Henry Hotze & Sons 1862 - 1962

by Bent Hotze

Page 9

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Jay Kay was attracted to golf bags, joined the Meadow Brook Golf Club, and started making golf bags in 1920-1921. The golf bags of the twenties were small stayed bags designed to carry 2 woods, a brassie, a putter, a mid iron, a mashie, a niblic, and a lofter. Hot-Z bags had aluminum tops and bottoms which were recessed to receive the stays which were flat tempered steel which was 3/8' wide and had holes at top and bottom ends. The holes were punched by a machine shop owned by E. J. Brewer, who also made golf bags and dog collars plus various sundries.

The smallest bag was 2" in top diameter, had 4 stays, and a ball pocket with a short leather strap riveted in the top to separate the woods from the irons. The bag had a canvas body, a padded sling strap riveted to the top with a leather billet; the handle was of canvas folded over a cardboard like filler with a piece of leather sewed on top; usually limber enough to insert in a handle plate. The handle plate was approximately 2 1/2 " wide; made of cardboard  (a fiber like tempered sheet) with canvas folded over the board. The bags were neatly finished but rather heavy. The ball pocket closer was a 1/2" billet and buckle - zippers did not come in use until the late twenties. A Chicago manufacturer had exclusive use of the Prentice Zipper Fastener. Hot-Z finally go into a rather heavy expensive zipper made in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Talon zippers came on the market near the end of the twenties.

Hot-Z did a rather limited bag business to a few local pros, Chicago and New York stores, and a couple of pros in Houston, Texas. Charlie Hotze did the selling. Also a few saddles were made.

Jay Kay told me in the fall of 1929 "That if you don't come into the business now, there will no longer be a Henry Hotze and Sons, and if we make sales of $50,000.00 per annum we would make money" - The writer had just been furloughed by the Penn Railroad. I worked for the forestry department of Penn Railroad. All hell was breaking loose in the stock market; so outside of the U.S. Forestry Service in which I did a short hitch in 1922, there was no openings. Since I had passed the civil service exam in 1920, I was still eligible, but not too well qualified from the stand point of experience.