Filter Queen Convention?

[caligula]

Well not really!

The Kirby convention in Cleveland was truly awesome, but the fact is two vacuum cleaner brands were featured and got along very nicely. Okay, I'm going to take credit for this one, but the fact was, I was simply in the right place at the right time.

Since I got to the hotel at 3:45 am, I made sure I was in the restaurant by 8:00. The first person I saw was Morgan who went to his table and I sat alone. Directly in front of me was a gentleman finishing his coffee, and we started talking. It was the usual banter of why are you here. Turned out this was Ross Jensen, Director of sales for Health-Mor, and the conversation turned to the early days of the V.C.C.C., and our first meeting in 1985.

Ross was quick to tell me that Health-Mor was now located in Strongsville, Ohio, and he offered to show us the new Filter Queen. Since I'd walked away from the management side of our club in 95, I couldn't make that decision, besides, I had no idea what was on our agenda. Fortunately, Morgan was still at breakfast, and I suggested Ross talk to him.

That's where I left it till the opening of the meeting room, when I learned a tour of Filter Queen was in fact on the agenda for the next day.

It's no secret that I know the history of Electrolux, Kirby, and a little bit on Air-Way, but Filter Queen has always been that nut I couldn't crack.

No, I don't have the same love, or feeling of loyalty to Filter Queen that I have for Kirby, but I do have an interest in vacuum cleaner history. Fact is, I was rebuffed by Health-Mor in the late 1970's, here's what happened.

The corporate office was on Wabash avenue in downtown Chicago, and one day I went in. I asked to speak to somebody in the head office, and inquired about the companies history. "Are you here for a job?" he asked, "no I want to know when and how the company was formed," I said. I met an icy stare. "If you don't want a job, there's the door," and I was outside again. My meeting Ross at breakfast changed all that. Now I have a starting point for new information, and a company's history to research.

On Friday evening, Ross saw the meeting room, and understood our interest in all vacuum cleaners.

You just never know where your vacuum cleaner collection's going to lead, or the people you'll meet. Three factories in one day, awesome.

Alex Taber.

 

[dysonman1]

Congratulations Alex on helping get your club into filter Queen. I've always found it quite easy to talk to the heads of companies. I remember when we were at filter Queen about 10 or so years ago. It was awesome. They were very nice. They had a raffle and Jimmy Martin won a defender. I talked the head of the company at that time into showing us the prototypes. The filter Queen dual cyclonic, designed by James Dyson, was fantastic. Glad you got to go.

 

[filterqueen]

Alex,

We enjoyed having you and your fellow collectors!!!

http://https//www.facebook.com/pages/FilterQueen/136330582614?ref_type=bookmark

 

[kc_kirby]

I would like to thank Alex for helping in getting us into Filter Queen and the Filter Queen company for treating us so well. We truly felt welcome and it was so nice to learn a little more about the company. After touring the factory I now wish to own a Filter Queen. I wish your company all the success it deserves.
Chad Cunningham

 

[kloveland]

After touring Filter Queen I have new respect for the company. I purchased a Majestic Limited Edition on the way back from the convention. Filter Queens are so quiet and powerful. I was impressed with the 95 inches of water lift, filtration and the build quality.

Thank you for letting us tour the Filter Queen factory.

Kenny Loveland

 

[caligula]

Thanks guys.

Hi Ross:

What a pleasure to meet you, and finally get to know the history of Health-Mor.

It's funny, but nothing in the involvement with my vacuum cleaner collection was ever planed. Machines, and of course friends just seem to fall into place. It happened with us, two men talking at breakfast in a hotel, each from opposing companies who should be rivals. But we all share a common interest. Home care products. Be that the vacuum cleaner, floor polisher, shampooer, air purifier, (did I miss anything?) and the history of each.

Since I'm not on Facebook, send me a private email at [email protected] so we can swap ideas, and history. As I said, Health-Mor was the nut I couldn't crack, but that's because I never knew anybody with historical knowledge or interest in such. There's so much you can teach me on the founding of Health-Mor, and the Filter Queen. Sales methods are rather standard, but each company has stories by the dozen on it's grass roots. And that's my main interest.

Thank you for opening that door for me.
Alex Taber. [this post was last edited: 6/19/2014-17:12]

 

[caligula]

Hi Ross.

Here's a heads up.

My interest in vacuum cleaners and their history relates to the truly old stuff. (shown here) Modern machines just don't cut it with me, but give me a Health-Mor upright and I'm on cloud nine. I think the cut off point for me is the early 1950's, but the non electric's of the late 1800's are my real interest.

A close second has to be the stories of how these men paved the way for the true giants in the industry to form Air-Way, Compact, Electrolux, Filter Queen, General Electric, Hoover, Kirby, Rexair and others.

While not the official historian of the V.C.C.C., I've been compiling data since I was ten, and as I turn 64 in September, that's a lot of data. The problem I face here is if what I know is accurate info. The salesmen who told me history of Kirby and so on are long gone, and I share the info they knew. But with our meeting, I have a way to check facts on Health-Mor, and share this with the V.C.C.C..

If you have any instruction books on the upright models, and early Filter Queen models, please let me know as I thrive on that.

Thanks for all you did for us, and especially me, by opening your doors to our club.

Alex Taber.

 

[dysonman1]

Alex

I have one of every model Filter Queen (as well as The Health-Mor upright) ever made. I know the history of Filter Queen, from their roots selling the private labeled Scott and Fetzer Sanitation System, to the private labeled Royal Super. Royal made the first 2 models of canister FQ's (the model 200 and the model 350). After the lawsuit with Lewyt, Health-Mor opened their factory and made the Golden Monarch model 500 on through today's models. I've collected all the instruction manuals and information about Health-Mor's entire history. Anything you want to know, I can tell you about.

 

[caligula]

Hi Mr Jensen, Sir.

Check out the vacuum of the day, I think you'll be pleased.

I'm very serious when I say that I would like material like instruction books and so on. Not only do these books provide information on the machines, they make great reading material. Who reads vacuum cleaner manuals? you may ask. I do, and so do most of us here in the club. I was not into comic books as a kid, forget Superman, give me the book to the Electrolux model LX, or Kirby 512 (1952) and I'm in heaven.

I was fortunate to get a job in 1972 that brought me to Chesterton, Indiana with the National Park service, and was assigned to the Indiana Dunes National Park. That was exactly 50 miles from downtown Chicago. While Chesterton was dull and boring, Chicago was alive, and I spent most of my weekends there. The train I took to go to Chicago stopped on the corner of Michigan avenue, and Randolph street, a block away from the Health-Mor office on Wabash avenue. At that time I was heavily involved with patent research at the Chicago public library's research department, and filled several folders with copies of patents. This was also part of the groundwork for the V.C.C.C., but as I said earlier didn't know this.

Had the person I spoke with at Health-Mor been willing to bend a little, as you did, I'd have a ton of Health-Mor/Filter Queen paperwork, instead of the few pages, and a book or two.

Meeting you is a boon for the club, as we have a new interest. For the most part Electrolux, Hoover, and Kirby were our main brands of interest. Yes, each member has his own favorite, but those three brands were the ones I wrote about on a consistent basis in our newsletters. But I'll save the saga of the newsletter for another time, suffice it to say, it was a backbreaking task!

I certainly can't speak for the other members of the club, but I was very impressed to see the manufacture of the Filter Queen in progress, I was amazed at the family atmosphere of the employees, and the hands-on tour, that's very rare in the industry.

So, have a look at the Filter Queen featured as our Vacuum of the day, and see the kind of machine we're interested in.

Once again, thanks' for being there at the Crowne Plaza so we could meet.
Alex Taber.

 

[caligula]

Hi Tom.

Thanks for the offer, but you know me, I like to deal directly with the top brass of a company. And as Ross Jensen was gracious to me when we met by chance in that dining room, at the Crowne Plaza, I feel I owe it to him to provide the material I request.

Alex Taber.

 

[dysonman1]

"I feel I owe it to him to provide the material I request"

How do you owe him, when he will have to dig up 'material' that is already available to you?

I don't think you were part of the VCCC, the last time we went to the Health-Mor factory. HMI has always been a very transparent company, very little is not known.

About the only thing I learned at that visit, was that James Dyson designed a dual cyclonic bagless Filter Queen back in the late 1980's. We were shown the prototype (which Health-Mor did not produce), it's gold in color, and a marvelous piece of engineering excellence.

 

[caligula]

Tom

I have the right to get material from whomever I want. Ross was very nice to me, and to our club, and that's the source I want to follow.

Case closed!