IN WEST FAIRCHILD. ACROSS FROM THE FAIRCHILDREN WAS A HUGE BUILDING WITH A LARGE BELL. THAT BELL WOULD FACTOR INTO OUR FRESHMAN YEAR QUITE A LOT. I’LL LET MY DORMMATE LIZZIE WILKERSON TELL YOU ABOUT IT.
[Lizzie Wilkerson] So I have lived in West Fairchild for the past two years, which is directly across the street of the SAE Bell, and it has terrorized me pretty incessantly for the past two years. So sometimes, always at random times, never on the hour, never on the quarter hour, at like, 4:07 pm, we would just want to take a nap after a really hard day. And the bell would start ringing and you think, okay, it’s only going to ring for like a minute max, which is already a really long time for a bell to ring. But it would go for two minutes, stop for 15 seconds. So you’re thinking oh, it’s finally over. And then it would start ringing again. It was awful. And it seemed like it only played when we took a nap.
A YEAR LATER, I WAS WALKING PAST THE BUILDING AND I THOUGHT I WOULD CALL THE SAE NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS TO SEE IF I COULD GET A LOOK INSIDE. AND TO MY SURPRISE, THEY PICKED UP.
[Kaitlyn Hancock] My name is Kaitlyn Haycock. I’m the Office and Events Coordinator at Sigma Alpha Epsilon. So I help around the building, but I also work hand in hand with the fraternity.
KAITLYN OPENED THE DOOR, SHOWED ME TO THE OBJECT OF MYSTERY: THE BELL! [KH] Right now we’re in front of our Deagon tower chime system.
FROM OUR VANTAGE POINT, ON THE FIRST FLOOR OF THE BUILDING, THE BELL SYSTEM LOOKS LIKE A STEAMPUNK VERSION OF ONE OF THOSE OLD MUSIC BOXES, WITH ROLLS OF HOLE PUNCHED PAPER THAT ARE RUN THROUGH A METAL MECHANISM TO CREATE NOTES.
[KH] I like to call it the 1930s iPod, because they didn’t really have this technology then. But Deagan–it was his specialty here in Chicago. So this was like the top of the line when we built the building in 1930. So I just opened it up to show the alternate roles. But you can see if you pull it out, you can see I love you truly by Jacob’s bond or march on by Ada Verdi like, or Brahms lullaby.
THE MYSTERY OF WHEN THE BELL RANG WAS CLEARED UP RATHER QUICKLY.
[KH] There’s a time clock system and you actually set it? It’s actually inside the closet in my office here? You could set the event controller. So there’s like a, we’re gonna wear my closet next to the control system, because this is all the wiring that controls it. But you set it as a time and then play it.
There really was no time set, I think we tried to keep it around the noon hour, just because that’s a good time for everyone to be awake. That way we would hopefully not disturb classes or anything.
BUT KAITLYN POINTED ME TO ANOTHER MYSTERY ABOUT THE BELL TOWER: WHY IT HASN’T RUNG SINCE LAST YEAR.
[KH] It’s 100 year old technology. So it is kind of fickle. We did have it up and running last year, which you do recall with the bells running, but it was at random times, and then only two people in the country can fix this. But it’s very intricate, because like, I think the last problem we had was one of the wires was just bent. And it’s like, how do you know how to fix that? Right? So you know, it’s kind of a labor of love.
NATURALLY, I HAD TO TRACK DOWN THE MAN HIMSELF, ONE OF ONLY TWO PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY THAT HAS THE KNOWLEDGE TO FIX THIS KIND OF DEAGAN BELL— OR AS HE INFORMED ME, TOWER CHIMES.
[William Pugh] My name is William Pugh, and I take care of Deagan tower chimes throughout the US. I don’t like to be called a contractor. I’m a musician.
WILLIAM RUNS THE COMPANY TOP RUNG TOWER CHIME AND ORGAN SERVICE. HE ALSO TOLD ME THAT HE IS ACTUALLY THE ONLY DEAGAN TOWER CHIME REPAIRMAN LEFT IN THE US. FOR HIM, THIS IS A LOVE STORY THAT SPANS NEARLY HALF A CENTURY.
[WP] I saw my first Deagan in 1976, when I was working on the organ at a church that had a 10, note Deagan with Westminster. And I was smitten, I guess.
NOW, WILLIAM SPENDS HIS TIME DRIVING ACROSS THE COUNTRY, MAINTAINING AND RESTORING THE ROUGHLY 100 DEAGAN TOWER CHIMES THAT ARE STILL IN OPERATION. HE’S FULL OF STORIES FROM PLACES AS FAR AS ABILENE KANSAS,
[WP] Brown Memorial home is the only retirement home in the world with a Deagan tower chime.
KINGSBURG, CALIFORNIA,
[WP] There are bees at the walls. Every few years they harvest the honey. I didn’t get stung, but I’m very nervous when I worked there.
AND FRANKLIN, INDIANA.
[WP] I lost a year of my life to avian tuberculosis from bat guano in Franklin, Indiana. And the bats are protected. I am not.
Some of the sites are remarkable. I understand why there’s OSHA.
BUT FOR BILL, THIS IS MORE THAN JUST A JOB.
[WP] It’s a career, it’s an obsession. It’s not just a job and nine to five and go home. I sort of live in these things. And I’m still learning, which is one of the things I love about it. My brothers would never let me play with Erector Set and so haha, I got the last laugh on that. I’m still playing with the erector sets at the age of 70.
BILL TOLD ME THAT THE LAST TIME HE REPAIRED THE SAE BELL, IT WAS SQUIRRELS NESTING IN THE STRIKERS CAUSING THE PROBLEM. ONLY MEMBERS ARE ALLOWED UP IN THE BELL TOWER, SO I ASKED HIM TO DESCRIBE IT TO ME.
[WP] It’s like a wind chime on steroids. The chimes are suspended from their tops. That’s one thing that distinguishes them from bells. They are extruded tubes, a giant pasta machine up in Kenosha, Wisconsin. American brass is where they were extruded. they stopped at C, that was about 14 feet long because that’s all the lathes at the factory could handle. And as I said earlier, that’s about 400 pounds of bronze. Anyway, chimes are struck at the top. Except for wind chimes. Always an exception.
AMONG HIS MANY CONTACTS ACROSS THE US, BILL HAS ALSO HAD A VARIETY OF EXPERIENCES. HE HAS A SPREADSHEET OF DIFFERENT ITERATIONS OF HIS COMPANY’S NAME.
[WP] So it was a telephone contact and the paperwork came back, top rung town charm and organ service. I figure I’ve been called a lot worse
OTHER CONTACTS HAVE BEEN WITH BILL FOR MANY YEARS.
[WP] My contact person in Galesburg, Illinois, is getting on in years, he doesn’t go up the tower with me anymore. He played those chimes as an adult. He proposed to his wife on Christmas Eve, in between playing two selections on the tower chimes. They are very much a part of his life and her life.
BUT AFTER OVER 30 YEARS OF TRAVELING THE COUNTRY WITH HIS HUSBAND, FIXING DEAGAN TOWER CHIMES ON BOTH COASTS, BILL IS FINALLY GETTING READY TO RETIRE.
[WP] The towers keep getting taller and my toolbox gets heavier.
HE SAYS HE’S PROUD OF THE WORK HE’S DONE.
[WP] it’s to keep these wonderful instruments playing for another generation. And I believe I have found people to keep them ringing for the next generation. And at this point I’ve just about done two generations myself.
If we don’t preserve the good things that have been done in the past, we’ll have to reinvent the wheel, we’ll forget it.
I WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE MYSTERIOUS JC DEAGAN, SO I VISITED THE DEAGAN BUILDING, WHICH USED TO HOUSE THE FACTORY THAT MADE DEAGAN BELLS. IT STILL HAS A CONNECTION TO THE ORIGINAL FACTORY. CENTURY MALLETS, A REPAIR COMPANY FOR INSTRUMENTS LIKE DEAGAN BELLS, WAS STARTED BY ONE OF THE LAST WORKERS OF THE DEAGAN COMPANY. IT’S OPERATED NOW BY ANDRES BAUTISTA. WHEN I VISITED, HE WAS ACTUALLY WORKING ON A SET OF DEAGAN BELLS.
[Andres Bautista] This set of bells like I said, this is probably from the 19– I want to say it’s 1920s, 1930s. That’s close to 100 years old, if not 100 years old already.
CENTURY MALLET LOOKS LIKE IF SANTA’S WORKSHOP WAS TAKEN OVER BY THE PERCUSSION SECTION OF AN ORCHESTRA. TO SHOW ME THE BELLS, ANDRES HAS TO MOVE ASIDE A MARIMBA ALMOST AS BIG AS HE IS.
ANDRES IS ONE OF ONLY FOUR OR FIVE PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY WHO CAN STILL TUNE THESE INSTRUMENTS. HE GETS INSTRUMENTS FROM ALL OVER THE COUNTRY, INCLUDING THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC AND THE CHICAGO SYMPHONY, AND HE’S TRAVELED AS FAR AS NEW ZEALAND TO REPAIR INSTRUMENTS. I ASKED HIM ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE JC DEAGAN COMPANY.
[AB] Deagan actually started in St. Louis. He was a clarinetist and was very much interested in pitch. They said that he had perfect pitch.
HE TELLS ME THAT IN THE 1800S, WHEN DEAGAN WAS STARTING OUT, THERE WAS NO AMERICAN STANDARD OF TUNING. ENSEMBLES ALL TUNED TO EACH OTHER. DEAGAN WAS THE FIRST TO STANDARDIZE, TUNING ALL HIS INSTRUMENTS TO MAKE THE A NOTE 440 HERTZ.
[AB] He started creating tuning forks, and musical bells like small musical bells. The name of the company actually started as JC Deagan musical bells.
BUT HOW EXACTLY DOES ONE TUNE, SAY, A XYLOPHONE?
[AB]“The tuning all happens underneath the bar. So any bar that you see, and I can show you, I can show you the tuning room. Yeah, any bar the light comes out that goes out of tune. We put back in tune by shaving or carving, grinding in different spots of the bar. So it all happens underneath all of it.
[Mika Ellison] Interesting. So you have to, like, change the structure of the bar itself.
[AB] Yeah. And sometimes it’s small minute changes and sometimes it’s very, very big changes. You just learn how to do it with whoever’s done it before so it gets passed down from person to person.
ANDRES SPENDS HIS DAYS USING A TUNING MACHINE AND CAREFULLY SHAVING OFF TINY PIECES OF XYLOPHONES, MARIMBAS, AND BELLS, ENSURING THAT EACH ONE IS PERFECTLY TUNED IN UP TO THREE PLACES ON EACH BAR. DOING THIS WORK, AND THESE REPAIRS, CAN SOMETIMES SEEM FUTILE. I ASKED ANDRES: WHAT’S THE POINT OF ALL THIS?
[AB] The resources of what these instruments are made of, specifically, rosewood is an endangered species. So a lot of the rosewood that you see on these instruments, on older musical instruments, that wood is not going to be around anymore. That the wood you see on those two pieces of wood that I showed you, those two bars, those those pieces of wood are 1000s of years old. That’s it, those are 1000 year old trees. Those don’t exist anymore. So if we don’t preserve it, we’re never going to hear that kind of music ever again. The old Deagans, the old ladies, that steel is also something that we’re probably not gonna see ever again.
I ASKED KAITLYN THE SAME QUESTION.
[KH] It’s a shared experience. You have a memory with a song, and then you don’t realize that you have that memory until you’re gone. I went to Butler University, we had a bell tower, so I liked to hear that bell tower going to class, just kind of just keeps in mind the memory of college and keeps in mind that memory of that time and place. So I just appreciate that we can kind of create those experiences for people still, and we can continue with it.
I ASKED ANDRES TO PLAY US OUT ON THE DEAGAN BELLS, SINCE THE ONE ON CAMPUS ISN’T QUITE READY YET. BUT FIRST, I WANTED TO END ON ONE OF BILL’S STORIES OF A CHIME SET HE RESCUED FROM A CEMETARY.
[WP] It’s now in this wonderful Catholic Church in Chicago. And they had a lightning strike that fried all the phone systems. It fried the computers, It fried organ switching. And tower chimes started playing. It hiccuped the electronic timer that controlled when the player started. So all it did was make the roleplayer start that played some tunes on the chimes and then shut off. It was undamaged.
FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M MIKA ELLISON.
Music: Bells on Tour by Daniel Birch
