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Clairtone Sound Corporation Limited was a manufacturer of high-quality sound electronics and accessories based in
Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. Founded in 1958 by the Hungarian-born entrepreneur and electronics engineer
Peter Munk Peter Munk (November 8, 1927 – March 28, 2018) was a Hungarian-Canadian businessman, investor, founder and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of a number of high-profile business ventures, including the hi-fi electr ...
with furniture designer
David Gilmour David Jon Gilmour ( ; born 6 March 1946) is an English guitarist, singer and songwriter who is a member of the rock band Pink Floyd. He joined in 1967, shortly before the departure of the founder member Syd Barrett. By the early 1980s, Pink F ...
, the company established an international reputation for stereo and cabinetry design in the 1960s. It failed little more than a decade later, but in its heyday it made a notable contribution to the field of
consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...
.


History

In 1959, Clairtone won a design award from Canada's National Industrial Design Council for its very first hi-fi model, the "100-S"—a long, low teak cabinet fitted with a
Dual Dual or Duals may refer to: Paired/two things * Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another ** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality *** see more cases in :Duality theories * Dual number, a nu ...
1004 turntable, a Granco tube chassis, and speakers obscured by cream-colored broadcloth from
Knoll In geography, knoll is another term for a knowe or hillock, a small, low, round natural hill or mound. Knoll may also refer to: Places * Knoll Camp, site of an Iron Age hill fort Hampshire, England, United Kingdom * Knoll Lake, Leonard Canyon, ...
. But the most famous Clairtone design was the futuristic Project G series designed by Hugh Spencer and introduced at the National Furniture Show in Chicago in January 1964. Striking, massive (nearly seven-feet long), and expensive ($1,600, or about $12,000 today), the Project G featured a rosewood cabinet mounted on a metal base, and, at either end, cantilevered black aluminum "sound globes" (a.k.a. speakers). The Project G introduced the now-standard modular approach to consumer audio that offered a dramatic departure from boxy cabinet design popular until that time (and which Clairtone also manufactured). The Project G won a silver medal at the 1964
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and is now widely considered a design icon. Clairtone earned a reputation for combining modern designs with high-quality materials, and marketing them well. It opened its first international sales office in New York in 1960 and convinced
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
and
Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso who is considered to be one of the greatest Jazz piano, jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordin ...
, among others luminaries, to endorse Clairtone's sound systems. "Listen to Sinatra on Clairtone stereo. Sinatra does," was one of the company's memorable tag lines. The Project G system was featured in the films ''
Marriage on the Rocks ''Marriage on the Rocks'' is a 1965 comedy film starring Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, and Dean Martin about a businessman's wife who ends up divorced by mistake and then married to his best friend by an even bigger mistake. The film was written b ...
'' and ''
The Graduate ''The Graduate'' is a 1967 American independent romantic comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb. It stars Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddoc ...
'', marking an early example of
product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of t ...
, and Clairtone hired the fashion photographer
Irving Penn Irving Penn (June 16, 1917October 7, 2009) was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'' magazine, and independent advertising work for clie ...
to photograph the hi-fi for its promotional booklets and brochures. The Project G came to epitomize the ethos of the Swinging Sixties when
Hugh Hefner Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles. Hefner extended the ''Playboy ...
bought one for the Playboy Mansion. In 1963, Clairtone began traded publicly on the
Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...
. At its peak, demand for Clairtone's stereos in Canada and the U.S. was so great that for a time the company's factory stayed open around the clock. But even as sales soared and it was winning awards for its innovative designs, Clairtone was facing insurmountable financial troubles. In 1963, it earned a profit of $300,000 on sales of $10 million, and profits decreased the following year as marketing costs rose higher than sales. Early investor Frank Sobey, who had been mayor of Stellarton, Nova Scotia from 1937 to 1959 and was then president of Industrial Estates Limited (IEL), helped the company obtain financial support from the
Government of Nova Scotia The Government of Nova Scotia (, ) is the government of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The powers and structure of the province are set out in the Constitution Act, 1867. In modern Canadian use, the term ...
to open an electronics manufacturing plant in
Stellarton Stellarton is a town in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is adjacent and to the south of the larger town of New Glasgow. In pioneer times the area was called Coal Mines Station, and from 1833 until 1889, it was known as Albion Mines. The ...
. The company decided to switch production to
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
s at this time and was fully operational in Stellarton by the summer of 1966. There were close to 1,000 employees at the time. Clairtone launched its new G-TV television set with its usual flair, hiring the cinematographer
Fritz Spiess Fritz Spiess (2 February 1925 – 12 March 1998 in Germany) was a Canadian cinematographer. Biography Spiess studied photography in Germany and immigrated to Canada in 1951. Spiess initially worked as a still photographer until 1954 and the ...
to direct a TV advertisement that starred Peter Munk and David Gilmour driving a 1936 Pierce-Arrow convertible across the Brooklyn Bridge—with a Clairtone TV set in the back seat (the ad, titled "New York," can be found on YouTube today). But Clairtone's entry into the color television market was ill-timed (the market would not take off for another five years; see
History of Television The concept of television is the work of many individuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Constantin Perskyi had coined the word ''television'' in a paper read to the International Electricity Congress at the Exposition Universelle ...
). Sales were exceedingly poor, with annual losses in 1967 of more than $6 million, and the business began to spiral out of control. In October, 1967, Industrial Estates Limited, an economic development agency of the Government of Nova Scotia, took over control of the company from Peter Munk and David Gilmour. Sales continued to decline and the share price plunged from more than $15 in 1967 to a few cents by 1970. A confidential study commissioned by Clairtone in 1967 found that the failure of the plant was in part due to the local workforce: "The general population is basically not geared to the manufacturing frenzy and especially the five-day workweek... The welfare situation is such that it has created conditions similar to Appalachia in the United States where the third generation is already on relief." But, as reported by Peter Munk's daughter, the financial journalist
Nina Munk Nina Munk (born 1967) is a Canadian-American journalist and non-fiction author. She is the author or co-author of four books, including ''The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty'' and ''Fools Rush In: Jerry Levin, Steve Case, and t ...
, in her 2008 book about Clairtone (''The Art of Clairtone: The Making of a Design Icon, 1958-1971''), the labour force in Stellarton was only one of many problems: "Nothing went smoothly, from all accounts. Cost controls were 'nonexistent,' according to the commissioned study. Roads leading to the factory were so bad that Clairtone's stereos and TVs were often damaged en route. Getting parts for the stereos, a task that at the old plant in Rexdale, Ontario, could be organized in a single day, took several weeks. As for the manufacturing process itself, Clairtone's inexperienced management team was over its head, and sinking: inventory went missing; unidentified parts accumulated on the factory floor; the assembly line seldom if ever ran at full speed or full capacity." By March 1970, Clairtone was sold to the Government of Nova Scotia and came under new management. At this time it began to offer cheaper products including the world's smallest transistor radio, the "Mini Hi-Fi". The company hemorrhaged money to the amount of $19 million that year, losses that were absorbed by the province. Clairtone's stock was de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1971, and the company finally closed in 1972. The assets were sold but the company was not officially dissolved until 1979. Over the period of its investment the
Government of Nova Scotia The Government of Nova Scotia (, ) is the government of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The powers and structure of the province are set out in the Constitution Act, 1867. In modern Canadian use, the term ...
lost approximately $25 million, considerably more in today's money.


Notes

{{Reflist


Further reading

* Roy E. George, ''The Life and Times of Industrial Estates Limited'', Halifax: Henson College, Dalhousie University, 1974. (IEL was the company crown agency that attracted Clairtone to Nova Scotia and later took over the company.) * Garth Hopkins, ''Clairtone: The Rise and Fall of a Business Empire'', Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1978. * Nina Munk and Rachel Gotlieb, ''The Art of Clairtone: The Making of a Design Icon, 1958-1971,'' McClelland & Stewart, May 2008

*The Clairtone Sound Corporation Fonds is an extensive archive of photographs, technical drawings and graphical material deposited by Clairtone at Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, Halifax, Nova Scotia. *There is also a small archive of Clairtone ephemera (catalogues and brochures) as well as a G2 console at the Design Exchange (DX) Resource Centre in Toronto.


External links

* Clairtone Sound Corporation
Fonds In archival science, a fonds (plural also ''fonds'') is a group of documents that share the same origin and have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be ...
a
Nova Scotia Archives

Clairtone Catalogue on Flickr

1967 TV commercial, starring Clairtone's founders, Peter Munk and David Gilmour, with footage from the factory in Stellarton, NS. YouTube.

"New York"—1967 TV commercial for Clairtone's G-TV, shot in New York City
by Frank Spiess and was produced by
Young & Rubicam VMLY&R was an American marketing and Marketing communications, communications company specializing in advertising, Digital media, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the 2020 mer ...
. * Clairtone Collection
Clairtone Collection
Website created by Daniel Leblanc and DC Hillier showcasing their extensive Clairtone collection. * YouTube
2008 CBC News Feature
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news feature about Clairtone. Companies based in Nova Scotia Consumer electronics Defunct manufacturing companies of Canada Furniture companies of Canada Audio equipment manufacturers of Canada Pictou County Electronics companies established in 1958 1958 establishments in Ontario Electronics companies disestablished in 1979 1979 disestablishments in Ontario Canadian companies disestablished in 1979 Canadian companies established in 1958