The Kessler test — a Plymouth company, a South Bend founder

The name tested, 2026 · Kessler Crane, Inc., Plymouth, Indiana, est. 2003

The test: One name in modern film equipment invites a claim on this city, and it is tested here so that it is not left hanging. Kessler Crane, Inc. — makers of the camera cranes, jibs, sliders and motion-control systems that bear the Kessler name on film sets worldwide — is a Plymouth, Indiana company: the directories of record place its headquarters at 1901 Western Avenue, Plymouth, and date its establishment to 2003, and its federal patent record agrees, the United States design patent for its jib (D748,181, granted 26 January 2016) naming the assignee as Kessler Crane, Inc., of Plymouth. The company is Marshall County's, and its full history belongs to Plymouth's page when Plymouth is built. The documented South Bend tie is real, and it is exactly this size: the company's founder is one of this city's own. Zacuto's profile of Eric Kessler — the trade house that sells his products — opens by calling him "this South Bend, Indiana native," who bought property, built his own home, started a family and his own business all by the age of twenty, and records that he now lives in Plymouth; and the 2016 jib patent names, beside Kessler of Bremen, a co-inventor of South Bend, Kevin Woodford. No founding in this city, no South Bend facility, and no production connection here stands in the record reached: the tie is the founder's nativity and one co-inventor's address, and it is printed at exactly that strength — a South Bend man built one of the film world's standard tools, and built the company that makes it somewhere else.

Sources

1. Zacuto, cast biography of Eric Kessler — "Founder of Kessler Crane"; "This South Bend, Indiana native"; his removal to Plymouth, Indiana.
2. United States Design Patent D748,181 (26 January 2016) — assignee Kessler Crane, Inc., Plymouth, IN; inventors Eric Kessler, Bremen, IN, and Kevin Woodford, South Bend, IN.
3. ThomasNet and the trade directories of record — Kessler Crane, Inc., 1901 Western Ave, Plymouth, IN 46563; manufacturer of camera cranes and jibs, camera motion-control systems, sliders and dollies; established 2003.