If you know anything about Adolphe Sax, you know that he invented the saxophone. But while he was a talented and innovative instrument developer, the rest of the Sax's life was quite extraordinary as well. Taken as a whole, you get the idea that the very universe was against him. As a child, he survived dangerous falls, burns, poison, explosion, drowning, and even managed to swallow a needle and recover. He outshone all the competition in an annual musical instrument competition for years, but the judges refused to pronounce him the winner. So he went to Paris and outfitted the French military band with new instruments of his own design.
This was the last straw- when Sax, a Belgian no less, secured the contract to supply the French military, his rivals decided to literally form an organization who might as well have called themselves the “Anti-Sax Club”, but in the end went with- L’Association générale des ouvriers en instruments demusique (the United Association of Instrument Makers). This was an organization to which the most prominent and talented instrument maker in France at the time was most definitely not welcome to join.
Their principal order of business throughout Sax’s lifetime seemed to be to try to ruin Sax in any way they could. To begin with, adopting the age old practice of “If you can’t beat ’em, sue ’em”, a long running tactic by the organization was simply to tie up Sax’s resources, time, and energy in any way possible in court.
After that, Sax was beset with lawsuits, infringement, arson, an assassination attempt, bankruptcy, and cancer. Yet he persevered. Read how Sax took on the world at Today I Found Out.