LLOYD J. HARRISS

SAUGATUCK PIE FACTORY

With

Frank Lamb and John Sanford

Interviewer: Jim Schmiechen

Jim Schmeichen, Frank Lamb, John Sanford

In years past, the SCA building at 400 Culver St. in Saugatuck belonged to the Lloyd J. Harriss Pie Company, and hundreds of thousands of delicious frozen fruit pies were manufactured for national consumption. Frank Lamb, a lifelong resident of Saugatuck, joined the company in the 1960s after college and his Army Intelligence stint in Bankok, Thialand. John Sanford, a Chicago area boy who vacationed through his early life in Saugatuck, joined the company shortly after. Both were senior department managers and recall, in this video, the pie assembly process and the general operation of the frozen pie industry.

Harriss Pie employees unionized in the early 1960s, moving Mr. Harriss to abandon his office in the building to never return. Management meetings were held in his estate on Cambell St. across the river. Subsequently he sold the business and it went through several owners before its economic death in the 1980s. Jim Schmiechen interviews Frank and John on historical details in preparation for a future program.

The video is in three chapters. The first chapter documents and expands on the above information and is set in the SDHS Audio/Video Recording Room.

The second chapter views Frank and John sitting with Jim in front of his computer viewing and identifying old photos of the Pie Factory employees and equipment.

The third chapter, back in the Recording Room focuses on Frank and John's history before and after their pie factory experiences.

John Schack