The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just found one of those Edison flyers from the cylinder days. Somehow I wonder exactly why one would let one's child take one's new Home to the stable in order to entertain tramps and the neighbourhood kids, but then advertising never makes perfect sense.
This must date from around 1908. R S Williams was the both the main Toronto Edison dealer and the jobber for Ontario.

Jim

Wonderfull!

I love it!.. Very imaginative!
Thanks for sharing it.

Jim
Do you know any more about R S Williams? I think the jobber life would have been fun.

Kevan

I always like your scans! Thanks so much for posting them.

As far as being an Edison jobber, I think it'd be harder than with other phonograph brands. It seems Edison treated them like a necessary evil, especially later on. Maybe I'm wrong!
Bob

The hobo appearing in the window strongly resembles a bearded Alfred E. Newman!

Kevan...I meant to answer this earlier but got sidetracked. There is a book about the R.S. Williams Co entitled " Under the Sign of the Sign of the Big Fiddle" by Ladislav Cselenyi-Granch. It concentrates mainly on the 19th century and only gives a passing mention of the Edison connection. It also leaves unanswered the big question as to why such a major operation went bankrupt in 1927. The Williams company not only retailed musical instruments but they also manufactured pianos and organs. (Speaking as a piano tech, the Williams piano was kind of "B-list" in terms of quality, but no worse than many others.) I've always felt that the end of Williams is the reason that electrical diamond discs are so uncommon in Ontario. Edison kept distributing from their branch plant in St.Thomas,Ontario, but on a reduced scale it would seem. I'm not even sure the St.Thomas" plant" was ever more than a warehouse but they said they were planning on assembling machines.
I wonder if it ever happened.
Jim

Thanks Jim

Kevan