DICTATORS

Grimes Radio Corporation and Dominion Electrohome Industries Limited (DEIL) made these DICTATOR radios. The metal cased Neutrodyne likely was a Wells-Gardner (of Chicago) design made circa 1928 in Kitchener Ontario by Grimes for Hudson's Bay.

DICTATORS - A History
by Don Tutt
c 2007-2008 as published in the Oklahoma Vintage Radio Collectors June2007 Newsletter. (google OKVRC)

Collecting and restoring tube radios is a quest for knowledge and one road to discovery started with an autumn drive in British Columbia, from Chilliwack to Fort St. John. Little did I know a Hudson's Bay "DICTATOR" floor radio (12SA7, 12SK7, 12SQ7, 35Z5, 50L6) was waiting for me, at Dorothy's Antiques, near Hixon, north of Quesnel. On our way home from "Fort" we stopped at Dorothy's and I cast my eyes on the DICTATOR for the first time. I loved the look of the radio and enjoyed the double entendre of its name. At $100.00, we left Dorothy's without it. I do however, have the "bug" and admit fussing that radio all winter. In early spring 2001, I couldn't stand it, called Dorothy and yes, the DICTATOR was still there. "Sold!", I said, and we made a special trip to pick it up. For a year I thought this was a special, somewhat rare radio. In March 2002 we were again doing the Fort trip and stopped for lunch in Quesnel and toured Jan's Findings, a local antique store. I soon spotted something "radio-like" under a long table and got down on my knees to look......... Astonishing!....... Another "DICTATOR." The special joy that overcomes a radio collector with the "bug" filled my heart as I tenderly turned this tombstone DICTATOR (6A7, 6B7, 6D6, 6D6, 42, 80) around to learn that it was made by Grimes Radio Corporation. We left with it.

In January 2007 Don found another H.B.C. "DICTATOR" at Capitol Iron in Victoria. This neutrodyne set (26, 26, 26, 27, 35, 45, 80) was in a metal case similar to an Atwater-Kent 33. Apart from the H.B.C. crest on the lid there was no manufacturer's plate so I stood no chance of getting a schematic.

This spring (2007) a friend called to say he would like me to have their old, family radio. It needed plenty of TLC and, "Would I take it in and give it a good home?" Well, yes. I arrived in early evening darkness to find a full sized floor radio sitting on the dimly lit front porch. From the accompanying paperwork the radio appeared to be a Westinghouse. I got it home and found its ID plate read Grimes Radio Corporation model 465. I went into the office to check records and compare the model number of the smaller tombstone Grimes. Amazingly it was also a 465. My heart quickened as I strode back to the shop to turn the big radio around and check the dial plate.... and there it was... "DICTATOR". Inside were these tubes... (6A7, 6B7, 6D6, 6D6, 42, 80). How could this be?

As it turns out A. B. Pollock and his employees were responsible for these radios. Back in 1907 he and his partner Alex Welker began the manufacture of Phonola hornless phonographs "Made by Arthur B. Pollock". In 1908 the two entrepreneurs incorporated The Pollock Manufacturing Company in Berlin, Ontario. Berlin was later renamed Kitchener. A.B.'s enterprise developed and expanded with the town. He and Alex financed further phonograph research by moving their metal products staff into the manufacture of nickel-plated brass towel bars, tooth brush and tumbler holders, soap dishes and toilet paper holders. This set the strategy early for using in-house expertise or capacity to exploit opportunities in related fields.

By 1914 the Pollock company was making seven kinds of phonographs in their Phonola line. Four table top models and three large cabinet models. During the war Pollock Manufacturing made exploders for shells, fuses, base plugs, adaptors for shells and motorcycle lamps. In 1917 a cabinet and furniture plant was in production. In 1918 The Phonola Company was established to market pressed records made from Otto Heineman's masters, by Herbert Berliner's COMPO Company in Lachine Quebec.

In 1919, General Phonograph Corp of New York (formerly Otto Heineman's Phonograph Supply Co. Inc. bought Pollock's Kitchener phonograph factory leaving A.B. as manager. So it was that A.B. Pollock and Alex Welker's friend Otto Heineman joined forces thus allowing Pollock and Welker to exploit the growing phonograph record market.

Between 1918 and 1932 the business moved into radio production. About 1923, Heineman introduced A.B. to David Grimes, a young engineer who had invented the Grimes Inverse Duplex, "a four tube radio that used two tubes twice." Grimes licensed Pollock to manufacture his radio in Canada and the Grimes Radio Corporation was set up to do so. By 1925, through some business maneuvering, A.B. and his original partner Alex Welker were running three manufacturing concerns: The Phonola Company in Elmira (where all the cabinets for the Phonolas and the Grimes radios were made), the Grimes Radio Corporation and Pollock-Welker Limited in Kitchener.

Wells-Gardner of Chicago was making AC powered radios and struck a deal with Grimes Radio Corporation. Grimes paid Wells-Gardiner a fee to manufacture the patented Wells-Gardner radios in Kitchener. During the roaring twenties, J.C. Penney and Montgomery-Ward in the USA were supplied with Wells-Gardner radios and in Canada, using the Wells-Gardner designs, Grimes made "in house" radios for Eaton's, Simpson's and Hudson's Bay. With this information the mystery of who made the metal cased H.B.C. Dictator becomes clear. A patent label on the radio cites patents as late as 1928 so it is quite likely the metal cased Neutrodyne radio is a Wells-Gardner design, made by Grimes Radio Corp in the late 1920's (using its in-house metal fabrication shop), for sale in Hudson's Bay Stores in Canada.

The depression in the early 30's almost collapsed the Pollock and Welker enterprise. FDR's New Deal gradually fueled the economy. People began buying home goods and radios. A.B.'s son, Carl A. Pollock rolled the three companies into one new one, Dominion Electrohome Industries Limited (DEIL) in April 1933. About 1936, the Elmira woodworking plant was moved to Kitchener where along with phonograph and radio cabinetry they began making other furniture under the name DEILCRAFT. By 1947 the "Electrohome" operation celebrated its 40th anniversary and DEILCRAFT was a leading name in Canadian furniture. In subsequent years DEIL under the leadership of succeeding generations of Pollocks made several transformations, sell-offs and joint ventures, all too detailed to chronicle here. Suffice it to say my discovery of four examples of their early craftsmanship raised my curiosity as to their origin. As a restorer I only lament the apparent loss of much of the knob moulds and other production aides that, had they been preserved for restorers, would have served a noble purpose in helping us maintain these works of art. (researched from "Visionary Thinking: The Story of Canada's Electrohome" by Raymond Stanton ISBN: 0-9681575-0-5)

Subsequent to writing the above article, a fifth Hudson's Bay Co. DICTATOR radio came into Don's collection. It is the D1-4526Z, a beautiful table model he found at Al's New To You store in Chilliwack.