Talking Machine World, March 15, 1916, p. 11: "The Toy Products Co. of Canada, Toronto, has placed on the market a child's talking machine, made in Canada."
Talking Machine World, July 15, 1916, p. 104: "The Toy Products Co. of Canada, 49 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ont., manufacture the Little Wonder talking machine, which is a real novelty, and ought to command an enormous sale. It is a sure-enough talking machine that will reproduce musical records, and the price is ridiculously low - $1."
The "made in Canada" Toy Products Little Wonder talking machine was advertised and sold by the T. Eaton Company department store for several months in 1916. This Eaton's Little Wonder is not related to the earlier Little Wonder talking machine which was manufactured by the Boston Talking Machine Company between 1911 and 1913. The Boston Little Wonder was renamed Wondrola in 1913. In November 1915 a new company named the Wonder Talking Machine Company, New York, purchased the assets of the Boston Talking Machine Company and introduced a new line of inexpensive talking machines called the Wonderphone. Eaton's imported, advertised and sold the Wonderphone in its store alongside the cheaper Little Wonder talking machine.
Neither the Canadian Little Wonder talking machine nor the American Wonderphone is related to Little Wonder records, a Columbia label, which was introduced about 1914, although the records were advertised as a good match with either machine.
Toronto Daily Star, February 25, 1916, p. 21. An advertisement by the T. Eaton Company, Toronto, for the made in Canada Little Wonder talking machine along with a picture of the machine from Eaton's Fall-Winter 1915-1916 catalogue, p. 258.
Toronto Daily Star, March 11, 1916, p. 3. Apparently a German-American firm in New York wrote to the Toy Products company in Toronto with a request to sell the Canadian Little Wonder talking machine by mail order in the States. Toy Products turned them down: "we do not care to do business with any firm that is connected with Germany and handles German-made goods." The U.S. firm responded: "I expected no other reply from your stripe and in future will avoid doing business with any British, Canuck or of the wild tribes controlled by England." Toy Products was quite satisfied with the boycott.
Toronto Daily Star, December 15, 1915, p. 16. The Wonderphone No. 1.
