Telotone  im Archiv von Jukebox-World

Telotone Musicale (1946)

Copyright

Communication Equipment and Engineering Co., Chicago

Picture by courtesy of Pat; information by Gert Almind:

An interesting type of music library system invented and manufactured in Washington was the Telo-Music invented by Audry R. Kinney in Mount Vernon. Audry R. Kinney was a very able inventor, and around 1939/40, when he was in his prime, he developed both central units for bars and cafés and remote controls for telephone line music. These inventions including a complete 10-turntable central operator's unit are believed to be the forerunners, or maybe in fact the basis, of the Rock-Ola Mystic Music 3701 Master and 3708 Super phonographs with up to 250 selections introduced in 1940/41 connected also in some cases with the Mystic-Music 3801 booth or bar boxes. It seems that the Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation bought most rights to patents for the system known today as the Mystic Music, most probably also the patents filed by Audry R. Kinney in Mount Vernon, Washington.
Other important competitors on the market were Personal Music Corporation of Newark, New Jersey, and Telo-Tune (Communication Equipment and Engineering Company) in Chicago, Illinois, which should not be confused with Telo-Music and the inventor Audry R. Kinney mentioned above. Personal Music Corporation entered the market in 1940, but was inactive for a few years during the war until it started up again in May, 1945, with new equipment and control units called Phonette Melody Lane. The Telo-Tune company in Chicago was active at the end of the war, and the firm mainly used control units named Teletone Musicale designed by George Phelps. George Phelps' design for the Teletone Musicale was filed for patent on the 15th march, 1946. Several small, local companies also tried to get a foothold on the market, but none of them were successful, and very few are even remembered today by name.

Ein Service von