Saukville sound

Thanks to Saukville resident Jim Peterson, who died Wednesday, Nov. 7, at the age of 81, the history of Saukville has become a little richer.

One could say it even sounds better, as Peterson donated to the Oscar Grady Public Library in Saukville a collection of recordings by Ewing D. Nunn under the Audiophile Records Inc. label, which was based in Saukville for nearly 20 years, starting in 1947.  

 
Nunn is considered a pioneer in sound recording. He was born in 1900 in Texas, the son of Henry L. Nunn, president of Nunn-Bush Shoes, and an heir to the Nunn-Bush shoe empire.

Nunn was interested in radios from an early age, receiving his radio operator license when he was 16. In his 20s, he was already manufacturing and selling radios from a shop on North Fourth Street in Milwaukee near the Bradley Center, even installing some of the first radios in Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

In the 1940s, he was owner and president of Northern Signal Co. in Saukville, which made blinking lights for railroads and construction sites from a shop on Tower Street where JRT Top Notch Roofs is now located. At the same time, he started Audiophile and based it in the same building.

According to one source, Nunn’s goal was to make records to improve their audio quality. He preferred monophonic sound over stereophonic sound and his records impressed professionals in the field.

Nunn lived in Fox Point until 1954 when he built a house, complete with a recording studio, in Mequon.

He moved Audiophile to Mequon in 1965 and sold the company in 1969.

The records given to the library were part of the Jim and John Peterson Collection, which also includes hundreds of photographs, postcards and other items documenting Saukville history and which were donated to the library over the last few years.

“This initial group of albums, mainly in the jazz genre, were labeled as having been produced in Saukville, Wisconsin,” said assistant Oscar Grady librarian Martin Morante, who is curating the collection.

“I have been working with these albums since the day we received them with the responsibility, respect and care they deserve,” he said.

The collection grew significantly earlier this fall when Morante reached out to one of Nunn’s grandsons, Paul Dumke, who lives in California.

“After several conversations with him and exchanges about what we have been doing with his grandfather’s work, he confessed to us that he pretty much had the whole collection of albums and that he would like them to go to a good home. And he thought that there could not be a better place than our library,” Morante said.

That included another 103 Audiophile albums, plus other projects in which Nunn was involved. The collection included 66 more albums recorded and produced in Saukville.

The records can be accessed by appointment at the library but cannot be checked out, Morante said.

Eight of the albums, much of it Dixieland jazz or big band music, can be heard online via the library’s SoundCloud page.

Earlier this month, Morante made a presentation on the collection to the Ozaukee County Historical Society in Cedarburg. In the audience unexpectedly was another of Nunn’s grandsons, Dave Dumke.    

“He was deeply moved by the tribute to his grandfather,” Morante said.

The story of Ewing Nunn and Audiophile Inc. is not well-known, Morante said.

“We are trying to share not only what the library is doing with (the record collection), but also to make people aware of this story and Mr. Nunn’s achievement and legacy,” Morante said. “Our goal is to make sure that these albums, and Mr. Nunn’s story, do not get simply shelved to collect dust, but that we make people aware of it, sharing this important and until now almost obscure piece of American music history.”