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((short description|Canadian audiovisual equipment manufacturer))((More citations needed|date=January 2024))[[Image:ClairtoneLogo.jpg|thumb|Clairtone logo.]]'''Clairtone Sound Corporation Limited ''' was a manufacturer of high-quality sound electronics and accessories based in [[Toronto|Toronto, Ontario]], [[Canada]]. Founded in 1958 by the Hungarian-born entrepreneur and electronics engineer [[Peter Munk]] with furniture designer [[David Gilmour (businessman)|David Gilmour]], the company established an international reputation for stereo and cabinetry design in the 1960s. It had failed little more than a decade later, but in its heyday it made a notable contribution to the field of [[consumer electronics]].

== 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 (brand)|Dual]] 1004 turntable, a Granco tube chassis, and speakers obscured by cream-colored broadcloth from [[Knoll (company)|Knoll]]. 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<ref>Civilization.ca: [http://www.civilization.ca/media/docs/fs60s02e.html Cool '60s Design: Canadian design to remember]</ref> 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 [[Milan Triannale]] 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]] and [[Oscar Peterson]], 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.<ref>((Cite web|title = My Father's Brilliant Mistake - Nina Munk|url = http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|website = www.ninamunk.com|accessdate = 2015-11-03|archive-date = 2015-01-26|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150126181727/http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|url-status = dead))</ref> The Project G system was featured in the films ''[[Marriage on the Rocks]]'' and ''[[The Graduate]]'', marking an early example of [[product placement]], and Clairtone hired the fashion photographer [[Irving Penn]] 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]] bought one for the Playboy Mansion.<ref>Book Review: [http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2001-12-06/book_reviews8.html "Design In Canada Since 1945: Fifty Years From Teakettles To Task Chairs"] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060626111356/http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2001-12-06/book_reviews8.html# |date=2006-06-26 )), Deirdre Hanna in ''Now Toronto Online Edition'', December 2001.</ref>((Deadlink|date=January 2024))

In 1963, Clairtone began traded publicly on the [[Toronto Stock Exchange]]. 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.<ref>((Cite web|title = My Father's Brilliant Mistake: An excerpt from ''The Art of Clairtone: The Making of a Design Icon, 1958-1971''|url = http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|website = www.ninamunk.com|accessdate = 2015-11-03|archive-date = 2015-01-26|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150126181727/http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|url-status = dead))</ref> 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.<ref>Hopkins</ref>

Early investor [[Frank H. Sobey|Frank Sobey]], who had been mayor of Stellarton, Nova Scotia from 1937 to 1959<ref>((Cite web|title = Town to dedicate bust of Frank Sobey|url = http://www.pictouadvocate.com/2014/05/28/town-to-dedicate-bust-of-frank-sobey/|accessdate = 2015-11-03|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052901/http://www.pictouadvocate.com/2014/05/28/town-to-dedicate-bust-of-frank-sobey/|archive-date = 2016-03-04|url-status = dead))</ref> and was then president of [[Industrial Estates Limited]] (IEL), helped the company obtain financial support from the [[Government of Nova Scotia]] to open an electronics manufacturing plant in [[Stellarton, Nova Scotia|Stellarton]]. The company decided to switch production to [[television]]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]] 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 colour television market was ill-timed (the market would not take off for another five years; see [[History of Television#Color television in North America|History of Television]]). 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.<ref>Roy George</ref>

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."<ref>((Cite web|title = My Father's Brilliant Mistake - Nina Munk|url = http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|website = www.ninamunk.com|accessdate = 2015-11-03|archive-date = 2015-01-26|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150126181727/http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|url-status = dead))</ref> But, as reported by Peter Munk's daughter, the financial journalist [[Nina Munk]], 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."<ref>((Cite web|title = My Father's Brilliant Mistake: An excerpt from ''The Art of Clairtone: The Making of a Design Icon, 1958-1971''|url = http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|website = www.ninamunk.com|accessdate = 2016-01-11|archive-date = 2015-01-26|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150126181727/http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|url-status = dead))</ref>

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".<ref>Transistor.org: [http://www.transistor.org/collection/clairtone/clairtone1.html Clairtone "Mini Hi-Fi"] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060502041429/http://www.transistor.org/collection/clairtone/clairtone1.html# |date=2006-05-02 )) by Sarah Lowrey, 2001</ref>((Deadlink|date=January 2024))<ref>((Cite web |title=WJOE Online Museum, We offer restoration parts! CAPCITORS DIAL LAMPS RESISTORS |url=http://www.wjoe.com/page14.htm |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=www.wjoe.com))</ref><ref>((Cite web |title=History of the manufacturer  Clairtone Sound Corporation Limited; Toronto |url=https://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_hersteller_detail.cfm?company_id=9898 |website=Radio Museum))</ref> 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.<ref>((Cite web|title = My Father's Brilliant Mistake: An excerpt from ''The Art of Clairtone: The Making of a Design Icon, 1958-1971''|url = http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|website = www.ninamunk.com|accessdate = 2016-01-11|archive-date = 2015-01-26|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150126181727/http://www.ninamunk.com/ClairtoneLesson.php|url-status = dead))</ref> The assets were sold but the company was not officially dissolved until 1979. Over the period of its investment the [[Government of Nova Scotia]] lost approximately $25 million, considerably more in today's money.<ref>((Cite web|title = N.S. author accounts rise and fall of stereo giant Clairtone in Stellarton - Local - The News|url = http://www.ngnews.ca/News/Local/2014-02-27/article-3629673/N.S.-author-accounts-rise-and-fall-of-stereo-giant-Clairtone-in-Stellarton/1|website = www.ngnews.ca|accessdate = 2015-11-03))</ref>
[[File:Clairtone mini hifi.jpg|thumb|Clairtone Mini Hifi from 1970; it is a copy of the [[Sinclair Radionics|Sinclair Micromatic]].]]

==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. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0771065078]
*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]] at [https://memoryns.ca/clairtone-sound-corporation-fonds Nova Scotia Archives]
* [https://archive.today/20130123050322/http://www-us.flickr.com/photos/cote/tags/stero/ Clairtone Catalogue on Flickr]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwPvSQCHYh4 1967 TV commercial, starring Clairtone's founders, Peter Munk and David Gilmour, with footage from the factory in Stellarton, NS. YouTube.] 
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7wiQlAt_9Q "New York"—1967 TV commercial for Clairtone's G-TV, shot in New York City] by [[Frank Spiess]] and was produced by [[Young & Rubicam]].
* Clairtone Collection: [http://www.clairtone.ca Clairtone Collection] Website created by Daniel Leblanc and DC Hillier showcasing their extensive Clairtone collection.
* YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfTJ4uKbzUo 2008 CBC News Feature] Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news feature about Clairtone.

[[Category:Companies based in Nova Scotia]]
[[Category:Consumer electronics]]
[[Category:Defunct manufacturing companies of Canada]]
[[Category:Furniture companies of Canada]]
[[Category:Audio equipment manufacturers of Canada]]
[[Category:Pictou County]]
[[Category:Electronics companies established in 1958]]
[[Category:1958 establishments in Ontario]]
[[Category:Electronics companies disestablished in 1979]]
[[Category:1979 disestablishments in Ontario]]
[[Category:Canadian companies disestablished in 1979]]
[[Category:Canadian companies established in 1958]]

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