Museum acquires genuine ‘Mullally’ whistles

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

You wouldn’t think a gift of two dog whistles could make a woman’s day, but that’s what happened recently to Mary Ostby, director of the Sauk Rapids Historical Society.

First of all, the whistles weren’t just any ordinary dog whistles. What’s more, Ostby had been seeking even just one of the whistles for a long time. She’d even advertised for them, with no luck.

One day Sauk Rapids resident Ed Evans brought Ostby some historical artifacts from his late father, Dr. Leslie Evans – artifacts for the museum.

“What else can I find for you?” he asked Ostby.

“A Mullally dog whistle,” she said, flippantly.

Evans smiled.

Some days later, he returned to the museum. He reached in his pocket and pulled out some small items. Speechless, Ostby gaped at the items, which were dog whistles. She picked them up, marveling at them. Yes, indeed, there in her hand was not one – but two, a red one and a black one – genuine world-famous Mullally dog whistles, manufactured in Sauk Rapids many decades ago just a few blocks from the museum.

Turns out Doc Evans owned a prize retriever dog and used the Mullally whistles a lot, as did many other dog owners years ago. The much sought-after whistles were so effective they didn’t even have to be advertised; word-of-mouth did the job.

First whistle

From 1940 until 1978, Roy Mullally Sr. and his wife, Marie, lived in a house at 316 2nd Ave. S. in Sauk Rapids. The house was eventually torn down and the lot where it stood is now part of the Williams Dingmann Funeral Home not far from the Coborn’s store.

The Mullallys raised 10 children in that house – seven boys, three girls.

Roy Sr. was a tool-and-die maker who worked at a shop in St. Cloud.

One day in 1941, Roy Sr. was languished sick and miserable in bed. He was bored and decided to do some carving-whittling like he used to do as a kid, carving items out of willow. Taking a screwdriver with a yellow translucent handle, he took his sweet time carving a whistle, about two-inches long, three-fourth’s-inch wide. He was so pleased with the result he told his wife to go down to the hardware store and buy another screwdriver.

And that sick-bed whittling was the beginning of the Roy Commander Whistle Co., which the Mullallys operated out of the basement of their home on 2nd Avenue.

After much trial and error and constant fine-tuning, Roy Sr. had perfected a nifty whistle, foolproof in dog training and for hunting with retrievers. The whistles were made out of molded plastic, shaped by metal molds painstakingly crafted by Roy Sr. Inside the whistle was a very tiny cork ball. He named the whistle the “Roy Commander.”

Roy Sr.’s retriever, Rowdy, responded every time to a blast from the whistle, so well – in fact – that that’s why he knew he had a good thing going.

Roy Sr. used to scoff at the notion a dog whistle should be inaudible to human hearing. In the wind, dogs cannot hear such whistles, and then the hapless dogs would get blamed.

Roy Sr. offered his first whistles to dog trainers, and they were widely appreciated, admired for their high-pitched sound that matched a retriever’s hearing. They sold worldwide for a buck apiece, with a reduced price for a dozen or a gross. Customers had a simple choice of two colors – red or black.

Basement factory

Throughout the years, six of the Mullally sons helped part-time to make the whistles in their home’s basement “factory.” It was done by pouring molten plastic into the metal molds, then after they dried, squeezing the little cork ball into the whistle. On one side of each whistle was stamped-embossed the words “Roy Commander Whistle Co.” On the other side were the words “Sauk Rapids MN USA.”

After several decades, the company came to an end due to Roy Jr.’s declining health and the departure, one by one, of his sons from the house. Roy Sr. died at age 61 of complications from a gall-bladder removal Dec. 20, 1963. He is buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery, Sauk Rapids.

Now, there are only four of the Mullally family members still living: Robert, John, Ralph and Mary (Wocken). Gone are Roy Sr., wife Marie, James, Leo, Roy Jr., Ann (Kresky), Ruth (Mokosso) and George, who died just last year.

There are only two of the whistles – precious connections to the past – still owned by the survivors. Fortunately, the late Dr. Leslie Evans kept two of the whistles, and thanks to his son’s generosity, the two will be a permanent part of the Sauk Rapids History Museum as a testament to the ingenuity of Roy Mullally Sr.

(Editor’s note: In a freaky coincidence, there was a “whistle-blower” of another sort named Robert Mullally. In 1997, he blew the whistle on the Los Angeles Police Department by releasing confidential files that exposed how the department ignored domestic-abuse crimes committed by dozens of its own officers.)