Angelus was a Canadian-made phonograph brand distributed in Toronto by the Torcan Fancy Goods Company Limited, apparently beginning no later than November 1918. The manufacturer remains unidentified.
The brand appeared at almost exactly the same time as the short-lived Angelus Phonograph Company of New York, whose use of the Angelus name was challenged by Wilcox & White in 1918. There is no evidence that the Canadian machine was manufactured by either of those American companies. Indeed, the cabinet label on the upright Angelus phonograph shown below indicates Canadian manufacture. Torcan Fancy Goods Company Limited, Toronto also distributed the Melbaphone.
As early as 1909 the Phonola Company of Canada, Ltd. identified their reproducer with the name "Angelus" but there is no evidence that the Angelus-branded phonograph from 1918 was connected to Phonola.
Toronto Daily Star, November 8, 1918, p. 20.
Toronto Daily Star, December 26, 1918, p. 10.
The Province (Vancouver), January 16, 1927, p. 12.
An Angelus-labelled phonograph listed in Facebook Marketplace in 2024 in Toronto, Ontario.
