1949 - Marie Louise Killick

16th May 1949: Letter from Circuits Management Association Ltd regarding the outstanding sound quality of Sapphox. The management placed Sapphox in their Odeon cinema in Leicester Square in London. During the six month run of the film Hamlet they had used Sapphox on the two sets of records played during the interval of the film. The quality of the sound was such they were going to use Sapphox in all their cinemas as installations were made.

Marie put her British Patent up for sale to test the market and try to find out what the cause of the blockage to her business was. Pye Ltd was one of the firms who responded to the advertisement. At a meeting with her Pye stated, they had been making and marketing her invention very successfully – that they were a million air company and would come to a settlement with her. Marie informed them they would be hearing from her solicitor.

A Sound Revolution

A Sound Revolution is the true story of Marie Louise Killick’s valiant fight against powerful men in the musical world. They had pirated her invention of a stylus that was to revolutionise the quality of sound reproduction of gramophone records.

Despite winning her ten-year legal battle in The Royal Courts of Justice in London, her opponents, Pye Radio, found other means to ensure she never received her damages – worth millions. Manoeuvred into bankruptcy, she spent three years trying to prevent the Official Receiver from settling her damage claim against Pye Radio for a derisory sum. She died at the age of 49, penniless and homeless.

During her fight she was ‘kidnapped’, her supporters were assaulted and even her solicitor was frightened off the case. During the fight, she was hounded from pillar to post and forced to spend six weeks with her children living in a builder’s yard. Truly a story of enormous courage and tenacity on her part to bring the men who had robbed her to justice!

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In the People Talk audio feature below, you can hear a short introduction to A Sound Revolution and an extract.

Marie Killick – first caller to the Samaritans

In November 1953 an English clergyman set up the first telephone helpline for people considering suicide. The Reverend Chad Varah began the pioneering service from a room in his own church house. This 9-minute BBC World Service programme tells the story of the helpline and the first call Chad Varah received, on 2nd November. It was from “a woman with a family, who was absolutely desperate.” Though anonymous in the programme, that woman was Marie Killick, as told here in The Good Samaritan.