Peerless Phonograph - Canadian Antique Phonograph Project

In the Summer 2018 issue of Antique Phonograph News, Bill Pratt told the story of the Bell Piano and Music Warerooms, 146 Yonge St., Toronto, owned and operated by the Bell Organ and Piano Co., Limited, Guelph, Ontario. Bell was a major dealer in Victor talking machines manufactured by the Berliner Gram-O-Phone Company Ltd., Montreal. Late in the 1920s, Bell manufactured and sold its own phonograph labelled Bell Euphonic (see Bell page).

In February, 1910, Harry E. Wimperly joined the Bell company and became the manager of its store on Yonge Street. When this store closed on December 24, 1915, Wimperly moved to the New Ryrie Building, 229 Yonge Street, 4th floor, room 420 and advertised this location in April 1916 as "the new home of the Bell piano". For the next five years he ran small classified ads for Bell pianos and used phonographs in the Toronto Daily Star and Globe newspapers.

However, what was not known at the time the Bell article was written was that Wimperly was actually devoting his energy to another phonograph project. The November, 1918, issue of Canadian Music Trades Journal introduces "The Peerless phonograph, manufactured by the Harry E. Wimperly Co., Ryrie Bldg., Toronto." In January, 1919, a display ad in CMTJ reflects that "The Peerless Phonograph entered the talking machine field without any display of advertising, and on merit alone proved its claim to rank as second to none."

Talking Machine World, September 15, 1919, p. 161: "The latest enterprise of the H. E. Wimperly Co., Toronto, manufacturers of the Peerless line of phonographs, is the acquisition of a cabinet factory. Mr. Wimperly, head of this firm, like other phonograph manufacturers, has had reason to appreciate the difficulty of procuring a sufficient supply of cabinets. To over-come this and to ensure cabinets when required and of the correct design and quality he recently purchased a local woodworking plant adapted to the production of the class of goods his trade demands."