Once Upon a Time
BRAD: Fanfare please!
(piano roll)
STEPH: So. . Once upon a time. . .
JODI: The year was 1908!
ALL: Ta-Dah!
STEPH: Jacksonville’s William Jennings Bryan is nominated as President of the United States!
NATHAN: The Cubs beat the Tigers in the World Series!
SYLVIA: You’re kidding.
NATHAN: Nothing but the truth tonight.
BRAD: 1908!
JODI: Oklahoma is added to the U.S. flag!
SYLVIA: Henry Ford’s first Model T! $825!
STEPH: Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before the city council and announced. . .
NATHAN: “Women are not physically fit to operate automobiles!”
JODI: Ha!
SYLVIA: The Cubs actually won the World Series?
JODI: General Baden Powell starts the Boy Scouts of America!
STEPH: Orville Wright makes the first one-hour flight!
JODI: The first Mother’s Day!
BRAD: John Krohn becomes the first man to walk around the perimeter of the U.S.!
NATHAN: Mr. and Mrs. James Murdock became the first to travel across the U.S. by car. A Packard! 32 days, 5 hours and 11 minutes
SYLVIA: The Chicago Cubs?
STEPH: And this song got it’s first copyright!
ALL: Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd; Just buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win, it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game.
BRAD: And in 1908….
SYLVIA: In 1908….
NATHAN: Young Lawrence Sibert took a job working for Ward Brothers, a printing and bookbinding company in Jacksonville, Illinois.
JODI: The Siberts came here from Germany during the Revolutionary War and landed in the state of Virginia, raising cattle. . . then in the mid-1800’s moved to a farm south of Jacksonville.
STEPH: Morgan County was only 33 years old.
NATHAN: Then two generations later, along came Lawrence. . . “L.D.” we called him. His job was cutting the corners off magazine bindings and he helped set the brass type for the covers.
JODI: By 1913 he’d become a foreman.
SYLVIA: Way to go, Lawrence!
BRAD: He fell in love with one of the Ward Brothers’ employees. . . Jessie Irene Duncan of Chapin and in 1915 they added on to their family business. . . his name was Robert Frederick Sibert!
STEPH: 1920!
JODI: The 18th Amendment! No more booze!
SYLVIA: Hamilton’s was doomed!
(groans)
NATHAN: Walt Disney starts work as an artist at $40 a week.
BRAD: The first artificial rabbit is used at a dog track.
JODI: They formed the NFL!
SYLVIA: Babe Ruth sets a record….54 home runs!
STEPH: Cincinnati Reds center fielder falls asleep during a long argument on the infield. He’s ejected for delay of game when they tried to wake him up.
JODI: The 19th Amendment! The ladies can vote!
SYLVIA: The U.S. Post Office says that children cannot be sent by parcel post.
BRAD: What?
SYLVIA: I’m not making that up. .
NATHAN: The Indians beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series.
BRAD: Jack Dempsey becomes the heavyweight champ!
JODI: Bob Hope becomes an American Citizen…
STEPH: And Al Jolson had the top song of 1920!
BRAD & NATHAN: Swanee - how I love ya, how I love ya My dear old Swanee. I'd give the world to be among the folks in D-I-X-I-E-ven though my mammy's waiting for me, praying for me down by the Swanee. The folks up north will see me no more when I get to that Swanee shore
JODI: And in 1920 Sibert started a library bindery known as New Method Book Bindery with his brother-in-law, William T. Suhy. Suhy hit the road as the salesman and Sibert ran the bindery . . . with his three employees.
STEPH: Three employees….they worked fast and hard.
JODI: And their fingers got tired…sewing, sewing, sewing. . .
BRAD: Meanwhile…way out in California. . . the great discovery!
NATHAN: Gold!
BRAD: No! The over-sewing machine! W. Elmo Reavis got this idea. . .
STEPH: “If you could just come up with a machine that would stitch those books…why heck! We could do hundreds in a day!”
JODI: And so Sibert and Suhy said…
NATHAN: Say that again…
JODI: I can’t. So Sibert and Suhy said…. Let’s get one of those rascals!
NATHAN: . . . and all over the country libraries and schools started sending their books to Jacksonville to be rebound. . The first part of the 20th century saw a boom in library building and we were headed to the big time!
SYLVIA: 1923!
STEPH: Somebody invented the USSR!
BRAD: The first issue of Time magazine.
NATHAN: Firestone’s first inflatable tire!
STEPH: Yankee Stadium opens!
JODI: The first non-stop transcontinental flight…New York to San Diego.
BRAD: Harry Houdini frees himself from a straight jacket while suspended forty feet upside-down in New York City!
NATHAN: The Yankees beat the Giants for the World Series.
SYLVIA: Hitler arrested for trying to seize power in Germany.
STEPH: 160 days of 100-degree temperature in Australia!
JODI: The first President on the radio…Calvin Coolidge.
SYLVIA: Meanwhile, back in Jacksonville. . . .
NATHAN: We’re running out of room!
BRAD: Business was booming but the walls was busting with books!
NATHAN: Time to move! We picked up shop and started hauling things from the second floor of Degan’s Dance Hall at 220 South Main to our new location in the Brown’s Business College Building at 201 South Koscius…uh…Koscius….
BRAD: Kosciusko.
JODI: Gesundheit.
NATHAN: Thank you.
STEPH: Then came that fated day…
NATHAN: We were lowering down a pallet of finished books headed for the Des Moines Public Library using a second floor lift to the ground…then it happened!
(Piano roll-issimo)
BRAD: Look out below!
SYLVIA: On no!
STEPH: The lift broke and a whole load of books came crashing to the ground.
(Piano glissando.)
JODI: Somebody’s gonna be in trouble.
NATHAN: We walked over to the crash pile. . . and couldn’t believe our eyes. Out of the entire shipment of books. . .
BRAD: . . .out of the whole thing.. . . .
NATHAN: Only one corner of one book was damaged and some bystander said. .
SYLVIA: “Those books are certainly bound to stay bound!”
STEPH: Ding! (Piano ding.)
JODI: The company slogan was born!
NATHAN: But I still can’t pronounce Kuscio…Kuscio…
BRAD: Who cares! We were booming! And the hit song of 1923 . . .
STEPH, SYLVIA AND JODI: Who’s Sorry Now ..Who’s Sorry Now? Who’s heart is aching for breaking each vow? Who’s sad and blue? Who’s crying, too? Just like I cried over you?
Right to the end . . . Just like a friend. . . I tried to warn you somehow. You had your way . . . Now you must pay. I’m glad that you’re sorry now.
BRAD: And so one day Mr. Sibert noticed something. . .
NATHAN: “These same books . . .”
BRAD: Said Mr. Sibert. . .
NATHAN: “These same books keep coming back to be rebound. . . “
JODI: Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. .
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Secret Garden. .
BRAD: The problem was in the school libraries. . .
STEPH: I want it!
JODI: I had it first!
STEPH: It’s my turn!
SYLVIA: Gimme that book!
(Piano: Rip!) (all gasp)
JODI: Oh great! You just tore the book.
BRAD: These same titles kept being rebound and rebound and rebound. .
SYLVIA: So Mr. Sibert had an idea. . .
BRAD: “What if. . .”
SYLVIA: . . . he said. . .
BRAD: “What if we bound them stronger before they got into those little hands? What if. . .”
SYLVIA: . . . he said. . .
BRAD: “What if we bought batches of new children’s books and PRE-bound them?”
JODI: Wow!
STEPH: Great idea, Boss!
BRAD: “Then let’s do it!”
SYLVIA: And so pre-binding was born at New Method in the 1920’s. Hundreds of copies of new books were purchased and made kid-proof before they were released.
NATHAN: The American Library Association climbed on board and came up with the specifications and Lawrence Sibert smiled.
BRAD: “I think this just might be a good idea. . .”
SYLVIA: . . . he said.
STEPH: And so pre-binding was added to re-binding and we were off again!
STEPH: According to Henry Arenz, hired in 1924. . .
NATHAN: “It was a good job. Eight dollars a week. We sewed books by hand, used beeswax bars on the needles to make them work better, sanded and re-glued them. The glue was made from animals and it had an odor so we mixed it with Blackstrap Molasses and water and cooked it on a gas stove.”
STEPH: . . .and Henry went on . .
NATHAN: “It was one of the worst ice storms Jacksonville had ever seen, but in those days you didn’t call and say ‘I can’t make it,’ so I slapped skates on the bottom of my shoes and ice-skated to work. Got there on time, too.”
JODI: 400 books was a good day’s work.
STEPH: And Henry added. . .
BRAD: I started off setting type when I was a kid then sort of worked my way up to the better jobs. That’s the way it went. . .you finally got a pretty good job just before you died.
JODI: Started in 1924 at 8 dollars…a week. Women were paid seven dollars.
SYLVIA: Men were paid eight and women were paid seven? (walks over to Bob Sibert, stares a him, shakes her head and returns to her stool.)
JODI: They put our eight oneddollar bills in little cellophane envelopes. Not sure why they did that.
NATHAN: “Everything had to be perfect for Mr. Sibert. He would go through the plant, sit and watch the operations.”
SYLVIA: And that’s where Henry Arenz met his wife Edna.
ALL: Awww…
NATHAN: “It was a different time then. You dressed right for the workplace, you worked hard between the starting bell and the end of your shift, you sat up straight at your desk and you didn’t waste anything.”
STEPH: “If L.D. saw a half-used pencil in the trash he’d pull it out.”
BRAD: Running out of room! We opened a hand-binding shop in Roodhouse!
SYLVIA: 1929…. Running out of room! Built a 1200 square foot addition!
JODI: 1931!
STEPH: A loaf of bread cost 8 cents, a gallon of gas was a dime, and the average new car would cost you $640.
JODI: The Dust Bowl! The Midwest blew away!
BRAD: Hey! Something just flew over my head! What was it?
JODI: Kansas.
SYLVIA: The Empire State Building opens its doors…the tallest building in the world!
BRAD: Our National Anthem became the Star Spangled Banner!
JODI: The Great Depression spreads around the world. . .
BRAD: 2500 U.S. banks fail . . .
JODI: Leonard Nimoy…Dr. Spock…was born.
STEPH: And so was Captain Kirk!
JODI: And if you turned on your brand new Motorola radio, you might hear. .
NATHAN: I got rhythm I got music I got my man/girl Who could ask for anything more? JODI: I got daisies In green pastures, I got my man Who could ask for anything more? BRAD: Ol' Man Trouble, I don't mind him. You won't find him 'Round my door. STEPH: I got starlight, I got sweet dreams, I got my man Who could ask for anything more? ALL: Who could ask for anything more? SYLVIA: The Great Depression! STEPH: From the Jacksonville Courier. . .
BRAD: “If there has been a Depression, the New Method Book Bindery knows nothing of it . . .There have been no hard times at the local plant.”
STEPH: We were busting at the seams again, so Mr. Sibert added on to the building on Kosciusko. . . with 250 employees.
JODI: Wowsers!
SYLVIA: . . . and then came this kid.
BRAD: This kid.
STEPH: Robert F. Sibert, Lawrence and Jessie’s only child, began working at the bindery while he was in high school. . .his first job, setting type on a Ludlow machine and inventing a card inventory system. . .the employees say they’d see him come to work bouncing a basketball ball.
SYLVIA: Robert graduated from Illinois College, then joined the business as treasurer. . .1936.
BRAD: 1937. . . New Methods buys out Ward Brothers Bindery and puts in the . . .
NATHAN: Look out!
BRAD: They put in the.. .
STEPH: Look out!
SYLVIA: They put in what?
BRAD: Roller skates! Robert’s idea!
JODI: . . . and in 1941 the world changed.. .
(Music under)
NATHAN: The Germans bomb Wales.. .
JODI: 6000 Jew exterminated in Romania. . .
SYLVIA: German troops land in Africa. . .
STEPH: Jews rounded up in Amsterdam. .
BRAD: “Captain America” comic book appears. . .
SYLVIA: Germans invade Bulgaria. . .
STEPH: 50,000 British troops land in Greece. . .
JODI: Churchill warns Stalin of German invasion. . .
BRAD: The German Air Force bombs London. . .
NATHAN: Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany. . .
BRAD: The first organ was installed at a ballpark. . .by the Chicago Cubs. . .
SYLVIA: . . . didn’t do any good.
STEPH: General Mills introduces Cheerios. . .
JODI: Greece surrenders to Germany. .
NATHAN: Germany bombs London’s House of Commons. .
BRAD: The world’s first computer invented in Berlin. . .
NATHAN: Joe Lewis is the heavyweight champion. .
JODI: The first Jeep is produced. . .Construction begins on the Pentagon. . . Stan Musial makes his major league debut.
STEPH: Nazi’s slaughter 34,000 Jews in Russia.
JODI: Mount Rushmore is completed, Japan declares war, San Francisco blacked out and. . .
STEPH: Pearl Harbor.
SYLVIA: Young Robert Sibert joined the U.S. Army
(In The Mood . . . instrumental as the group switches stools, then. .. .)
SYLVIA: So young Robert F. returned home after the war and then took an even more auspicious journey….this time to Louisiana for a library meeting.. . .and there he met. . .
STEPH: . . . he met. . .
SYLVIA: He met this pretty little librarian at the Vermillion Parish library.
STEPH: She was a World War II vet as well. . .Jessica Boatner. . .She’d been warned about these pushy book salesmen from up north but this guy. . . this guy representing New Method. . .
SYLVIA: . . . this guy was different.
STEPH: . . . and so later in that same year. . .
SYLVIA: The same year!
JODI: Robert didn’t waste time. . .
(Wedding March. . . instrumental)
ALL: Awwww. . . .
BRAD: Meanwhile . . . back at the bindery. . .
NATHAN: When Johnny came marching home from the war things started happening. .
BRAD: . and happening. . .
NATHAN: . . . and happening! The Baby Boom!
JODI: All across the nation the school were swamped with children and the need for pre-bound books went through the roof! It was more than we could handle!
SYLVIA: 1948. . .New Method Book Bindery was the largest single binding unit in the world!
JODI: . . .customers in 38 states, Hawaii, Canada and South America!
SYLVIA: 500,000 books year with a payroll of over $300,000!
JODI: 1950. . . Ralph Evans was hired as a salesman . . . according to Ralph. . .
BRAD: “I knew Mr. and Mrs. Sibert in Jr. High working at a drug store. I listened to him talk about traveling and it was heaven on earth!”
STEPH: Ralph got a job as a traveling salesman for the company.
BRAD: “It was Eisenhower’s first move to try to beat the Russians. He wanted us to become a reading society. I was the youngest man they had ever hired so they bought me a used Chevrolet Coupe just in case it didn’t work out. It was the running-est car I had ever seen in my life! Had some huge trunk space!”
STEPH: But sometimes. . .
SYLVIA: . . . sometimes the book sales didn’t work so well.
JODI: The state of Mississippi really liked our books because they held together so well. I sold a bunch of Zane Gray and Grace Livingston Hill titles in Carthage, Mississippi, and the state librarian came to visit.
STEPH: Then came the phone call. .. . from the State Librarian of Mississippi. The local librarian called and was in tears.
JODI: (crying) Mr. Sibert?
NATHAN: Yes?
JODI: These books….I’m sorry, but the state librarian does like the titles. She thinks they’re junk. We’ve spent our entire budget on them and we can’t use them.
SYLVIA: And Mr. Sibert said. . .
NATHAN: Then send them back.
JODI: But we’ve already stamped our name in them.
NATHAN: That’s alright. Send them back.
BRAD: And that was the kind of reputation that the Siberts were gaining all across the nation.
SYLVIA: 1952! We had to put on a third floor!
STEPH: 1952! Jacksonville was officially declared the book binding capital of the world! Governor Stratton issued a “Book Binding Day!”
JODI: Then Lawrence Sibert made an agreement with Lawrence and Ernest Herztberg to form a new company for the rebinding business. . The Hertzberg-New Method Bindery in South Jacksonville. And the year was 1954!
NATHAN: 1954!
BRAD: President Eisenhower. .
NATHAN: The McCarthy hearings. .
BRAD: The first atomic submarine. . .Dr. Jonas Salk starts vaccinating kids for polio. . The Giants beat Cleveland in the World Series, broadcast in color for the first time ever!
SYLVIA: . . . the first 707 jet!
JODI: . . and something wild and strange and terrifying starts sweeping the nation!
STEPH: Kids love it!
JODI: Parents are horrified!
ALL: Rock.. . . and . . . Roll!
(as the ladies swoon)
BRAD: You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog Cryin’ all the time… You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog… Cryin’ all the time. You ain’t never caught a rabbit and you ain’t no friend of mine! NATHAN: Love me tender, Love me sweet Never let me go. . .You have made my life complete.. And I love you so. . (as others “oooo” under) Love me tender, Love me true. . All my dreams fulfilled For my darlin’ I love you. . and I always will. STEPH: 1959! SYLVIA: Okay…a little geography lesson. You’re not going to believe this, but in 1959 Jacksonville ended right around Massey Lane.
STEPH: Oh wow! You mean. . . BW!
SYLVIA: Yes! Before Wal-Mart!
NATHAN: And the bindery at Koscio…Koscio…
SYLVIA: Kosciusko!
NATHAN: That word is killing me. Well that location just couldn’t handle the volume so the Siberts started looking west. . .
SYLVIA: . . .on the far, far edge of Jacksonville.
BRAD: . . .and construction began on a 43,000 square foot new New Method.
NATHAN: Thank God. I don’t have to pronounce Kosci…Kosci…that other place again.
STEPH: We knocked a hole in the side of the old building to move out the equipment.
SYLVIA: And on the cornerstone it said, “Dedicated to the preservation of the written world!”
ALL: (cheers)
SYLVIA: A single level, no more stairs. . . and it was a heck of a lot easier to roller skate on concrete floors!
STEPH: Look out!
JODI: Outa my way!
BRAD: I’m comin’ through!
SYLVIA: When the 1960’s hit, things really started rolling!
BRAD: According to John Doyle. .
NATHAN: “At New Method, I found that people never leave so it must be a good place to work.”
STEPH: But Jacksonville was growing. . .more competition for workers. .
SYLVIA: . . . Kordite in 1957, then it became Mobil Chemical. .
NATHAN: . . 1956, Anderson Clayton. .
STEPH: . . . Capital Records’ second plant in ’64, Carnation in ’69.
BRAD: In 1964 L.D. retired as president and his son took over. Robert Sibert said. . .
JODI: “I was caught in New York in ’65 during the Blackout. I was with a publisher and we were walking in the dark New York streets from his office. He was Catholic and he went into a church a swiped a bunch of altar candles for me to take to my hotel room.”
BRAD: The new building couldn’t hold us and we built on again in 1962!
JODI: Then again in 65, 67, 71…
STEPH: . . . 78, 89, 91….
JODI: . . .all the way up to 110,000 square feet!
SYLVIA: The world’s largest roller rink!
NATHAN: 1970 we officially named ourselves “Bound to Stay Bound” and started making our own decorated covers and library cards. . .then in 1978. . .
JODI: . . .In 1978. . .
SYLVIA: This new kid showed up.
STEPH: (a beat, then) Who is he?
NATHAN: He’s the boss’s son.
BRAD: Uh-oh.
JODI: He seems normal. Gorgeous wife.
STEPH: The young Robert Sibert. . . this one with an “L” in the middle of his name. . the same kid who its rumored learned to drive by making circles in the company parking lot. . .and running into the building while he was doing it. (to Sibert) No Bob, I’ve got the stage. You can’t argue.
NATHAN: And the following year. . . in 1979 Jacksonville lost one of its greatest businessmen. After 71 years in bookbinding, Lawrence Sibert passed on.
SYLVIA: 1891 to 1979 . . . beginning as a worker for Ward Brothers, working his way up to foreman then founding New Method. . . eventually with a sales force covering the nation.
BRAD: The torch was passed.
JODI: Technology was on the move with upgraded and improved printing and binding equipment. . .
STEPH: Then the storm of 1982!
NATHAN: Storm? I don’t remember any storm in ’82.
STEPH: Hurricane Sharon!
JODI: Sharon Zuiderveld!
STEPH: Hired to revamp the cataloging and things changed forever!
SYLVIA: 1990! The Jacksonville Industry of the Year!
BRAD: Then in 1992. . .
NATHAN: Ross Perot announces he’ll run against Bill Clinton and President Bush. . .
STEPH: McDonalds opens it’s first restaurant in China. . .
JODI: Disney World goes to Paris. . .
SYLVIA: TWA goes bankrupt. .
BRAD: Bill Clinton is elected President. . .
JODI: Minnesota’s Mall of America is built. . . Prince Charles and Princess Di separate. . . Windows 3.1 is released. . .
NATHAN: Hollywood brings out Aladdin, Lethan Weapon 3, and Honey, I Blew up the Kids. .
STEPH: Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Madonna, U2, Mariah Carey, Bon Jovi. .
SYLVIA: Eric Clapton, Def Leppard, Michael Jackson. . .
BRAD: Home Improvement, Oprah, Matlock, Jerry Springer, America’s Funniest Home Videos..
JODI: And Miley Ray Cyrus was born.
ALL: Awwww…..
NATHAN: And the top song of that year. . .
SYLVIA: I'm too sexy for my shirt too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my… Oh, never mind. You get the idea. STEPH: And. . . NATHAN: And. . .
JODI: And in 1992 Robert L. Sibert took over as President of the company with Robert F. remaining as chairman.
(music under)
BRAD: Then in 1998 Jacksonville again suffered a loss. . . Robert F. Sibert. . . one of the stalwarts of the Jacksonville business community. . . . and surely one of the most generous men our community has ever known. . . Sibert Theatre at Illinois College… Four Robert F. Sibert scholarships at I.C. for Bound to Stay Bound employees. . .
JODI: . . .The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children. . .
STEPH: . . . and so 107 years ago young Lawrence Sibert took a job working for Ward Brothers, a printing and bookbinding company in Jacksonville, Illinois.
SYLVIA: . and 95 years ago we came who we are today.
NATHAN: . . .pushing through each decade without a layoff, good times and bad. . . employing brothers and sisters, husbands and wives. . .
JODI: . . and through wars and storms and crises. .
SYLVIA: . . .through booms and busts and buyouts. .
STEPH: . . .from the Charleston to rap music. .
JODI: . . .from the Model T to the Volkswagen Diesel . . .
STEPH: . . . from Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama. . .
NATHAN: . . . the story of Bound to Stay Bound is the story of American business. . .
SYLVIA: It’s the story of Jacksonville. . .
BRAD: It’s the story of America.
JODI: And somewhere out there today in Minneapolis . . .
STEPH: . . or St. Louis or San Francisco or Brazil. . .
SYLVIA: . . . a mother is putting her daughter on her lap. She’s opening a book. . .and she’s reading. . .
NATHAN: . . . “All children . . except one, grow up. His name was Peter Pan.”
BRAD: “The mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. . “
SYLVIA: “Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies with Uncle Henry who was a farmer and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife. . . “
STEPH: “When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said he was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. . “
JODI: “Once upon a time there were four little rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. . .”
NATHAN: . . .and somewhere Lawrence, Robert L. and Robert F. are smiling as they hear a young child open her first book and say. .
ALL: (a beat, then) . . .Once upon a time. . .
(Music up and out…)