Hunter Fan Co., the Memphis gem that created and has innovated the ceiling fan, celebrated its lore Wednesday, Aug. 2, with the stories of 137 years of its heroes and American ingenuity.

The narrative is told largely in the 142-page, hardcover book Hunter released for employees, “The Hunter Fan Company: An American Original.”

Hunter Fan unleashing light fixtures in firm’s 135th year

It is the personal research of two people who lived a portion of Hunter’s success: Mike Devereaux, chief financial officer in the 1980s, and John Andrews, the Austin, Texas, independent distributor who has the distinction now of owning the last store in the country that sells exclusively ceiling fans.

“It solidifies our story. A lot of our longstanding employees are aging. We wanted to make sure we could capture that history, and capture it accurately, for all our leaders going forward so we can always reflect the fantastic things the team members before us have done and help craft our future,” Tom Blackwell, president, said.

The book is not for sale.

Hunter’s story is an American story, starting in 1886 with its immigrant founders in Fulton, New York, and how it has traversed the highs and lows of commerce, war, strikes and ingenuity in the decades that followed, nearly 80 of them in Memphis.

It spawned careers, including that of a young Cybill Shepherd in 1968 when she was a model in Hunter’s catalog; employed a-yet-undiscovered Charley Pride and created advertising history in the energy-crisis-prone ‘70s when it ran a full-page ad with a giant headline in The Washington Post telling then-President Jimmy Carter how to “Keep Cool For Peanuts, Mr. President.”

‘They’ll be missed’: Constance Abbey serves last meal

Wednesday, in a gathering that included former CEOs, a retired engineer who literally changed the tide of the company and fourth- and fifth -generation descendants of the founder, Hunter relieved its glory days in a book-release party that was a mix of staff appreciation, family reunion and hints of what’s to come.

“Renovations of our current offices will begin on Monday,” Blackwell told the crowd seated in the company’s showroom in its offices at 7130 Goodlett Farms Parkway. From the ceiling hung a veritable catalog of its products, some so iconic, they have become the oscillating backdrop to American living.

“So, there are no plans to go anywhere else. We’re continuing to make significant investments in our current corporate offices as well as in our team members. And we’re looking forward to continuing that longstanding Memphis tradition for the years to come,” he said.

Hunter moved to Memphis in 1946 to be centrally located. Its hot summers didn’t hurt either.

“We’re here to cool people, so Memphis was natural for our identity,” Blackwell said.

Balmoral hires gay minister, first among Mid-South Presbyterians

It later moved to 2500 Frisco Ave., which, for decades, was its corporate headquarters, manufacturing and distribution hub. In 2009, the company relocated to the former Union Planters National Bank administrative offices in the wooded office park off Interstate 40 and Whitten Road.

From there, it tells its story in the Hunter Fan Museum, created in 2009 by Andrews, who now also has the distinction of owning the only exclusively ceiling fan store left in Hunter’s distribution network.

In the 1970s, Hunter set Andrews up with a $1,000 line of credit.

“By 1982, I was doing so much business with Hunter, my credit line was raised to $400,000.

“And it’s in the book, my credit line was higher than Home Depot’s,” he said to cheers.

Designer David Quarles sets the scene for local restaurant — and beyond

Besides the untold thousands of fans he’s sold in his Texas Ceiling Fans store in Austin, Texas, Andrews is also the company’s official historian.

Guests, including Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, perused the museum, which showcases some of the most important fans Hunter has turned out, including the Hunter Original, a 40-pound, cast-iron beauty with an oil-fed motor.

“When people say, ‘They don’t make it like they used to anymore,’ we say, ‘We do,’” Blackwell said. “We still make it the exact same way, engineered to last a lifetime and beyond. And it does.”

The company, now owned by Griffon Corp., does not publicly discuss sales or growth percentages. It does say it imports between 9 million and 10 million fans a year from its manufacturing sites around the world. 

The stories with the most punch in the book are the people stories, including engineer Vin Mehta, who was hired in 1981 to design a reversible fan motor to cool in the summer and reverse the spin in the winter, pushing heat accumulating on the ceiling down. He also figured out how to silence the motor’s hum, a tagline in Hunter’s advertising yet today. 

Midtown boutique owners seek to stop developers’ assisted-living plan

One-time employee Charley Pride brought his guitar to work on Front Street and kept it in his locker so he could strum in the lulls. One day, he was outside on the loading dock playing, when an exasperated supervisor had had enough.

“Charley, if you don’t quit banging on that box, you are going to lose your job at Hunter,” Andrews remembered the supervisor saying.

But the crafty John Malmo, who ran one of the largest advertising agencies in the region, stars in the story with the lasting punch. 

When Malmo read in Time magazine in 1979 that the White House was sweltering because Carter had mandated the air conditioning be set at 78 degrees to save energy, he had an idea.

Company that ‘invented tenting’ adds event planning

“We composed the ad,” said Glenn Jones, then an account exec for Malmo.

Malmo, who attended the book-release festivities, wrote the copy himself, essentially telling Carter that for less than the cost of burning a 100-watt bulb, he could run an Original Olde Tyme Hunter Ceiling Fan, cooling the room to 72 degrees with a “sure but gentle breeze.

“It won’t blow your important papers around the room nor take a single square foot of expensive floor space.”

In a style as folksy as Carter’s, the ad then suggested he should feel free to call Hunter’s president and listed the office number.

“Please tell my secretary, Neil Hadley, it’s you.”

A TV network was on the line shortly after. Within days, Hunter’s offices in Memphis were swarming with media, “wanting to know the lowdown on this silly ad that appeared in The Washington Post,” Jones said.

It ran once, on a weekday, but was reproduced and opined about in news coverage around the nation.

Choices has made Carbondale a destination city

“Our media people figured Hunter got about $5 million worth of free advertising from the coverage,” Jones said.

Hunter, which then was selling more industrial fans than ceiling fans, rocketed out of the chutes.

 Sales doubled and tripled.

“We went from producing 25 fans a day,” Devereaux said, “to over 5,000.”