ejackett wrote: I recently bought a Standard Model A from a guy on Ebay
and I just got it on friday, when I started cleaning it up I found these two cards in the motor box, they are dated from 1906. When I bought my first
Standard model A from Tim F. I had asked him what they sold for back in the day, he told me they were scheme machines and were given away with
assorted detergents of some kind just so people would buy there records. I'm wondering if maybe this was one of the companies that they worked with?
If anyone has any infor to share it would be appreciated.
Thanks
Gene
In the early days of "scheme goods" talking machines, there were two methods used: 1) machines as premiums, and 2) machines as sales stimulators. Selling a certain number of packages of bluing or detergent could result in getting a talking machine as a premium. At that point, the deal was over.
Sales stimulators were the primary purpose of the O'Neill-James talking machines (Busy Bee, Yankee Prince, Aretino) and the Great Northern machines (Standard, Harmony, United, etc.) These machines were all designed to keep the customer coming back, so the deal was never over.
By the time the Standard Talking Machine Model A appeared around 1910/11, the main focus was for merchants in unrelated fields (such as clothing, furniture, jewelry, etc.) to offer the Standard "free" to customers with the purchase of a certain dollar amount of their goods. The specially designed turntable which accepted only Standard records would keep the customer coming back into the store. Thus, trade was stimulated for the regular goods offered in the store, as well as trade for the Standard records.
(The 1906 date on the Arm & Hammer Soda cards refers to the U.S. Food & Drugs Act which was passed that year. These cards could date from many years after that. In any event, it's doubtful that they have a significant relationship to the Standard or the way in which it was obtained.)
To better understand the arrangement, it's always best to consult period documentation. Here's a sampling which I hope will be helpful...
Here's a letter from the early days (1905) of Standard's sales stimulation proposition to dealers featuring the Standard AA:
Here's how one dealer spread the word of the availability of Standard machines and records at his store (note the tubular support arm in the illustration - - quite unlike the typical arms seen on a Standard X:
Here's another dealer broadside, this time offering the Standard Model A:
From our book,
Antique Phonograph Advertising, here's an actual photo of a furniture dealer offering Standard Model As in the store. Note the text above as well:
- From "Antique Phonograph Advertising" by Fabrizio & Paul. All Rights Reserved.
Coupons were given by such dealers so the customer could eventually redeem them. These came in various denominations:
We show lots of period documentation on this and many, many other phonographic topics in our books, notably
Antique Phonograph Advertising and one of my favorites,
Phonographica.
http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... ire#p91754
George P.
