DOUG'S THOMAS EDISON DREAMS SHATTERED

 

IN 1966 I KICKED OFF my band career as a member of the five-piece Rubber Band. In 1970, lead singer Larry Crandall and I decided to leave the rock band to explore a mellower sound in smaller, more intimate venues as the Memory Brothers. We performed in this duo for the next 50 years. Hearing myself on stage was usually not a problem. The volume levels in this two-piece were much lower compared to the rock band days. But every once in a while, we'd go all out and recruit extra players, forming the Memory Brothers LARGE Band—consisting of anywhere from 5 to 8 musicians. During these gigs, I faced a significant challenge—it was often incredibly difficult, and at times downright impossible, to hear my own vocals on stage, even with wedges (i.e., monitor speakers on the floor directing the sound back at you.) So, in 1984, I came up with a simple, lightweight invention that could be attached to my microphone stand. It redirected the sound right back at me, filling in those lost vocals when the stage volume was cranked up. I had a prototype made by a company in Iowa City and eagerly took it, along with my dreams of patenting and marketing it, to a patent attorney in Cedar Rapids. After my enthusiastic presentation, the attorney leaned forward in his plush office chair, steepled his fingertips in front of his face, and said, "Nope. I don't see it."

He didn't "see it."

My spirits sank as I left his office. And to add insult to injury, I later received a bill for $200 for his ten-minute verdict crushing my Koem-Plate Audio Deflector dreams. I pretty much threw in the towel at that point. After all, that attorney should know what's marketable, right? I tossed my prototype into the miscellaneous drawer and more or less forgot about it... until about a decade later when I spotted a device that looked nearly identical to mine on the microphone stands of the horn section of the Tonight Show band!

Hmmm . . . that's sure looks a lot like my 1984 design!

Shortly after that, I began noticing on TV shows the same contraption attached to the microphones of backup singers and also on various other mic stands—especially those used by brass players. Today, these microphone attachments are commonplace; and it's clear that someone, somewhere didn't take no for an answer when they faced their first rejection for their product idea. The lesson I learned? Don't give up on your dreams, even when someone in a fancy office tells you they “can't see it.” Sometimes, the world just needs a little more time to catch up with your vision. Oh, by the way, have I ever told you about my Dropper-Stopper? Um, we'll save that for another time!