When Ray Giesse purchased the company in 1987, it was about to close its doors. It now produces about a million whistles a year. Like its product and its building, American Whistle's staff is small. All those whistles are made by eight employees and that includes Ray and his wife. Ray conducts the tours himself and you soon learn that saving failing companies isn't his only talent. He's a pretty good comedian, too. That's Ray in the third picture with a 24K gold plated whistle like those presented to Super Bowl referees since 1991. No photos are permitted of the actual manufacturing process which is a wild mix that ranges from some machines from the company's 1956 founding to a high-tech custom built mechanism that does all the soldering automatically. Ray says that one machine cost him more than the whole company did originally. Tours exit through the small gift shop where everybody receives an American Classic.