Arionola - Canadian Antique Phonograph Project

The Arion Manufacturing Co. of Boston, Massachusetts introduced the Arionola phonograph in 1914. In Canada, a company was incorporated in Toronto in 1916 to manufacture the machine domestically. Interestingly, Talking Machine World reported the incorporation as the "Arinola Manufacturing Co. of Canada, Ltd.", even though it was clearly referring to the Canadian company established to manufacture the Arionola machine.

Talking Machine World, March 1916, p.11: "The Arinola Manufacturing Co. of Canada, Ltd., has been incorporated in Toronto with the intention, we understand, of manufacturing in Canada the Arinola machine in its complete form."

Many of the ads for the Arionola in trade journals and newspapers, both in the U.S. and Canada, misspell Arionola as "Arinola". Based on the contemporary evidence, Arinola and Arionola are the same phonograph, not two different brands or companies.

Canadian Music Trades Journal, March 1916: "A new phonograph in the Canadian market is the Arionola, being produced and marketed by a fifty thousand dollar corporation, with a Dominion charter, The Arionola Co., Ltd., of Toronto. Through his connection with the parent company in the United States, Mr. Howard M. Frederick, of the well known real estate and promotion firm of Robins, Ltd., secured control of the Canadian patents. Already a number of agencies have been established, and inquiries from the extreme east and west, as well as from central Canada, have been referred to the Canadian firm, received by the United States house as a result of their advertising.

"Mr. Howard is enthusiastic over the tone and the motor, and insists that the latter in every machine shipped must be as silent as it is possible to make a motor. The sound distribution is if a different principle to that of other makes. It is deflected from a sound board, upon which it is received from the horn connected with the tone-arm. The claim is that the tone is more mellow and accurate, and the volume just as great.

"On another page several styles of the Arionola, including an electric machine, are shown. The company have started out with the assurance to the trade that their product will be right before it goes out, and that the company has ample financial resources to assure the permanence of this concern."

The same display ad for the Arionola appeared in the CMTJ for six consecutive months from March through August, 1916.

Based on the available evidence, although an Arionola Manufacturing Co. of Canada was incorporated in Toronto in 1916 and trade publications announced plans to manufacture complete Arionola phonographs in Canada, no surviving Arionola phonograph has yet been identified with a label or manufacturer's plate explicitly stating that it was made in Canada.