One of the subjects for the History of Graphic Design in South Louisiana project is James Gabour, 96, who still goes every day to his printing plant in Pineville, Louisiana.
For a while he was the local Linotype sales and service rep, his region around here was quite large.
James’ son, Jim Gabour, Artist in Residence and Professor of Video Technology, Loyola University New Orleans told me about his dad and we have been corresponding about him ever since.
Following is the text from some of that correspondence while setting up my appointment to take James oral history:
“Sent: Date: Jun 21, 2008 9:43 AM
To: nancy sharon collins
Subject: Re: dad
Thanks, Nancy.
Dad loves the attention. The Smithsonian was talking to him about a print museum a couple of years back, right before Bush destroyed their funding. We have been trying to get him to safeguard this huge amount of material for years. Maybe your attention will make him value them more.
My first interview was just to get him to demo the operation and function of all the machines, graphic and type formats before they decayed or that old place burns down. Later this summer i am going to talk to him more on-camera about history.
He has a lot of that:
he was heavily into Indian motorcycles
he was a mess sergeant in the army, stationed in panama during WWII
he went to linotype school in brooklyn for a year or so, then more study in Chicago
he was shop steward for the printer’s union at the daily where he and my mom met (she was a cub reporter), and when the national union called a strike and the daily replaced everybody with scabs he started up a rival daily that lasted a couple of years
his linotype territory include northern Mexico
When he and Mom got those weekly papers, as the eldest i worked three minimum ten-hour days a week after school from age 8 until i left for university at 18 on a press association scholarship. We started typesetting MON, laid out ads and pages TUE, and worked until midnight or later WED with the press run and printing and affixing mailing labels.
It was a good experience, and i watched him make it work
jg
—
Sent: Jun 23, 2008 7:11 AM
To: nancy sharon collins
Subject: Re: linotype
when i ride my bike to the gym today i will try and shoot a few pix of the linotype bldg and send them along. i will send them to Dad too, as he remembers working in the bldg well
funny, every time i hold one of those 108-point wood letters in my hand i think of the human energy invested in its existence. and the metal 2-point no less
did you see that odd “machine” for hand-setting type on the diagonal? pretty cool. i forget what he called it, but i don’t remember it being there in my decade of residence as a child. he has continued picking up odd bits of print shops that have gone under over the years, and even though he no longer uses them he keeps them in shape and treasures them
jg
—
To: nancy sharon collins
Subject: empty space
Date: Jun 25, 2008 2:06 PM
Attachments: linotype space.jpg
this is where the linotype bldg stood until very recently, at the corner of Union & Baronne — i went to a few great art-opening parties in its new lobby prior to the storm, and it was a wonderful space. must have taken a Katrina hit, like many others
as you can see, when they tore it down they painted where it adjoined the other buildings
just got its first burst of grafitti
the passage of time is marked in many ways
