Don Keele is a legendary record dealer, and after 42 years of business, he decided to sell his record stock, sleeves, shelves, and transcriptions. So, as of today, your editor has purchased his inventory, and will be taking a leap into selling 78’s directly, and on auction. The photographs below were taken at his warehouse located in the west end of Toronto, Ontario. Your editor is the one with the Jazz T-shirt.
Our good friend, and discographer, Jack Litchfield has just sent me a copy of the minutes of the Canadian Collector’s Congress, held on Saturday, April 26th, in Toronto, Ontario. I would like to share this with our readers, so that they will know what transpired at this meeting.
Most Canadian jazz collectors of the 1920’s would say that the Gilbert Watson Orchestra, was the first to record jazz. Gilbert Watson was born in Glasgow, Scotland on October 31, 1896, and died in Peterborough, Ontario on August 12, 1959. He studied piano with Michael Hambourg and Harvey Robb, and played at the Allen Theatre in Toronto, Ontario. He worked for several music retailers in Toronto, including Mason and Risch (in the Victrola department) and Whaley Royce (as store manager).
In the mid 1920’s he formed his own dance band, which played at the Prince George Hotel, where he was heard on the Toronto radio station and, from 1935 to 1942. The band also appeared in dance pavilions around Toronto. In 1929 the orchestra also performed a recital at Massey Hall in Toronto, a first for Massey Hall. The seven or eight musicians made a total of nine sides for the Compo Company of Lachine, Quebec, first recording on July 12, 1925 and then again on November 15, 1926. Six sides released in 1925 appeared on the Apex and Starr labels, while the three sides made in 1926 appeared on the Domino label. It is not clear if any of the recordings ever showed up on other Compo labels such as Lucky Strike and Microphone.
Watson retired from music in 1942 after the Old Mill band broke up, and opened a Summer resort, Gil-Mar Lodge, and a dance hall at Sturgeon Lake in the Kawartha region of Ontario. Below is a photographic history of the Watson Orchestra, some pics are seen here for the first time! The first set shows the band in 1925 and 1929, and the second line shows The Old Mill Orchestra, along with some personal photo’s of Gilbert Watson and sheet music.
Most of this information has been provided to me by Gilbert Watson’s son, Doug, for whom I am very grateful. I hope to upload some recordings of the Gilbert Watson Orchestra in the near future.
Fellow record collectors, it is with great pleasure that I announce that the Forty Third Canadian Collectors Congress will take place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada the last weekend of April, 2014. There are a total of seven attachments so that you may see the lectures that will take place, and register.
From Toronto, Ontario comes an advertisement placed in The Toronto World, on August 23, 1920, by the now defunct department store Eaton’s, depicting a Leader phonograph. Eaton’s would also carry their better known Amphion phonograph at this time.
Canadian His Master’s Voice recording bandleader Fred Culley, and Rex Battle, who recorded on the Apex and Starr Gennett labels are mentioned in this Canadian Pacific insert in the Montreal Gazette, on October 29th,1929.
A fantastic Hot jazz song from 1932 on the Brunswick label.The Casa Loma Orchestra was an American swing band active from 1927 to 1963. It did not tour after 1950 but continued to record as a studio group.
It began its existence in 1927 as the Orange Blossoms, one of several Detroit-area groups that came out of the Jean Goldkette office. It was a co-operative organization, fronted for the first few years by violinist Hank Biagini, although the eventual leader, saxophonist Glen Gray (1900-1963) was from the very beginning “first among equals.” The band had adopted the Casa Loma name by the time of its first recordings in 1929, shortly after it played an Eight month engagement at Casa Loma in Toronto, which was then operating as a hotel. The band never actually played the Casa Loma under that name, as it appeared there under its original name of the Orange Blossoms.
From 1929 until the rapid multiplication in the number of swing bands from 1935 on, the Casa Loma Orchestra was one of the top North American dance bands, featuring trombonist Pee Wee Hunt, trumpeter Frank L. Ryerson, trumpeter Sonny Dunham, clarinetist Clarence Hutchenrider, drummer Tony Briglia and singer Kenny Sargent. Arrangements were by Gene Gifford, who also composed much of the band’s book, Spud Murphy, Larry Wagner, Salvador “Tutti” Camarata and Horace Henderson. Their mid-1930s appearances on the long run radio comedy-variety program,The Camel Caravan (introduced with their theme, “Smoke Rings”) increased their popularity. Interestingly enough, Glen preferred not to conduct the band in the early years, playing in the saxophone section while violinist Mel Jenssen acted as conductor. In 1937, the band overwhelmingly “voted” in favor of Glen leading the orchestra, and Gray finally accepted the job.
Hits included “Casa Loma Stomp,” “No Name Jive” and “Maniac’s Ball”. Part of the reason for the band’s decline is that other big bands included in their books hard-swinging numbers emulating the hot Casa Loma style. In the late 1930s Gray took top billing, and by the mid-1940s (as the other original players left) Gray would come to own the band and the Casa Loma name. For a time, during this period, the band featured guitarist Herb Ellis, trumpeter Bobby Hackett, pianist Nick Denucci and cornetist Red Nichols. By 1950, the Casa Loma band had ceased touring, Gray retired to Massachusetts, and the later recordings on Capitol (beginning with 1956’s Glen Gray in Hi-Fi, and continuing through the Sounds of the Great Bands series) were done by studio musicians in Hollywood (with several of Glen’s “alumni” occasionally featured)
Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen. Canada’s leading dance band in the 1930s and 1940s. It was formed in 1931 for an engagement at Vancouver’s Alexandra Ballroom by Mart (Herbert Martin) Kenney (b Toronto 7 Mar 1910, d Mission, BC 8 Feb 2006; honorary LLD, Lethbridge, 1985), an alto and baritone saxophonist and clarinetist who played during the late 1920s in the CJOR radio orchestra and with Len Chamberlain at the Hotel Vancouver. The founding five – Kenney, the trumpeter-pianist Glen Griffith, the trumpeter Jack Hemmings, the saxophonist Bert Lister, and the bassist Hec MacCallum – were joined later in 1931 by the drummer Ed Emel and in 1932 by the vocalist-saxophonist-pianist ART HALLMAN.
The band made its radio debut in 1934 on CJOR from the Alexandra Ballroom and for three seasons appeared at the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park in Alberta. There, as Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen, it made its CRBC debut in 1934 with the program ‘Rocky Mountain Melody Time,’ taking the 1922 Billy Hill-Larry Yoell waltz ‘The West, a Nest and You, Dear’ as its theme-song. A succession of engagements followed 1934-7 at CPR hotels, including the Hotel Vancouver, where the band’s most popular CRBC/CBC program, ‘Sweet and Low,’ began in 1935. The band initiated summer tours of eastern Canada in 1937 and appeared for the first of many seasons at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel.
In 1938 it began recording for RCA and by 1951 it had made some 25 78s for its Victor and Bluebird labels, as well as 2 for the Dominion company. Hits included ‘The West, a Nest and You, Dear,’ ‘There’s Honey on the Moon Tonight,’ and the Kenney song ‘We’re Proud of Canada’.
Relocating in 1940 in Toronto, the band continued ‘Sweet and Low’ 1940-2 and was featured until 1949 on other commercially sponsored CBC programs. Its broadcasts were picked up in the USA by CBS or the NBC ‘Blue’ network and in Britain by the BBC. During four cross-Canada tours 1943-5 the band was heard twice-weekly on ‘The Victory Parade with Canada’s Spotlight Band,’ broadcasting from army camps and war plants. After 1949, Mart Kenney’s Ranch, a dance hall near Woodbridge north of Toronto, was the site of the band’s CBC broadcasts. Other bands also appeared there as Kenney continued to tour into the 1960s. With his retirement to Mission, BC, in 1969, the band broke up and the ranch closed. Thereafter Kenney organized orchestras for special occasions such as CBC TV’s ‘In the Mood’ in 1971 and a CNE appearance in 1975, and for engagements throughout the 1980s in the Vancouver area.
Although initially a septet, the Western Gentlemen among them played some 30 instruments and featured the vocal trio ‘Three of a Kind’ (Kenney, Griffith, and Hallman). A 12-piece band on its first recordings, it added four violins for ‘Sweet and Low’ from Vancouver and Toronto and for some of its later Victor recordings in Montreal. (Violinists in Vancouver included RICKY HYSLOP and CARDO SMALLEY; in Toronto, Hyman Goodman, SAMUEL HERSENHOREN, and ALBERT PRATZ.) Featured singers were Hallman 1932-44, Eleanor Bartelle in 1936, Georgia Dey in 1937, Beryl Boden in 1940, Judy Richards 1940-3, Veronica Foster 1943-4, Norma Locke 1944-69, Roy Roberts 1946-9, and WALLY KOSTER 1949-52. The band’s most popular vocalist, Norma (Beth) Locke (b Montreal 15 Oct 1923, d Mission 17 Sep 1990, a one-time student at the TCM and singer with the Joe DeCourcy andHOWARD CABLE dance bands), married Kenney in 1952.
The personnel of the Western Gentlemen changed frequently after 1940, and some former members, includingBOBBY GIMBY, Art Hallman, the pianist Jack Fowler, and the saxophonist Stan Patton, formed their own bands, which were initially managed by the Kenney booking agency, established in the late 1940s.
A versatile dance band, neither excessively ‘sweet’ nor too boldly ‘swinging,’ Mart Kenney and His Western Gentlemen made a particular impact on the Canadian public with their tours during the war years and achieved some popularity in the USA through their recordings and broadcasts. In 1980 Kenney was made a Member of theORDER OF CANADA.
As you may recall from an earlier blog, I announced the discovery of an acetate recorded in 1936 by a totally unknown Toronto orchestra-Bill McKeag and his Orchestra. Here now for the first time anywhere are the two tracks, Remember, and, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. I must apologize for the sound quality of the recordings, as I do not have any filters for noise reduction at present. I have reposted the photographs of the record also, below.
This past Sunday, I was fortunate to be able to go to the oldest antique market in Ontario, located on Brock Rd. 46, or Highway 6 South, about half an hour west of Toronto by the 401. The day was muggy, so both myself the 78 rpm collector, and my girlfriend, the 45 rpm collector, feeling the heat.
At the back part of the market was a booth with a Sonora gramophone. I asked the vendor if he had any 78’s. “Look inside the cabinet of the gramophone, and look at the pile on the shelf behind you”, was the response. After sorting some boring Victor’s, I came across a Compo Starr Gennett. I looked closely at the label-it was Ladd’s Black Aces, second record from 1921. The A side has “Gypsy Blues”, the B side has “I’m Just Too Mean to Cry”, and is number 9177, recorded orginally on Gennett 4794, October, 1921. Rust states the personnel as not being confirmed.
The second record I found was another Compo label, Microphone, one of those cheap labels meant for dime stores. Number 22305 has on the A side, Leslie Norman and his Orchestra performing “Who Says They Don’t Care?” This hot dance band is none other than Al Lynch and his Orchestra, who first recorded on Banner 7077 in New York, March 7, 1928. Rust has the band as unknown’s in my copy of his American Dance Band Discography, and it does not appear, in the first edition of his Jazz Records book.
In 1936, Truetone Recordings, located at 22 Grenville Street, Toronto, Ontario, which was managed by (the later radio magnate) Ralph T. Snelgrove, cut a 10 inch acetate transcription (aircheck) recorded by Bill McKeag and his Orchestra. In a recent discussion with bandleader Howard Cable who had formed his own band about this time, Howard remembered McKeag, and in his own words said:
“I remember Bill McKeag from the 30’s. There were pick up bands in those days. I remember playing with him in a pavilion in Longbranch and at Ramona Gardens on St. Clair Avenue. I think he was a trumpet player, but I’m not 100% positive. After those gigs, I never saw him again. Sorry I don’t have any more information for you.
As you probably know, the building at 22 Grenville later became the CBC Playhouse Studio. We did the Canadian Cavalcade with Lorne Greene from that studio.”
The two sides “Remember” and “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” bear a strikingly Canadian sound to them in their interpretation, with some hot solos. The uncovering of this recording is truly a historic find, as we now know about a band that has never been mentioned in discographies before. There is a flair of Jazz and Swing together in these recordings, and I hope to find more of these private recordings in the near future. The local radio stations would have had given the acetate airtime if it was ever sent to them.
If anyone has any information on Bill McKeag and his Orchestra, please add it to the comments below.
As promised earlier, here is the official report of last Saturday’s Canadian Collector’s Congress held in Toronto, Ontario. You will need to open the PDF attachment in order to read it.
The Egan Phonograph was made in Toronto, Ontario. This is the only newspaper advertisement I have ever seen, placed in the Kingsville Reporter, December 9, 1920.
Bert Niosi (London, Ontario, February 10, 1909 – Mississauga, Ontario August 3, 1987) was a Canadian bandleader, known as “Canada’s King of Swing”.
Bert Niosi was notable for his swing orchestra which had a long-time association from 1933 to 1950 with the Palais Royale dance hall in Toronto, considered the top dance hall in Canada, where he earned his nickname ‘Canada’s King of Swing.’ His orchestra was broadcast regularly on CBC Radio and in 1945 and 1946 toured Canada. He was also a member of CBC radio’s The Happy Gang musical series from 1952 to 1959. He was also involved in CBC television including The Tommy Hunter Show.
Mr. Niosi played several instruments including clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet and trombone.
Mr. Niosi’s family had other musicians, including his brothers Joe and Johnnie.
On Saturday, April 27th, 2013 I embarked on my second trip to the Canadian Collector’s Congress at the Toronto Plaza Hotel in Toronto, Ontario. As the record room would be open prior to the morning presentations, I made sure I got there early enough to avoid the usual collector frenzy that goes on…worse than boxing day! I was able to obtain a few gems from several dealers there, including a Goofus Five on American Parlaphon.
After registering, the meeting commenced at 9 a.m. with Colin Bray as the M.C., and some remarks by the founder of the Congress, Gene Miller. There were several short discography presentations, and some films, before we broke for lunch. After lunch, the formal presentations began. The first presentation was by Phil Melick from Charleston, West Virginia. He discussed the Victor V 40000 series and how hot dance bands and jazz artists ended up on a country series.
Trevor Tolley, from Williamsburg, Ontario delivered a most enlightening presentation about Jimmy McPartland.
Finally, Kurt Weisbecker from Pittsburg, Pennsylvannia gave a very debatable presentation about Frank Teschemacher, regarding the Duophone recording of “Out of the Dawn.” We heard comparisons of clarinet styles of Teschemacher and Jimmy Dorsey, and also the trombone stylings of Jack Teagarden and Tommy Dorsey. The question was who was on the sessions?
Thereafter the Canadian Collector’s Congress award for excellence in Traditional/Clazzic Jazz recordings in Canada was awarded to Jazz Vocalist Alex Pangman.
After dinner, collector’s could play one record they brought, where the composer was also on the record. I played Room 1411 by Benny Goodman’s Boys on Brunswick 4013. Both Goodman and Glen Miller are on the session.
I will upload the formal transcriptions from the afternoon presentations at a later date. For now, enjoy the photographs!
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The French Pathephone phonograph and Pathe Records were French imports primarily targeted at the largely French speaking Quebec audience, although their advertisements referred to their head office as being in Toronto, Ontario, which is English speaking. Here are some examples of the advertisements that were inserted into various newspapers circa 1918.
This particular ad by Berliner is important to Canadian phonograph buffs in particular, as it gives the location of all the Victor dealers in Toronto, Ontario.
I came across three interesting ads from Simpson’s, which was a direct competitor of the T. Eaton Company in Canada. These ads depict the phonographs and records they carried in the early 1920’s.
I suppose my interest in music from the 1920’s and 1930’s began, some 30 years ago, when I bought an LP of Bobby Hackett, not knowing at the time, I would be put in a trance by his deep melodic cornet and trumpet playing style. At the same time, I was unaware that my apartment was directly below that of the greatest authority on Jack Teagarden in the world, Joe Showler. He heard me playing my music, and invited me up to listen to his collection of Teagarden 78’s. I was fascinated by his collection-there were 16″ transcriptions, newspaper articles, a massive film collection, LP’s on Teagarden, etc. From that moment on, I regarded the sound of that era as real music, and have never looked back.
He later introduced me to a group of collector’s in the Toronto area, who gathered every so often to play Jazz and Ragtime 78’s, and discuss the in’s and out’s of who were on the records, and often said Brian Rust was wrong! He guided me in how to build my first collection of 78’s, which later had to be sold when I got married and had children. Some 20 years have pasted since then, and three years ago I got the bug to collect again.
Today I have more that 2000 78’s in my collection, spanning 1918-1939. I collect Dance Bands with Hot Solos. and Jazz. Oh yes, it is Saturday…I am off to get more records!
he Starr Company of Canada, London, Ontario:
Their Head Office and Retail Store, 265 Dundas Street
by Betty Minaker Pratt
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If we could walk into the Starr store in London between the years 1917 and 1923, we might meet a few young musicians such as the Lombardo brothers who frequented Dundas Street at the time. We might also say hello to Melville Standfield of Toronto, who started as a travelling salesman with Starr, and whose life story led us to London [CAPS News, July-Oct. 2006]. Mel’s family was related to Thomas Standfield, the Tolpuddle Martyr who left England in the 1840s and is commemorated today on an Ontario plaque at Fanshawe Park Road East Cemetery. The story of the Standfields in turn led us to Mel’s start in the phonograph business with John Croden and Wilfred Stevenson. By inquiring of Guy Lombardo Museum, London Central Public Library and Museum London, we were introduced to the striking photograph of the Starr London store, carefully restored by Alan Noon at the University of Western Ontario, which gives us the best insight into the beginning of Starr in Canada. The photo of the Starr store was taken by Henry (Harry) G. Hines, a commercial photographer whose studio was at 666 Dundas Street during most of his career, between 1906-1933.
John Alexander Croden (Nov. 17, 1866 – Jan. 20, 1950), born in London, Ontario, and Wilfred D. Stevenson (1882 – July 9, 1960) from Ailsa Craig, north of London, had both previously been in the piano business. Croden had managed the London branch of Heintzman Pianos for twenty years, then moved to the Toronto area in 1912. On December 1, 1916, he left his position as vice-president and general manager of the R. S. Williams Piano Company in Oshawa to start in the phonograph business.
Stevenson started with Doherty Piano and Organ in Clinton, Ontario in 1900 and moved to London around 1902-03 to join the Sherlock-Manning Piano Company. There he worked his way up to office manager in charge of advertising and accounting. He then joined the Mendelssohn Piano firm in 1915 as a London agent [CMTJ, April 1917, p. 59]. Although this was a Toronto piano company, Mendelssohn had a strong connection to London. The head of the company, Henry Durke, married Gertrude Wilson, a sister of Stevenson’s wife Ethel Wilson [CMTJ, Jan. 1917, p. 65]. On April 1st 1917, Stevenson left Mendelssohn to enter business with John Croden [CMTJ, April, 1917, p. 59].
Croden and Stevenson, both keen on opening their own business, formed a partnership as the Canadian Phonograph Supply Company in March, 1917. They toured the extensive Starr Piano Company facilities in Richmond, Indiana, where they were impressed by the modern equipment, product quality, service and value of that operation. They chose to deal with Starr over all offers from other phonograph factories nearby [CMTJ, April, 1917, p. 59] and arranged, at first, to import Starr machines and records into Canada. They were also the local representatives of Gourlay Pianos and their line of player-pianos. They had a store by May 1917 when they took over the lease of the former Gourlay piano agency in London at 261 Dundas. Here, they proudly displayed ribbons won at the Panama Fair in San Diego by the Starr Indiana firm [CMTJ, July 1917, p. 51].
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Gourlay, Winter & Leeming Pianos, based in Toronto, flourished between 1890 and 1923. The Gourlay Piano factory started operations in 1904 and by 1922 they were also making phonographs. They were also dealers in cabinet organs, made by Mason & Hamlin (Boston), Karn (Woodstock), Berlin (Kitchener), Thomas (Woodstock) and Bilhorn (Chicago). By 1922 they were carrying only Estey organs (Brattleboro, Vermont), which may be the one displayed in the London store window. In 1924 Gourlay was taken over by Sherlock-Manning Piano Company.
As new Starr Phonograph dealers, Croden and Stevenson would have received extensive help from Starr in Indiana in developing their business. Below is text from a Starr Piano Co., Richmond, ad encouraging new dealers for Starr phonographs:
Starr Phonographs and Starr Records are the heritage of long, successful manufacturing experience – So is the selling experience which assists the Starr dealer in developing his business. Everything possible is done to aid him. National advertising – in many of the leading publications, such as Cosmopolitan, Literary Digest, World’s Work, Scribner’s, Harper’s, National Geographic….Regular weekly schedule of large advertisements in over a score of the metropolitan newspapers….The new dealer receives a series of most attractive announcement ads…folders, picture slides, window cards, etc., without cost…he is monthly supplied with ten or a dozen illustrated timely ad-suggestions with copy, which he can easily adapt. Cuts are free. New picture slides, cards, booklets, etc., are frequently offered….[CMTJ, Sept. 1917, p. 56].
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There were several ads in the London Free Press of 1917 showing the Starr Richmond operation, including their claims of being only one of a few factories manufacturing phonographs in their entirety on site. They also insisted that any disc records, including Starr, Victor, Columbia, Edison and Pathé, could be played on their universal machines.
The Canadian Phonograph Supply Company was renamed The Starr Company of Canada on March 1, 1918, and by September moved their premises from 261 to 265 Dundas Street. Much of London’s architecture still retains a Victorian Italianate Renaissance Revival style from the late 19th century. In London, they are able to date many of these buildings to the 1874-1883 period when an architectural firm, Robinson and Tracy, created similar facades along commercial streets [Michael Baker, ed., Downtown London, p. 9]. The downtown area has a charming and unifying use of “white” brick, fashionable in the Victorian era of contrasting colours.
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In 1918, the Starr Co. of Canada exhibited at the Western Fair, London:
Musical Instrument Display at London Exhibition, 1918
Gourlay Pianos and Starr Phonographs
The first exhibit to the left of the entrance is that of the Starr Company of Canada, who have the local representation of Gourlay and Gourlay-Angelus lines of pianos and players. A representative and attractive range of these were shown. Mr. D.R. Gourlay, vice-president of Gourlay, Winter & Leeming, Ltd., spent a couple of days assisting their London agents, who are doing an extensive and increasing trade with Gourlay lines.
The Starr lines of phonographs, which have been so energetically exploited in Canada since Messrs. John A. Croden and W.D. Stevenson secured the distributing rights for Canada, a little more than a year ago, appeared in full force at the fair, and the Starr company of Canada’s success at the Toronto Exhibition was duplicated [CMTJ, Sept. 1918, p. 74].
It was now a year and a half since they had begun setting up their new business as Starr representatives in Canada. Croden and Stevenson were now very busy dispatching travelling salesmen such as Melville Standfield, D. S. Cluff and J. W. Caswell (formerly of White Sewing Machine Co.) to all corners of the country. They unloaded boxcars of Starr equipment shipped from Indiana, and developed the Starr record pressing business with Herbert Berliner in Montreal.This company has recently moved their retail store and offices a few doors east of their old stand, giving them a larger, brighter and more attractive store. When a Journal representative called, Messrs. Croden and Stevenson were making necessary alterations for the stocking of a shipment of “His Master’s Voice” records. Their record department is on the ground floor, adjoining a series of demonstration booths, with the front or main portion of the floor set apart for general display purposes. A specially constructed front with deep entrance gives roomy show windows on either side of the main entrance. Their new location brings the music houses of London still closer together, they being all within a radius of a few minutes’ walk [CMTJ, Sept. 1918, p. 74].According to the CMTJ, the new store had sound-proof demonstration rooms, essential to attracting more business and often shown in photographs in the CMTJ. A few companies specialized in supplying equipment for such rooms, such as the Walker Bin and Store Fixture Company of Kitchener. Walker advertised modular compartments with double mahogany walls and inside panels of fibre board, easily dismantled by a carpenter to transfer to any new location [CMTJ, Nov. 1918, p. 60]. Although Stevenson may not have used Walker units, that company did understand its business, as an upright phonograph called the “Walker Talker” was another of their exclusive inventions.
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HMV advertising dominated the store window in the photograph, as Croden and Stevenson always sold extensive product from the Berliner factories in Montreal. They continued to promote Victor records, as they were more expensive and more prestigious than the Starr-Gennetts. There are three of the popular Nipper dogs in the window, all about 18 inches tall. Hanging records are obscured by the Christmas decorations, but perhaps show a glint of gold on the labels. On the floor are flat printed record display stands similar to those shown inThe Collector’s Guide to HMV Nipper Souvenirs ( p. 503). The plaster bust in the right window looks like Mozart which was probably a nod to their Mozart line of pianos [ad, City of London Directory, 1921]. It’s an eclectic variety of display items provided by Victor, Starr, Gourlay, and Mozart [fl. Toronto, ca. 1912-1920, EMC].
Two table-top machines are on the floor, but the grille of the one in the back, left window, is not clear enough to recognize the Starr Style 1/2 machine. These phonographs have the tone arm at centre rear, and a metal knob in the centre of the grille like the Starr, but the plain flat lids with square corners are different. Croden and Stevenson were selling many other makes of table-tops as well. In April 1917, they arranged for three other table-top styles of phonographs to retail at $20, $32.50, and $45 in order to give their dealers a line selling from $20 to $400.
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The hanging store sign in the photograph shows a Starr upright machine that may be the Style 3/4 or a Style I, with straight bars on the grille, as shown in a rare comprehensive advertisement of all Starr phonographs available in Canada [Montreal Daily Star, June 26, 1920, p. 14]. Uprights like this appeared in a Starr catalogue of ca.1917-1919, from the Richmond parent company. This catalogue showed about eleven styles of uprights, numbers I – IX, and two larger models, the William & Mary and the Jacobean [Al Gentry]. In April 1917, the CMTJ described eleven styles of Starr machines from $65 to $400. In 1920, a London Free Press ad for Starr’s “Big Alteration Sale” mentions other uprights such as Columbia (Toronto), Sonora Baby Grand (Michigan/N.Y./I. Montagnes, Toronto), Mason & Risch (Toronto), Pathé (Montreal/Toronto) and Aeolian Vocalion (Nordheimer’s, Toronto / Scythes Vocalion) [LFP, Feb. 20, 1920, p. 14]. The sign also highlights their much applauded Silver Grain Spruce Singing Throat, which was supposed to amplify and improve the tone of the wood horn to resonate like a fine violin.
For the most part, uprights were available in Canada but long console cabinets, such as the Style XVIII, were made by Starr Richmond [Fabrizio & Paul, A World of Antique Phonographs, p. 202].
We can actually date the photograph of the Starr store from a theatrical poster in the window of Woolnough’s Corsetiers, next door at 267 Dundas Street [Vernon’s City of London Directory, 1917]. The poster announces the play The Wanderer, the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son, which was staged at the Grand Theatre between Dec. 28, 1918 and Jan. 8, 1919 [LFP, Dec. 28, 1918, p. 9; ibid. Jan. 8, 1919, p. 10]. This would be a memorable production, as it was billed as “the biggest spectacle ever brought to London with a flock of real sheep, dogs and goats, and a large ballet of dancing girls” [LFP, Wed. Jan. 8, 1919, p. 10]. Staged by David Belasco, Written by Maurice Samuels, Music by Anslem Goetzl, Presented by William Elliot, Ray Comstock, and Morris Gest…the Magnificence of the Orient in the time of King Solomon…. [LFP, Fri., Jan. 3, 1919, p. 12] David Belasco was the same impresario who gave Toronto’s Gladys Smith her stage name of Mary Pickford.
The business on the right was the Dominion Café, at 263 Dundas, listed in the London City Directories between 1917 and 1923.
Starr Company of Canada Chronology
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the78rpmrecordspins 