03/15/2013
Player-Tone Talking Machine Company
Historical Overview
-Established:
The Player-Tone Talking Machine Company was established in September 1919 by Mr. Goldsmith of the Goldsmith Furniture Company and Railroad Sales Company.
-Location:
Player-Tone’s factory and sales room was located at 967 Liberty Avenue; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Player-Tone phonographs were sold at various furniture stores in the Pittsburgh area, a list of those stores includes but is not limited to: (as of 1919)
----Taylor Bros, 942 Penn Ave.
----A. Hamburger, 927 Penn Ave.
----The Household, 908 Penn Ave.
----Simon Solof $ Son, 2000 Carson St., South Side
----Hahn Furniture Co. 6285 Frankstown Ave, E.E
----Goldenson Furniture Co., 1214 Carson St., S, S
----Kings Furniture Store, 223 Federal St., North Side
----Blum Furniture Co., 954 Penn Ave.
----Superior Music Shop, Superior & California. Ave., N.S.
In March, 1923 Player-Tone established a large retail store at 632 Grant Street along with United Furniture Factories.
-Products:
Player-Tone manufactured high grade mechanical phonographs of quality construction. The company specialized in the furniture aspect of construction, ordering their mechanical parts from phonograph suppliers. The company purchased most (possibly all) of their mechanics from the ‘Otto Heineman Phonograph Supply Company’ at 25 West 54th Street, New York. One of Player-Tone’s advertised features was its tone arm, a Heineman Tone Arm No.11 which featured a pivoting reproducer for playing vertical and lateral cut records. Player-Tones came in a variety of wood types, from golden oak to mahogany. Decorative ‘wood carvings’ on the phonographs were made of molded resin, which simulated fine wood carvings. The large floor model phonographs are made with wood veneers, with solid wood legs.
The Player-Tone models ranged in price from $95 to $250 (accounting for inflation, those prices are equivalent to ~1,076 to 2,830)
-Company slogans:
“It’s simply great”
“World’s Greatest Phonograph”
-Company’s purchase by Sig Hahn:
In 1926, Sig Hahn bought out the Player-Tone Talking Machine Company and liquidated its stock in a large sale.
-Company fate:
It is unknown exactly what happened to the Player-Tone Company; accumulated research reveals the following possibility:
The company likely closed down in the early 1930s after the stock market crash and a devastating warehouse fire. The warehouse fire of December 1930 destroyed $15,000 of inventory; this is equal to 203,790 dollars today. It appears that the company was already struggling before the fire due to their ad for a large truck “Selling cheap for want of use”. No information on the company has surfaced post 1930, allowing one to safely assume the company closed down some time in the early 1930s.
-page for the Player-Tone Talking Machine Co.-
This page was established to organize the information on the company for easy access and research. Be sure to scroll down to the beginning of this page to see all of the historical tidbits for the Player-Tone Company. Posted are1920s newspaper ads, including some pictures of a Player-Tone Type 14 phonograph from 1924. All this information will soon be organized at the following web page for official internet archiving.
http://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_hersteller_detail.cfm?company_id=13839
-If you are the lucky owner of a Player-Tone phonograph, feel free to share it with us!
