John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 940

Not every name is a household word, though some of their products are.

• Howard Snyder worked for the Maytag Co. in Newton, Iowa and developed the "Gyrofoam washer", which revolutionized clothes washing in the home.  Developed in 1919, the Gryrofoam washer was selling in millions of units per year within three years.
• Apparently the vacuum cleaner was invented by James Murray Spangler, but he sold the rights to an in-law, William H. Hoover.
• Isaac Merritt Singer made the sewing machine a practical device that could be used in the home.
• Walter P. Chrysler’s German ancestors came in 1710 to the Hudson River.  The name was Kreußer and nothing at all like Christler/Crisler in the Germanna family.
• There can hardly be in doubt where Düsenberg came from.
• Then there was Henry J. Kaiser.
• Don’t forget the Schwinn bicycles, Studebaker wagons and cars, and the Stutz Bearcats.
• George Westinghouse came from North Rhein-Westphalia.
• Ottmar Mergenthaler developed the linotype machines.
• The Roeblings built steel cables and the Brooklyn Bridge.
• Karl August Rudolf Steinmetz was a major factor in the General Electric Co.
• Charles Franklin Kettering was doing something similar at General Motors.

In the entertainment world, I will give the stage name and the original name:

• Woody Allen ­ Alen Stewart Königsberg (King’s Mountain)
• George Burns ­ Nathan Birnbaum (i.e., Pear Tree)
• Douglas Fairbanks ­ Douglas Elton Ulman (probably Ullman or Uhleman)
• James Garner ­ James Scott Baumgartner
• Peter Lorre ­ Lazlo Löwenstein (combined Hungarian and German)
• Clifton Webb ­ Webb Parmelee Hollenbeck
• June Allyson ­ Ella Greisman
• Lauren Bacall ­ Betty Joan Perske (showing a Slavic influence)
• Doris Day ­ Original Surname was Kappelhoff
• Marlene Dietrich ­ Maria Magdalena von Losch
• Marie Dressle ­ Leila Körber
• Betty Grable ­ Elizabeth Ruth Grable
• Hedy Lamar ­ Hedwig Kiesler
• Shelly Winters ­ Shirley Schrift
• Jane Wyman ­ Sarah Jane Fulks
• Loretta Young ­ Gretchen Belzer

Had you thought there were no German actors and actresses?  These names illustrate one of the problems of doing a study of this type.  Many of the names which are in current use are derived or assumed names and they mask the national origin.
(29 Jul 00)