It has been nearly 50 years since the first spark ignited my interest in jewelry! It was late one night, in July as I recall, while watching the Johnny Carson Late Night show. Johnny’s guest that evening was Polly Bergen and Johnny asked her about an unusual ring she was wearing.

Polly replied that she was wearing a “Mood Ring”, a device which reflected her mood! If the stone were black, she was agitated; if blue, relaxed and serene; if red to green, somewhat unpredictable, I believe she said.

The next morning, this sterling silver ring sold out for $45 almost before the doors opened at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan. That was a hefty price in 1975 for a piece of costume jewelry, even if cast in sterling silver!

Having been intimately involved in the creation of a class of chemical compounds (Cholesteric Esters) which, when appropriately formulated, would change colors through the entire visual spectrum knew what caused the stone in the ring to “magically” display one’s mood in changing colors!

At this time in my life, I had recently become the Chairman, CEO and COO of a chemical manufacturing company that had recently burned to the ground with virtually no assets or casualty insurance. The only remaining resources were a small surviving inventory, two hospitalized burn victims and another 6 or 7 healthy, hungry, trusting, loyal, and creative employees who had joined the company during the previous 9 or 10 years. I knew they “had my back” but that it was on me alone to find a path to survival. The healthy employees spent their time visiting their hospitalized colleagues and performing guard duty while salvaging any useful remains while I speculated whether this Mood Ring phenomenon might become our salvation.

My mother’s family had been in the fine jewelry business for many years and had good friends who dominated the local wholesale costume jewelry industry. My uncle arranged for me to meet with the head of this group to learn the potential for this new product. It was a short and disappointing experience! Immediately, upon explaining my mission, I was told the Mood Ring had no potential and was a passing fad. The gentleman with whom I was meeting opened his desk drawer and retrieved a recent issue of the publication “Women’s Wear Daily” to demonstrate to me that he knew his business! I thought this was the end of my dream for salvation.

To my surprise, during the next several days, I received several calls from people in New York City and Providence, RI inquiring about the pricing for our line of Liquid Crystals, the name given to the color changing chemicals. Since every one of these requests had two things in common, I wondered what was going on. There had been no recent promotion or advertisement that might have reached this regional interest! First, none of these inquiries came from the type of business that typically used high priced chemicals and, second, the name of each seemed to belong to the jewelry industry. I immediately booked a flight to Providence where I had a close college friend with a connection to some of the largest costume jewelry manufacturers in the United States. He arranged a meeting at the company he felt to be the best prospect for good information.

Upon meeting, I disclosed that my company was the only commercial manufacturer of the chemicals employed in the Mood Ring and had been making these materials for more than ten years. An agreement was reached on the spot for the supply of all requirements for liquid crystals and we celebrated with a wonderful dinner hosted by my new customer at what appeared to be a very expensive venue!

During the following twelve weeks until December 11, 1975, Pressure Chemical Company manufactured and delivered more than 10 million temperature sensitive chemically coated cabochons across the entire United States. We had provided several dozen local university students with part time work for the holiday season, we had employed about a dozen Vietnamese political refugees with their first jobs in Pittsburgh and we were the first major customer in the city for a nascent business called Federal Express which had very recently opened in this city right around the corner from our factory.

We celebrated our new beginning that New Years’ Eve by booking an entire Vietnamese restaurant for our celebration and our recently insolvent chemical company has grown and thrived since then for nearly 50 years.