Kliegl Brothers Universal Electric Stage Lighting Company was an American manufacturer of electrical stage lighting products in the 20th century. The company had a significant influence in the development of theatrical, cinema, television, and specialty lighting. It equipped many major performing venues in the United States and its products were used in several other countries as well. Their eponymous product, the Klieglight, was the trade name for two quite different production lights manufactured by the company, and survives today in both industry argot and in popular idiom as a synonym for "spotlight" or "center of attention".
History
Origins The company was founded in 1896 in New York City when a Bavarian immigrant, Anton Kliegl, in partnership with A. H. Guendel, purchased the Myerhofer Electric Stage Lighting Company, and renamed it the Universal Electric Stage Lighting Company. A year later his older brother Johann Kliegl replaced Guendel, and the firm became known as the Kliegl Brothers Universal Electric Stage Lighting Company. From its infancy as a firm so small that its proprietors also worked as stagehands to supplement their income, it grew to be one of the largest firms in North America manufacturing lighting and control equipment for the theatre and television stage.
Factories In the beginning, the firm occupied the Meyerhofer facilities in the old Star Theatre at 842 Broadway, New York City. By 1901 they had moved to 1393-95 Broadway/129 West 38th Street. After the loss of this plant to fire on August 15, 1911, they moved again, this time to 240 West 50th Street, and in September 1921, they built and occupied their own four-story plus basement factory at 321-325 West 50th Street. In 1962 they moved to a new, modern two-story plant at 32-32 48th Avenue in Long Island City. By 1966 an annex had been opened two blocks away to meet the press of business. By 1966 "NY/LA" appeared on drawing title blocks, denoting their last expansion, the opening of a branch sales/engineering office in Los Angeles under George Howard. By 1979 "LA" had vanished from the title blocks. After 1980, the company's business began to decline, and by the mid-1980s they had moved to a smaller plant at 5 Aerial Way, Syosset, Long Island, New York. In 1996 the company filed for bankrupt and closed.
Management Johann Kliegl was born in 1869, and his brother Anton in 1872, in Bad Kissingen, Bavaria, Germany. Johann, trained as a locksmith, emigrated to the United States in 1888, and Anton, trained as a plumber, followed him there in 1893. There they both started working in a factory which manufactured electric arc lamps. Throughout their lives, the two brothers maintained close ties to Bad Kissingen, and endowed there a school, still extant, and grown to encompass grade, middle and high school divisions. Many of their employees were brought over from Bad Kissingen, such that the "patois" on the factory floor was known to the staff as "50th Street Deutsch". Anton, in fact, died in Bad Kissengen on May 19, 1927. Management was retained by the Kliegl family throughout the history of the firm. Johann remained active until a few days prior to his death on September 30, 1959. His son, Herbert Kliegl, was by that time the managing head of the firm, and remained so until a few weeks before his death on October 3, 1968. Control then passed to Herbert's son John H. Kliegl II. By 1992 the firm was in Chapter 11, and a stockbroker, Richard Davisson, took complete ownership and control, replacing John Kliegl II with Al Vitale. The firm ceased operations in November 1996.
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