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| Design sketch of the Clairtone Train from The Art of Clairtone |
Programming Note: Hiatus resumes.
The hiatus is no longer on hiatus. Canoes to paddle. Bikes to ride. Lakes to swim. Paths to walk. Trains to see. And a stack of books to read. Especially this one I recently picked up: The Art of Clairtone: The Making of a Design Icon 1958 - 1971, written by Nina Munk and Rachel Gotlieb, published in 2008. Clairtone was the originator and manufacturer of the legendary Project G hi-fi as well as a long line of audio and tv products. Among the fascinating things I’m learning was that sometime in either the late ‘60s or 1970 Clairtone had:
“A model showroom on rails, the Clairtone Train travelled right across Canada, bringing the company’s line of products to dealers in small towns. As a sales technique, the Clairtone Train was innovative. “It was about creating a ‘total experience’ for the buyers”, said Eleanor Brydone, then a staff designer with A. D. Pollard & Assoc., the firm that designed the showroom.”
I recommend this book for the photos alone, but I’ve got the summer to find out the whole story.
Later.
Stay cool.
Just imagine a Clairtone console with a (large scale?) model of the Clairtone Train (guessing it was just one car?) displayed on top and a poster of the image you've shared on the wall behind. Sounds like a rewarding project for a hi-fi and railroad aficionado. Always neat when railroads and non-railroad industries or interests collaborate.
ReplyDeleteOkay, well, spooky, because it sounds like you're reading my mind. I need to go find my tinfoil hat :-) I had some ideas about micro-layouts for the coffee table that were very mid-century modern in nature, sort of inspired by Bill Baron's ideas and audio equipment that could be bought at Radio Shack in the '70s - adding a new meaning to the brand name 'Realistic'. I hadn't thought of an explicitly Clairtone reference, but that's a great idea !
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