ASK JIM
- What is the square root of a bicycle? A unicycle
- How many woodblocks do you have in here?
As big as this place is, we've fond of saying we only have 26 letters.
- Do you still use the woodblocks?
Yes. Our slogan is "Preservation Through Production." All printing aspects of the shop are utilized. We use the wood type to set our posters and the smaller woodblocks to add images to the typographical design, and the larger woodblocks are carefully restruck onto acid-free paper for people to purchase. The editions are very small, usually fifteen or less.
- Do you still carve in here?
Yes. Everyone at Hatch Show Print is an excellent carver, and each person has their own visual identity. While I carve into both wood and linoleum, the material the staff uses is "battleship linoleum" mounted on ¾-inch birch veneer plywood. We add some paper to the bottom to make it "type-high."
- What is "type-high?”
Type-high, as I've been told, is the diameter of an English schilling. In other words, hundreds of years ago, when there was no uncomplicated way to disseminate information, people were told to turn a schilling on its edge (they were handy, evidently) and the height of that schilling was known as "type-high." Type-high is the height of all letterpress blocks at Hatch Show Print. The exact measurement is .918 inches.
- What is letterpress?
My layman's definition of letterpress is that "letters are pressed into paper with ink in between."
- What's the oldest poster in here?
Well, the shop has moved seven times and in the 'old days' there was little regard for saving things. So, I'd have to say that the oldest poster in here would be one of the vaudeville or minstrel posters from the 1930's.
- What's the oldest woodblock in here?
The oldest large woodblock would probably be the one sheet alphabet (complete except for the "H") because on the back of the "F" we found paper dating 1885. The paper was for the "Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company" and coincidentally also included an advertisement for C.R. and H.H. Hatch Printers.
- Why can't I buy originals?
We hear this question often. We do not sell our originals because we are a working museum and museums don't sell their collections. It's that simple.
- Why can't I buy a poster from a recent concert after the show?
Even though we are an old wonderful, romantic poster and design company, we are also, more than anything else, a print shop and we print and design for our clients. We want our clients to sell our posters, not us. Also, the matter of ethics is worth mentioning here. Once the job is done, it's done. The type is put away, the few extras we have usually go pretty quick the day after the show, and if there are any extras at all it's because letterpress printing is not an exact science and a lot can go wrong between starting the job and finishing the job. We want to make sure we have enough "good ones" for the customer once we finish printing.
- How long have you worked here?
I started here in 1984 and am proud to say I'm well into my 26th year having the pleasure of working at Hatch Show Print.
- Hey Jim, you going to work there forever?
Well no, I hope to walk out of here years before my head hits the desk.
- Why is Hatch a part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum?
Years ago, before there was resurgence in letterpress printing, Hatch Show Print was known mostly as "that place that printed posters for the Grand Ole Opry entertainers when they went on the road." So it would be logical that the first "larger entity" to own Hatch would have been Gaylord Entertainment (owners of the Opry, etc.). In 1992, Gaylord graciously donated Hatch Show Print to the non-profit Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum. Therefore, I try to balance equally my responsibility to the shops heritage, as it pertains not only to country music, but also to southern culture in general. We never dreamed we'd be this busy again, designing and printing over five to six hundred jobs a year.
- What's your favorite poster Hatch has ever done?
The last one we printed before we shut out the lights and went home because that means we're still printing.
