I still remember seeing the extraordinary shop at Marvin Glass & Associates for the first time. It took my breath away. I had never seen anything like it before and haven't since. Rows of beautifully painted orange Bridgeport mills receded into the distance. There were twin rows of bright yellow South Bend lathes and others by legendary, venerated machine tool brand names. These were the machines that built America and the world in the 20th century. 

 

 

            

The rows of machinery went on and on. Sanders, giant bandsaws, drill presses, bright, clean and colorfully painted. There were things I couldn’t identify that were sprinkled here and there, and men standing, working, making chips and plastic dust, at many of them. Others were hunched over their benches doing the handwork of toy creation. Many of the toys of our youth, now cultural icons, began in that shop - made on those machines, sprung from those benches like mushrooms in the night, created by displaced persons forced out of Europe after the war.  

 

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