McLagan
CAPS member wrote an article on McLagan overall, including information from these pages. The article can be viewed here: http://www.capsnews.org/apn2016-4.htm
According to Edward Moogk
in Roll Back The
Years (National
Library of Canada, 1975) "During 1917...in Ontario, the
George McLagan
Furniture Co. Ltd. of Stratford announced the
introduction of a
"strictly high-grade instrument" and a "superior"
catalogue of 10- and
12-inch records. (pg. 63)
"The lateral-cut Lyric records from McLagan were amoung imports that also included the Fonotopia, Jumbo, and Odeon from Britain and Italy." (pg. 65)
"The McLagan Phonograph Company of Stratford, Ontario, announced early in 1926 that its Phonothetic would mark the beginning of "A New Chapter in the Chronicling of Phonograph History" and then went on to say:
The ability of master in the craft (cabinet-making) is not the great purpose of this instrument. It is to present to the world
a means of reproducing with incomparable beauty of tone, perfect interpretation and wondrous volume, the creations of
the world's greatest artists and musical organisations.
Music, as reproduced through the scientific mechanism and constructional features of the Phonothetic McLagan, is music
with all its true value. The range of tone embraces the entire chromatic scale. The reproduction of the highest notes of
voices or instrument is accomplished with ease and perfection, as is the heavy bass with full, rounded tone." (pgs. 109-110)
"...in 1927, the McLagan Phonograph Corporation formed a subsidiary, McLagan-Erla Limited, which would market a new McLagan-Erla radio throughout the country." (pg. 117)
(the following image is from page 64)
Betty Minaker Pratt supplies the following page from Canadian Music Trades Journal of August, 1917 (page 61, Toronto Reference Library) which is likely the reference for the first quote by Moogk above:
"The lateral-cut Lyric records from McLagan were amoung imports that also included the Fonotopia, Jumbo, and Odeon from Britain and Italy." (pg. 65)
"The McLagan Phonograph Company of Stratford, Ontario, announced early in 1926 that its Phonothetic would mark the beginning of "A New Chapter in the Chronicling of Phonograph History" and then went on to say:
The ability of master in the craft (cabinet-making) is not the great purpose of this instrument. It is to present to the world
a means of reproducing with incomparable beauty of tone, perfect interpretation and wondrous volume, the creations of
the world's greatest artists and musical organisations.
Music, as reproduced through the scientific mechanism and constructional features of the Phonothetic McLagan, is music
with all its true value. The range of tone embraces the entire chromatic scale. The reproduction of the highest notes of
voices or instrument is accomplished with ease and perfection, as is the heavy bass with full, rounded tone." (pgs. 109-110)
"...in 1927, the McLagan Phonograph Corporation formed a subsidiary, McLagan-Erla Limited, which would market a new McLagan-Erla radio throughout the country." (pg. 117)
(the following image is from page 64)
Betty Minaker Pratt supplies the following page from Canadian Music Trades Journal of August, 1917 (page 61, Toronto Reference Library) which is likely the reference for the first quote by Moogk above:
Page 31-32 from:
By Carolynn Bart-Riedstra, Lutzen Riedstra
Photographs by Terry Manzo
Contributor Richard Monette, Terry Manzo
Published by James Lorimer & Company, 1999
ISBN 155028634X, 9781550286342
Text reads:" With rail transportation readily available in six directions and Stratford's location in the centre of southeastern Ontario, industry had good access ot markets across North America...The largest of these industries was furniture...[which] started to develop when the Porteous and McLagan factory was established in 1885...The factory on Trinity and Douro Streets had expanded greatly by the time of McLagan's death in 1918." (Porteous retired in 1898.)
This is page 39 which mentions that, "McLagan Phonograph Ltd. emerged as its own company in 1916 to continue as the largest maker of radio and phonograph cabinets in Canada." :
From chrisrickett.com dated November 24, 2003 ("Stratford: A City of Memory"):
Although the GTR [Grand Trunk Railroad] was the biggest employer in town, there were other
industries. In 1886 the first major furniture factory, owned by George
McLagan, began another industrial boom in Stratford . McLagan designed
his own furniture and the Toronto press said he “probably contributed
more to the industry than any other man in Canada.”
Detail from a Toronto Star Ad of August 29, 1918:
Detail from a Toronto Star Ad of Sept. 23, 1920:
Mann, Ltd, Toronto):
