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“Ye Olde Firme” Heintzman & Company, Ltd., 1885–1930:
A Case Study in Canadian Piano Manufacturing
by
James Andrew Ross
© James Andrew Ross, 1994
ABSTRACT
This study is a contribution to the growing literature on late-nineteenth and early-
twentieth century Canadian consumer durables industries. Chapter one provides historical
context with a brief history and description of the characteristics of the Canadian piano
manufacturing industry from its genesis until 1930. The high historical profile of
Heintzman & Company made it an ideal candidate for a microstudy of the response of the
piano industry to the consumer society that emerged in Canada during the period.
Chapters two to four investigate the strategies used by Heintzman & Company to exploit
the piano market from 1885 to 1930. Theodore Heintzman, the founder of the company,
created a superior musical instrument through an emphasis on technical innovation and
thorough craftsmanship. Under the direction of his son George, Heintzman & Company
followed a policy of extensive marketing and efficient manufacturing to maximize the
company's share of the piano market. Expansion into the Ontario hinterland and Canadian
West created the need for a hybrid distribution system combining dealers, travelling
salesmen and company-owned retail stores. The latter allowed the company to broaden
its product range beyond pianos to include radios, phonographs, and other "small goods".
In the twentieth century, this product variety and retail emphasis, in combination with
stable family management allowed Heintzman & Co. to define and maintain a significant
share of the Canadian piano market as well as establish its brand name as an icon of
Canada's musical and business heritage.
i
DEDICATION
To my parents
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like first of all to thank Professor J.J.B. Forster of the University of
Western Ontario Department of History for his constant direction and positive criticism
throughout. Thanks also go to Professor Roger Hall of U.W.O., who read a portion of the
manuscript and provided useful commentary. Since the research for this thesis depended
very much on primary sources, I am profoundly indebted to the many archivists and
librarians who made their collections more accessible. I would like to thank foremost
Florence Hayes and the rest of the helpful staff of the National Library of Canada Music
Section and the National Archives of Canada. Karen Bergsteinsson and Leon Warmsky
smoothed over difficulties at the Archives of Ontario while John Leverton was a constant
help at the University of Western Ontario Library's Regional Collection, as were his
fellow staff members. Gratitude also goes to the staff of the Metropolitan Toronto
Reference Library's Baldwin Room, as well as the staffs of the City of Toronto and
Queen's University Archives. Thanks also goes to Adrian Willsher, Shona Schneider, Dr.
Kris Inwood, and Wayne Kelly for providing useful information, as well as Margaret and
Brian Childs and my parents for providing hospitable accommodation on my research
travels. I am also grateful to the University of Western Ontario Department of History for
providing me with a teaching assistantship and scholarship support during my time at
Western. Finally I would like to thank Bill Heintzman for putting a human face on the
history of his family's company.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT i
DEDICATION ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
LIST OF APPENDICES v
ABBREVIATIONS vi
CHAPTER ONE
A Short History of the Canadian Piano Industry 1
CHAPTER TWO
The Origins of a Canadian Piano Manufacturer: "Ye Olde Firme" 20
CHAPTER THREE
Marketing and Retailing a Household Name 39
CHAPTER FOUR
Selling a Luxury as a Necessity 57
APPENDICES 69
BIBLIOGRAPHY 75
iv
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
Heintzman Family Involvement and Milestones of Heintzman & Co.
APPENDIX B
Estimated Heintzman Piano Production, 1871–1939
APPENDIX C
Estimated Canadian Piano Production, Various Years
APPENDIX D
Canadian Piano Exports and Imports, 1884–1924
v
vi
ABBREVIATIONS
AO Archives of Ontario
CBAM Canadian Bureau for the Advancement of Music
CM Canadian Manufacturer
CMTJ Canadian Music and Trades Journal
CPOMA Canadian Piano and Organ Manufacturers' Association
EMC Encyclopedia of Music in Canada
HCR Heintzman Company Records
NLC National Library of Canada
RGDM R.G. Dun & Company Manuscript
RHAH Revue d'histoire de l'amérique française
TAHP Theodore August Heintzman Papers
WTR West Toronto Records, City of Toronto Archives
CHAPTER ONE
A Short History of the Canadian Piano Industry
In Canada perhaps more than in any other country it is an
acknowledged fact that no home is complete without a piano. That is
because the piano is not only an instrument of culture, but as well an
artistic piece of furniture. One sometimes wonders why Canadians are so
pre-eminently a musical people. It is not a result simply of accident, nor is
it because of a musical instinct. It is due largely to the fact that in Canada,
particularly in the City of Toronto, the manufacture of the piano has been
carried on with increasing vigour and sincerity ever since this greatest of
all modern musical instruments became an important factor in musical
development the world over. One could scarcely speak of music as being
indigenous to the soil, and yet so successful and extensive has been the
manufacture of pianos in Canada that one can point to no Canadian
product sold abroad, except something that is indigenous to the soil, like
grain, livestock or their by-products, that can compare with the Canadian
piano.
——— Randolph Carlyle, “The Ideal Home of the Piano,”
The Canadian Magazine (January 1912).
One would be hard pressed to find a similar description of a Canadian industry
that could match the above in eloquence, unless one included paeans to the fur trade, the
lumber industry, or the CPR. Like those, the above tribute contains both hyperbole and
parochialism, but it also exemplifies the mood and atmosphere of the Canadian piano
manufacturing industry, which was at its peak when this comment was written in 1912.
The piano became a prestigious item of Canadian middle-class conspicuous consumption
in the late-nineteenth century. It was a luxury consumer durable desired by a broadening
segment of society, which, by virtue of newfound affluence, was quickly acquiring both a
passion for consumption and the ability to consume on a massive scale that
revolutionized the character of the European and North American economies.1 It was the
1 The study of the Canadian middle class awaits its definitive history. The literature on the seminal British
middle class is fairly broad. The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth
Century England by Neil McKendrick, John Brewer and J.H. Plumb (London: Europa Publications Limited,
1982) highlights the precedents and persistent themes that characterized western middle class consumerism.
2
American sister of this society that prompted Thorstein Veblen’s landmark description of
a widely affluent and largely urban class prone to the conspicuous and sometimes fickle
display of leisure and consumption in The Theory of the Leisure Class.2 As Veblen
elaborated, the acquisition and possession of goods took on meaning far beyond the
practical: a product’s cultural resonance superseded its economic value. The rest of
Randolph Carlyle’s tribute indicates that this attribute was clearly discerned with regard
to the piano:
But there is more in this than mere buying and selling; there is something
that denotes the cultural advancement of the people; and the piano
business, owing to the varied demands in keeping with the style and
character of the home or room that is to contain a piano, has become
extremely complicated.3
The piano was not only a musical but also a cultural necessity: a symbol of affluent
leisure as much as artistic accomplishment. Unlike another contemporary consumer item,
the sewing machine, the piano’s practical aspect was subordinated to the symbolic; it was
an object of Victorian social refinement rather than of vulgar labour. It epitomized the
values of the Canadian middle class in the Victorian age: an emphasis on the work ethic,
a recognition of the moral value of music, and an underscoring of the importance of the
domestic sphere.4 The twentieth century saw an emphasis on the piano’s role as a symbol
of affluence and the good life, a necessity which every middle-class home should
possess.
Unsurprisingly, the growth of a consumer class in the late-nineteenth century was
concurrent with an industrial revolution in Ontario, the economic heart of the Dominion.
Socially ambitious farmers and growing urban classes were forming a broadening
W. Hamish Fraser describes the changing patterns of British consumption in The Coming of the Mass
Market, 1850–1914 (London: Macmillan, 1981), while a good social history detailing the products and
behaviour that came to characterize twentieth-century British middle-class consumerism is Alan A.
Jackson’s The Middle Classes, 1900–1950 (Nairn, Scotland: David St. John Thomas Publisher, 1991).
Michael B. Miller’s The Bon Marche: Bourgeois Culture and the Department Store, 1869–1920 (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1981) highlights the reaction of French product distribution and marketing
systems to consumerism—causing a virtual revolution in retailing.
2 Paperback edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1979. Originally published in 1899.
3 Carlyle, “The Ideal Home of the Piano.”
4 The best argument detailing the cultural meaning of the piano in the Victorian value system is Craig
Roell’s The Piano in America, 1890–1940 (London and Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1989), especially chapter one. Another classic work is one that betrays the social importance of the piano in
its title, Arthur Loesser's Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History (New York: Simon and Schuster,
1954).
3
“middle class” that was defined by the acquisition of greater discretionary income—an
ability to consume that spurred economic growth in new industries. Consumer goods
industries in general were steady, and often exceptional, leaders of the ‘heroic age’ of
Ontario’s industrial economy, sustained by the variegating demands of a population
increasing in numbers and buying power.5 The many success stories among the leading
Ontario consumer industries have yet to be told.6 One of these stories is that of piano
manufacturing. Over the six decades from 1870 to 1930, Ontario piano manufacturers
established themselves as the primary Canadian producers and purveyors of a
sophisticated product of the consumer culture. To date, the story of the genesis, evolution
and consolidation of this industry in Canada has heretofore been only briefly related. As
yet there is no substantial chronicle of an industry that at its peak involved thirty
manufacturers producing over $15 million dollars’ worth of pianos a year, employing
over 5,000 craftsmen, and delivering products to the furthest reaches of the Dominion
and the rest of the globe: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, China and Turkey. This
study will relate the success story of the Ontario piano manufacturing industry through an
examination of the business operations of one of its foremost members, Heintzman &
Company of Toronto. In doing so, salient information regarding the characteristics of late
nineteenth-century Canadian consumer society and the industrial response thereto will be
uncovered.
i. Secondary Literature
The only significant publication addressing aspects of Canadian piano
manufacturing at any length is Wayne Kelly’s paperback, Downright Upright: A History
of the Canadian Piano Industry which, though geared towards a popular audience, is
useful as a reference work for its short descriptions of every major Canadian piano and
5 Ian Drummond, Progress Without Planning: The Economic History of Ontario from Confederation to the
Second World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1986), 107. The author dates Ontario's industrial
revolution from 1870 to 1914, and the 'heroic' period of most impressive transformation from 1890–1913.
6 Drummond notes that the shoe, clothing, cigar and cigarette-making, food-processing, printing, drug and
medicine, and brewing industries all await exploration of their roles in Ontario's industrialization. (Progress
Without Planning, 105, 128).
4
organ manufacturer.7 The only other sources on the subject are a research report on the
advertising methods of piano and organ manufacturers by Frances Roback, and a less
academic descriptive history of the Kingston piano industry by local piano tuner John
Hall.8 Both authors glean information from a variety of sources such as business
directories, census records, local histories, newspapers, popular and trade periodicals,
commercial summaries, biographical collections, exhibition accounts, and historical
county atlases, though not richer sources such as company records, photographs, and
patent, trademark and labour records. While Roback concedes the broad range of her
topic, straying as it does into the fields of historical and economic geography,
transportation history, economic and labour history, marketing and advertising, she could
not pursue these aspects at any length in her brief academic article. Her paper is most
useful for its analysis of piano advertising and the changing motives for buying among
consumers of the late-nineteenth century.9 Hall’s paper fills in subtle details of the
evolution of the trade from small craftsman’s shop to international exporting
manufacturers within one community over time, yet it too cannot help but be limited in
industrial scope.
It is beyond this thesis to entirely fill this gap in the literature and tell the
7 Toronto: Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc., 1991. The author has also made an attempt to refer to
minor industry players as well, which adds to the value of the book as a reference work.
A few textbooks and general surveys of the history of Canadian music address the topic of
keyboard instrument manufacture, but do so as an appendix to their cultural narratives, thus offering little
in the way of detailed industrial analysis for the historian of business or economic development. Helmut
Kallman's A History of Music in Canada 1534–1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960) is the
most detailed, offering almost 4 pages all told. The other of consequence is Clifford Ford's Canada's Music:
An Historical Survey (Agincourt, Ont.: GLC Publishers, 1982) a monograph that attempts to update
Kallman's book for the post-1914 period. His comments on piano manufacture are very brief and derived
almost entirely from Kallman.
The best source on the industry is the article “Piano building” contained in the Encyclopedia of
Music in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2nd. ed., 1992) edited by Helmut Kallman, et al.,
as well as several articles on individual manufacturers and associations. The EMC articles are mostly based
on the holdings of the National Library of Canada Music Division, of which Kallman was the longtime
director. The Library has the best collection of material on Canadian musical instruments.
The Canadian musical instrument industry was dominated by piano and organ manufacturers and
their suppliers. The R.S. Williams Company of Toronto and Oshawa was the only known large-scale
manufacturer of instruments other than those with keyboards.
8 Frances Roback, “Advertising Canadian Pianos and Organs, 1850–1914,” Material History Bulletin 20
(Fall 1984), 31–44. John Hall, “One Hundred Years of Piano Making in Kingston,” Historic Kingston 39
(January 1991), 36–51.
9 However, her assertion that “the demand for the keyboard instruments in Canada was long past its peak,
and on its downslide...” in 1908 only serves to highlight the serious lack of material on the industry’s
experience as a whole. (43)
5
complete story of the Canadian piano manufacturing industry. The absence of a full range
of sources supports a study of a specific business rather than of a whole industry. The
business operations of Heintzman & Company of Toronto lends itself well to a specific
study both for the high industrial profile it enjoyed during the heyday of the industry, and
for its archival profile.10 For now, given the early stage of research in this area, it is the
Heintzman company’s records that must provide the foundation for a description of the
experiences of the Canadian piano industry as a phenomenon of Canadian middle class
consumerism. However, using the available complement of sources on the Canadian
piano industry in particular, and with the help of a growing literature on the development
of late nineteenth-century Canadian manufacturing in general, it is possible to set out the
industrial, economic and historical contexts of the story of “Ye Olde Firme” Heintzman
& Company, Limited.11
ii. Immigrant Craftsmen and the Birth of an Industry
Pianos first arrived in Canada in the baggage of British officers and administrators
who preferred their keyboards to French Canadian fiddles and possessed the means to
import European or American instruments. As churches became established, they also
began to require instruments, usually small pipe organs. However, several problems with
instrument importation soon became apparent. First of all, it was soon apparent that the
harsh Canadian climate was too severe for European instruments.12 This meant that even
10 Various manuscript sources are extant which illustrate the business operations of Heintzman & Company.
Most are gathered in the Heintzman and Company Records held in the Archives of Ontario (hereafter
denoted as HCR). The Theodore August Heintzman Papers (S171) are also on deposit in the Metropolitan
Toronto Reference Library's Baldwin Room Manuscript Collection (hereafter TAHP). Other valuable
sources were manufacturing and music trade periodicals, city and business directories, municipal
assessment rolls and other records, as well as federal and provincial government Sessional papers and
reports.
11 As far as secondary material is concerned, Ian Drummond's Progress Without Planning: The Economic
History of Ontario from Confederation to the Second World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1986) is of importance. The general Canadian experience is addressed most recently by Michael Bliss'
Northern Enterprise (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1987) and R.T. Naylor's A History of Canadian
Business (Two volumes, Toronto: James Lorimer & Co., 1976), et. al.
The styling of Heintzman & Co. as “Ye Olde Firme” may have begun as early as the late 1890s,
and was in regular use by the time of incorporation in 1903.
12 These early pianos were made vulnerable by their lack of stabilizing metal frames and wood properly
seasoned for the Canadian climate, thus making them highly sensitive to humidity changes. See Hall, “One
Hundred Years...,” 36, for details as to early Canadian adaptation and invention of metal support frames.
6
if the instrument survived the rough and expensive transoceanic shipping, it might not
last long enough to justify the cost or risk of importation. Canada also had several
comparative advantages to imported instruments. High quality wood was abundant and
cheap, and in addition, steady immigration was bringing skilled German, English and
American craftsmen to the colony.13 With an increasing population and concurrent
increase in musical activities, the market for pianos grew steadily, attracting more and
more craftsmen to the trade.
Early Canadian piano making was above all a carriage trade. Francis Milligan, a
Quebec City maker who began in the business in 1826, moved on to Kingston when it
was declared the new capital in 1841, no doubt hoping to sell pianos to the administrative
elite of the city. A future piano man of prominence, Abraham Nordheimer, also arrived in
the new capital from New York City to become a music teacher for the children of
Governor-General Sir Charles Bagot.14 He set up shop as a dealer of high-grade imported
pianofortes and sheet music, featuring the foremost American brands Stodart and
Chickering, and the renowned British make Broadwood. To be successful, a piano
retailer required a clientele that could afford his expensive musical instruments. In
Canada, such sophisticated and wealthy customers were so concentrated that only a few
cities could support piano retailers, let alone manufacturers. The narrow, elite and urban
character of the Canadian market in this early period became clear when the capital was
moved from Kingston to Montreal in 1843: the governing group left Kingston and that
city’s piano market dried up. Kingston became saturated with used pianos auctioned by
the migrants; Milligan returned to Quebec City; Nordheimer shifted his dealership to
Toronto; and the devastated Kingston piano industry failed to even register in the Census
of 1851–52.15
Meanwhile other Canadian urban centres were becoming desirable homes for
organ and piano makers by the 1850s. Upper Canadian cities such as Hamilton and
Toronto were experiencing steady population growth, a prerequisite to the development
13 Kallman, A History of Music in Canada, 115. One German piano builder is on record as the first
Canadian maker. Quebec City craftsman Friedrich Hund began producing square pianos out of his small
workshop about 1816.
14 Hall, “One Hundred Years...,” 37.
15 The Census records four piano makers in Toronto (all of Upper Canada's total), three in Quebec City, and
ten in Montreal.
7
of consumer industries. Some numbers will help set the demographic context. Over the
census decades 1851–2 to 1871, Upper Canada’s population grew at double the rate of
Lower Canada’s: Upper Canada grew from 952,004 in 1851–2 to 1,396,091 in 1861 and
to 1,620,851 in 1871 (an aggregate 70%), while in the same period Lower Canada grew
by only 34%, from 890,261 in 1851–2 to 1,111,566 in 1861 and 1,191,516 in 1871.16 The
population shift manifested itself in the locations of the piano makers. The Census of
1860–1 listed thirty Upper Canadian piano makers to Lower Canada’s thirty-four. More
notably, while the Lower Canadian trade was concentrated in Montreal and Quebec City,
the Upper Canadian trade was spreading out among several cities and towns across the
province.17 By 1871 Upper Canada (now Ontario) had taken the entire piano
manufacturing trade firmly in hand, with 9 industrial establishments employing 116
hands (an average of 13 hands per establishment) compared to Quebec’s 7 firms
employing only 35 hands (5 hands per establishment).18 The new centre of large-scale
musical instrument manufacture, including both piano and the rapidly proliferating organ
manufacturers, was now Toronto, with five establishments employing 141 hands, or an
average of 28 hands per establishment.19 Ontario establishments also added more value
per employee. While average value added per employee per annum among Ontario piano
manufacturers was $457, Quebec’s manufacturers only achieved $210.20 Although
census numbers must be recognized to have a large margin of error, two general trends
are clear. The centre of piano and organ manufacture had shifted from Quebec to
Ontario—more specifically Montreal to Toronto—and Toronto manufacturers were
16 Statistics taken from Historical Statistics of Canada, second edition, Table A2–14.
17 Montreal had 26 piano makers and 2 factories, Quebec City 8 makers and no factories while Toronto had
13 piano makers and 1 factory, Hamilton 8 makers and 1 factory, the county of Ontario 7 makers and 1
factory, and 1 maker for each of the county of Wellington and the city of Kingston. Data derived from the
Census of 1871.
18 Census of Manufactures, 1871. The largest Canadian piano manufacturer was Weber & Co. of Kingston,
both by value of products produced ($56,250) and number of employees (50). Heintzman & Co. of Toronto
ranked second in both categories, with $40,000 worth of goods produced by 16 employees.
Compilation of musical instrument manufacturers data is courtesy Dr. Kris Inwood, Professor of
Economics at the University of Guelph.
19 ibid. Toronto accounted for almost 30% of the total value of the Canadian musical instrument trade.
20 ibid. Value added was calculated by multiplying the number of employees by $450 (an average skilled
workman's annual salary) and adding this amount to the sum value of raw material inputs, then subtracting
the whole amount from the total product value and dividing by the number of employees.
8
leading a move from small piano makers’ shops to industrial factories.21 The industria
response to a rising demand among the Canadian middle-class for pianos w
l
as well under
ay.
i. Factories and Tariffs
w
ii
y
ts,
iano
he
name a few.24 This expansion was paralleled by impressive growth in the reed organ
In the mid-1870s, a deep recession took hold of the Canadian economy, and man
Canadian manufacturing enterprises were seriously affected in its later stages.22 For the
piano manufacturing industry the decade was characterized by the shift of manufacturers
from craftsman shops in small population centres to urban factories with the capital and
labour resources necessary to penetrate new markets made accessible by railways and
profitable by declining freight rates.23 Most of the small shops in evidence in the 1871
Census of Manufactures disappeared by 1880, unable to adapt to changing market forces
that encouraged growth both in scale and market penetration. The smaller piano makers
were replaced during the decade by companies, situated by and large in the big marke
that possessed the wherewithal to adapt and grow, often using an already established
foothold in retail distribution. Some of the most successful and renowned Canadian p
companies came to prominence in this decade: Mason & Risch of Toronto (founded
1871, pianos first made in 1877), the Newcombe Piano Company of Toronto (1878), t
modest Evans Bros. Piano Co. of London (1872), and Gerhard Heintzman (1877), to
21 Some mention must be made at this point of other musical instruments. Montreal and Quebec had a
pipe organ and violinmakers that would only consist of one or a few employees, thus distorting a
conception of the mean number of employees per reed organ or piano manufacturing establishment
few
. also
hnical advance, and market integration, which affected almost every Canadian to
different results. See Robert Christie, “The Development of the Furniture Industry in the phy,
Thom
However, there were no large piano establishments in Quebec at this time. Reed organ manufacture is
included in the numbers, but there even more so than pianos, Ontario manufacturers dominated.
22 The economic downturn was exacerbated by the ramifications of long-term processes of economic
diversification, tec
manufacturing industry. See J.J.B. Forster, A Conjunction of Interests, (Toronto: University of Toron
Press, 1986), 86.
23 As such the piano industry was similar to that of its cousin, the furniture industry, with, however,
somewhat
Southwestern Ontario Furniture Manufacturing Region,” (M.A. Thesis, UWO Department of Geogra
1964), 8.
24 as Mason and Vincent Risch were two former employees of A&S Nordheimer, the chain of
musical merchandise stores founded by Abraham Nordheimer in Kingston in 1842.
Gerhard Heintzman was the nephew of Theodore Heintzman, and worked in the Heintzman & Co.
factory in the 1870s as a piano tuner, regulator and all round piano maker. According to a memorandum of
9
industry and other Ontario consumer goods industries in general, all of which in
combination led the early stages of Ontario’s ‘industrial revolution’.25
The reasons for the leadership of the Canadian musical instruments manufacturing
sector in this revolution are clear: tariffs and the growing affluence of Canadian
consumers. The institution of the Conservative tariff programme in 1879 was the
touchpoint for explosive expansion of existing enterprises and the proliferation of new
competitors. But the erection of protective tariffs of 17.5% on imported musical
instruments exaggerated the effect of the coincidental economic recovery and boom of
1880—1. By 1884, when the federal government commissioned a study of the Toronto
economy before and after the National Policy, commissioner Alfred Blackeby cited
musical instruments manufacture as an industry that justified the protective tariff policy
all on its own:
If the Government had no other result to point to, as an effect of the
change of tariff, than that achieved in this industry, it would in itself be a
lasting monument to the wisdom and foresight of the people of Canada in
approving and the Ministry in adopting the policy of encouraging native
manufactures.26
Blackeby’s effusive comments were justified in the statistics he compiled, which showed
that the number of musical instrument manufacturing establishments had nearly doubled
from 12 to 23, the number of hands employed had increased by an unbelievable 331.8%,
the value of the product had more than quadrupled as had the capital invested—all this in
only five years, from 1879 to 1885.27 Blackeby also claimed that
hop,
d to
s OA
MU3594
xperienced a shift in demand from the square piano to the louder and more
ding the way in the period 1870–90. Musical instruments, brewing, and
current prices).
e
Charles A. Bender, jnr. (dated 3 April 1947), Gerhard left Heintzman & Co. in 1877 to set up his own s
the Heintzman [Piano] Manufacturing Company, and made pianos under that name until 1885, when he
joined with A&S Nordheimer to manufacture the “Lansdowne” piano until 1890, when he returne
making the Gerhard Heintzman piano. (AO: Heintzman Company Records (hereafter HCR) Serie
). Gerhard Heintzman's company was a significant player in the Canadian piano market
throughout its existence, and was bought out by Heintzman & Co. after Gerhard's death in 1926.
The piano market also e
visually impressive upright piano in this decade. It was the upright piano that dominated the trade until the
1920s and the era of the grand.
25 Drummond, Progress Without Planning, 107. In terms of real output and employment, all three sectors of
the economy—capital goods, intermediate goods, and consumer goods—were tending to grow, but
consumer goods industries were lea
cotton textiles were joined by leading capital goods industries to post a doubling of production in twenty
years, 1870–90 (in
26 Canada, Parliament. “Reports Relative to Manufacturing Industries in Canada,” in Sessional Papers,
1885, no. 37, 30.
27 ibid. Of eighteen industries surveyed, only three (the Knitting Factories, Cotton Factories, and General
Miscellaneous Industries) experienced a doubling of their establishments. No other industry approached th
10
Prior to the change in the fiscal policy, the Canadian trade was almost
entirely in the hands of American manufacturers; now at least 70 per cent
of the trade of Ontario and 50 per cent of the trade of Quebec is done by
Canadian makers....28
With this he exaggerated the doldrums of musical instrument manufacturers in the pre-
National Policy days. This is somewhat understandable given the stark contrasts of pre-
and post-1879 eras that contemporaries drew.29 In fact, the value of musical instrument
imports from the United States was on the way down during the worst years of the
recession, from $734,555 in 1874 to $376,315 in 1879.30 And, though less significant,
musical instruments exports to the United States were also on the increase throughout the
period, from $3,631 in 1874 to $6,068 in 1878.31
Commissioner Blackeby was optimistic that the National Policy would also
encourage the large-scale development of a Canadian musical instrument export
business.32 But export success belonged almost solely with the reed organ manufacturers.
labour growth of the musical instruments manufacturers: the eighteen surveyed industries averaged 100%
growth in this area. Employees in the musical instruments sector were also the best paid. Blackeby noted
that the industry “employs very few hands who are not skilled mechanics, and mechanics who receive the
highest average rate of wages of any class of operatives in the Dominion.” (ibid.). The musical instrument
industry wage average was $417.64 per annum in 1878, $467.20 in 1884, for an improvement of $49.56
(c.10%). The wage average among employees in Canadian manufacturing was $293.33 in 1878 and
$304.53 in 1884, for an improvement of only $11.20 (c.4%).
28 Ibid. 5. He also added later: “The men who were the pioneers of the trade in Canada... invested their
money and spent the best years of their life [sic]... meeting with but indifferent and disheartening results....”
29 William Bell, the proprietor of W. Bell & Company, organ manufacturers from Guelph, Ontario, opined
in the Canadian Manufacturer of 12 January 1883 (Vol. 2 No. 2) that the opening of the company's new
factory and its enormous success was to be “credited to the N.P. [National Policy], as although [W. Bell &
Co.] had been running for 14 years before the N.P. came in force, it has more than quadrupled in the last
four years....” Indeed, by 1888, William Bell claimed to give employment to five hundred hands and to ship
carloads of pianos to England, Australia, Mexico, South America, South Africa, China and Japan. (CM Vol.
15 No. 1, 6 July 1888).
In 1891, the Toronto Globe claimed that while fifteen years ago nine-tenths of pianos sold in
Canada were imported, “now 19/20ths sold here are manufactured here.” Toronto, it went on, also had the
distinction of “having a larger output of pianos than any city on the continent outside of New York, in
proportion to population.” (Globe, 5 September 1891).
30 Canada, Parliament, “Trade and Commerce”, Sessional Papers, 1911, no. 10, Table 18. See Appendix D
for piano import and export figures.
31 Since the Dominion government's Trade & Navigation figures do not discriminate between organs,
pianos or other instruments until 1878, it is hard to determine the true impact of American imports on each
of those products.
For an outline of Canadian import and export of pianos during the period under consideration, see
Appendix D.
32 “Reports Relative to Manufacturing...” op. cit., 5. “Organs largely,” Blackeby noted, “and pianos to a
limited extent made in the Dominion are now being sent to Great Britain, Germany, Russia, and
Australia....” (ibid.).
11
In 1901, at the peak of Canadian musical instrument exportation, the value of organ
exports was measured at $457,888 while all other instruments exported reached only
$87,727—also a peak, yet only 19% of the organ total.33 The export trade was a lesser
concern for Canadian piano makers. First of all, their product was more expensiv
less demand than the cheaper reed organ in the British colonial market. As well,
Canadian pianos had a hard time competing with indigenous brands in Europe or the
United States when faced with the triple obstacles of reputation, tariff walls and high cos
of transportation. The slowing of imports, particularly American, by the national policy
tariff, certainly abetted the increasing rate of domestic production in the 1880s, but this
growth was m
e and in
t
ore fundamentally based on rising demand from an increasingly affluent
rate
t that
,
ard
of living improved it was the piano that became the preferred choice of the Canadian
population.
The Ontario landscape is today still marked by the new-found affluence of the
1880s and 1890s, with large brick houses built by well-to-do farmers in the rural areas
and the countless urban neighbourhoods of the emergent middle classes.34 General rapid
economic development created a prosperous stratum of professionals, businessmen, and
farmers whose members were anxious to reinforce their social status with commensu
amenities; a brick house was first on the list and suitably conspicuous decor a close
second. The piano was one of those items of conspicuous consumption, an objec
embodied, aside from its central use as an instrument of entertainment, cultural
refinement and wealth. Gradually, a higher standard of living came to be enjoyed by a
broad middle class that had the means to acquire and the time to enjoy a quality musical
instrument like the piano. The reed organ became popular in the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s
due mainly to its inexpensive cost: a fine ornate organ could be had for a third the price
of a standard piano, and regular tuning was not required. But as the middle class stand
33 Canada, Parliament. “Trade & Navigation Returns,” Sessional Papers, 1901, no. 10. If the average
exported piano is estimated to cost from $300–$500, then $87,727 would represent about 175–292 pianos
exported. Since 1900 Canadian piano production was estimated at 10,000 (CMTJ Vol. 2 No. 2, January
1901, a domestic orientation was assumed by most piano companies. Exceptions, such as the Bell Organ &
Piano Company (formerly W. Bell & Co.), combined their reed organ sales market approaches with their
new piano lines.
34 In 1881, Toronto's white-collar population was 3,864, and had risen to 36,463 by 1911 (David G.
Coombs, “The Emergence of a White Collar Work Force in Toronto 1895–1911,” (unpublished York
University dissertation, 1978, 12, Table III) cited in Joy Santink’s Timothy Eaton and the Rise of his
Department Store (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990, 140)).
12
domestic market, and piano manufacturers often struggled to keep pace with demand.35
As the twentieth century approached, the industry underwent the transition into
maturity. The early issues of the Canadian Music and Trades Journal, a periodical
devoting equal space to musical events, concerts, and trade news, reported several
factories running at or beyond capacity, often months behind their orders.36 Many reed
organ manufacturing companies began the production of pianos alongside their reed
organ lines.37 Piano manufacturers, many of which remained single proprietorships, often
were forced to re-organize their business structures to expand and compete. Merger or
buyout were the fates of those companies who failed to make the transition from first to
second generation of family ownership. Some were replaced by corporate entities owned
by profit-seeking investors with little or no previous experience in the piano industry; the
piano-making business shed its craft-shop roots and tentatively entered into the world of
corporate manufacturing, where the emphasis was on cashing in on a very lucrative mass
consumption item.38
35 Drummond, Progress Without Planning, notes the coincident explosion in house-building that coincided
with the rapid expansion of railway building in the 1880s—both trends that benefited piano manufacturers
immensely. David and Rosemary Gagan “Working Class Standards of Living in Late-Victorian Urban
Ontario: A Review of the Miscellaneous Evidence on the Quality of Material Life,” (Journal of the CHA
Vol. 1 (1990), 171–193), note that the 1880s were also years of rising expectations as regards employment,
consumption, savings and the distribution of wealth for the working class. These must have been
sentiments shared with the middle classes, who were, however, in a better position to realize them.
36 CMTJ Vol. 1 No. 6, December 1900, and Vol. 2 No. 2, January 1901, et al. The journal, published by
D.C. Nixon & Co. of Toronto, began operations in 1899 and published continuously until Vol. 33 No. 8,
January 1933, when it folded. Twenty-seven issues exist for the period 1899–1912, 19 of which are at the
New York Public Library. From Vol. 13 No. 3, August 1912, to 1933 the run is mostly complete.
37 W. Bell & Co. (1880s) and Dominion Organ & Piano (c.1880), R.S. Williams Co. (bought into Canadian
Organ & Piano from 1873 to 1888), and D.W. Karn & Co. (late 1880s), are among the notables. Music
dealers A&S Nordheimer, perhaps seeing sales for their tariff-burdened imported Steinways and
Chickerings sliding, entered the ranks of the piano manufacturers in 1886.
38 Incorporation was often a response to new opportunities requiring more flexible capital in the 1890s.
(Drummond, Progress Without Planning, 15). The Bell Organ & Piano Co., Ltd. was the most prominent
example. It was bought by an English syndicate in 1890 and re-organized to favour its English bondholders.
(Fred H. Bell, “A History of the Bell Piano and Organ Company, 1864–1928,” unpublished B.A. research
paper deposited in the University of Western Ontario Library Regional Room, [n. d.], 4). Berlin Piano &
Organ Co. began the same year as an enterprise among Berlin businessmen with town help. (See Elizabeth
Bloomfield, “Building the City on a Foundation of Factories: The `Industrial Policy' of Berlin, Ontario,
1870–1914,” Ontario History LXXV, No. 3 (September 1983)). Music dealers and piano retailers such as
Gourlay, Winter & Leeming, Whaley-Royce, Ltd., Walls, Prince, Wilks & Co., and A&S Nordheimer also
began piano manufacture under their own stencils in the 1890s. A&S Nordheimer set up a factory in West
Toronto Junction in the shadow of the Heintzman & Co. factory.
13
iv. The Player Piano, The Radio, The Automobile
Besides corporate adaptation, the first decade of the twentieth century was
characterized by rapid technical development that was both to solidify and challenge the
status of the piano industry. Constant technical innovation had always been part and
parcel of piano manufacturing, and the most respected brand names were those of
companies whose products underwent periodic, if subtle, improvements. The invention
and subsequent popularity of the player piano, a device that could play any musical piece
from a recording on a paper roll, sped up those changes by introducing a mechanical
component to the mix: the pneumatic player piano action. Most Canadian companies
quickly adopted the new product from the United States. The player piano engendered a
huge demand within a few years and Canadian piano makers hurried to import player
actions, obtain Canadian distribution rights to American products, or secure Canadian
patents on new actions. The latter course was taken up by the piano parts suppliers such
as the Otto Higel Co. of Toronto, who had made their money supplying “straight” piano
actions and parts to the many Canadian manufacturers who merely assembled the action,
frame, soundboard and strings in a cabinet of their own design.39 Otto Higel also
produced the pneumatic actions required for player pianos and supplied the many
Canadian piano manufacturers who were eager to ride the crest of the player piano wave.
Mason & Risch, Heintzman & Co., and Willis Pianos all produced popular player piano
models, but none made the actions themselves, preferring either Higel actions or
American brands such as Ampico. Whatever the origin, the player piano gave the
industry even more wind with which to fill its sails. Player sales boosted record piano
production even higher in the early 1900s.40
However, as all consumer industries were bound to discover sooner or later,
39 A 1906 catalogue produced by the Otto Higel Company, 140 pages long, testifies to the range of products
they could offer. (Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library Rare Book Collection).
Many Canadian piano manufacturers depended on various American components, which were free
of tariff, with which to assemble their pianos. When the Julius Breckwoldt Company of Dolgeville, New
York burned to the ground in the fall of 1903, CMTJ surmised that it would be “no surprise if the Canadian
[piano] trade had to close down temporarily...” for nearly “all the soundboards used in Canada come from
these factories” (CMTJ Vol. 7, No. 4 (October 1903). American veneer and steel frame producers were also
regular advertisers in CMTJ.
40 By 1912, Heintzman & Company's production reached over 3000 instruments a year. (See Appendix B).
14
technological advance often left casualties in its wake. The player piano, the supreme
innovation of the piano industry, threatened the straight piano market by appealing to the
passive musician. The player piano was really two instruments in one—it could be played
as a regular piano or the player mechanism could be activated to play by itself. While the
standard player piano upright was more expensive than a comparable “straight” piano, a
couple of hundred dollars could be the difference between an elegant and status-
enhancing piece of furniture and a nightly concert.41 Whereas the piano required hours
and even years of dedication to arrive at the point of truly enjoying the musical
experience, the player piano required a mere pumping up by foot and (presto!) years of
keyboard toil were circumvented.
It has been argued that the player piano encouraged a society-wide musical
passivity, which inevitably turned heads to the phonograph as a much cheaper, smaller,
and more versatile alternative to the player piano.42 Craig Roell argues along these lines
in The Piano in America, 1890—1940, pointing out that the American piano
manufacturing industry, with exceptions, blindly encouraged consumers to sit back and
enjoy the player piano, thereby implicitly condoning a rejection of the values of musical
education and activity that the “straight” piano represented, and on which the industry’s
foundation rested.43 It is true that the piano industry was undermining itself to a certain
extent, but Roell’s argument is limited. He admires the Steinway marketing approach,
which associated the piano with cultural refinement and family values. But technological
improvement had always been a key component to the piano manufacturing industry, and
it cannot be expected that capitalists should have turned their backs on a hybrid such as
the player piano, especially one with such high profit potential. Although solid numbers
comparing the sales of player and “straight” pianos are unavailable, players certainly
contributed materially to the industry’s success.44 Canadian piano manufacturers, at least,
did not lose sight of the special moral and cultural qualities the “straight” piano could
41 The player piano had many names (Pianola, Plaola, Angelus are only a few of the brand names) and was
eventually improved to the point where a large measure of expression could be incorporated into its play,
almost indistinguishable from a human player. The clanky saloon player of the spaghetti western was a
vulgar facsimile of the polished reproducing instrument the player piano had become by the 1920s.
42 A phonograph could go for as little as 5% of the price of the average player piano.
43 See Roell, especially chapter two.
44 A Toronto Star Weekly report estimated that one-quarter of the pianos sold in Toronto in 1913 contained
player actions. (CMTJ Vol. 14 No. 11, May 1914).
15
impart, and indeed returned to those themes in their advertising when the player went into
decline and the “vulgar” radio was on the ascendant.
Canadian piano makers were not driven out of existence by the phonograph and
the radio. In fact, initially they adapted quite well. The retail outlets carried full lines of
phonographs and later, popular radio sets; they added records to their player piano roll
and sheet music collections; retail space was reorganized to create demonstration rooms
for the new talking machines. These and other modifications are noted frequently in the
Canadian Music and Trades Journal throughout the first quarter of the twentieth century:
evidence that retailers were responding to the demands of a mature market. On the
production side adaptation took place as well. Many lower grade piano manufacturers
focused their resources on the cabinetmaking and assembly aspects of the production
process and began building phonograph and radio cases alongside piano parts. The
Williams Piano Co. of Oshawa, an innovative company always ready to take on a new
product, eventually decided to produce whole radios under the same roof as their piano
operations.45 But in the early years of the twentieth century, the musical product market
segmentation represented by phonographs, and then radios, was subsumed in a vast sea of
prosperity. The economic downturn of 1913, however, uncovered problems that were
further exacerbated by the outbreak of the Great War.
v. War, Resurgence and Decline
If at the December 1914 annual meeting of the Canadian Piano And Organ
Manufacturers’ Association (CPOMA), attendance was poor (with only 9 of 23 member
firms represented), it might have had something to do with the mundane topics on the
agenda. To the regular issues of export development and reduction of railway freight
rates were added a new but innocuous debate, whether a new “art finish” of piano cases
should be endorsed.46 The idea of cosmetic differentiation of products was itself a sure
45 Williams was the Oshawa branch and successor of the R.S. Williams Co. manufacturing division. R.S
Williams was the only Canadian factory manufacturer of instruments other than pianos, pipe organs, and
reed organs, which they also produced. Guitars, mandolins and brass instruments were made beginning in
the 1860s onwards, making (R.S.) Williams the most versatile Canadian musical instrument manufacturer
on record. (See Kelly, Downright Upright, 91–91, for a brief outline of the R.S. Williams corporate history).
46 NLC: CPOMA Minute Book.
16
sign that the piano market was maturing. By January of 1917, however, a CMTJ
retrospective had noted that the industry had started to feel the effects of “financial unrest
even before the war,” and characterized the first two years of war as “most trying.” In the
editors’ opinion, the industry suffered the most of any industry though a three-year
absence of additional capital.47 By 1918, the issues before the CPOMA reflected this
downturn:
...[T]he President pointed out that there were more matters of importance
to the trade before the Association than in any previous year of its history.
The matter of fuel, the threatened curtailment of iron for piano plates and
the excise tax were three of the most important of these factors.48
On the surface, these concerns seem future-oriented, able to be thwarted if the proper
lobbying action is taken. But the war had not been kind to the industry in general, and
omens of hurtful government policy did not encourage a positive outlook. Unbelievably,
curtailment had taken the place of expansion. The Canadian piano industry’s halcyon
days were over.
Even while suffering from great economic upheavals beyond its control,
complaining was not in the optimistic piano manufacturers’ nature. Many concerns were
voiced on the subject of post-war raw material availability, and the rising costs thereof,
but all manufacturers eventually expected a return to pre-war conditions.49 One
anonymous piano company president even expected to retain all his female temporary
war workers, as well as reinstate all his former employees who had enlisted.50 As it
turned out, by December of 1919, the industry was suffering from a severe shortage of
skilled labour. The short production runs and enlistments of the war years had taken away
skilled workers, many of whom returned to other employment. This shortage limited
immediate post-war production and revenue, which in turn weakened many companies
when they entered the 1920—21 recession. The industry responded to the labour shortage
with pressure on governments to set up industrial day and night schools to train
47 CMTJ Vol. 17 No. 8, January 1917.
48 CMTJ Vol. 19 No. 7, December 1918.
49 CMTJ Vol. 19 No. 7, December 1919, contained the opinions of 11 piano manufacturing companies on
post-war prospects under an article titled after a J.P. Morgan comment: “Any Man who is Bear on the
Future of this Country will go Broke.”
50 CMTJ Vol. 19 No. 8, January 1919.
17
woodworkers.51
Piano manufacturers were equally active in their marketing and public relations,
another sign of market maturity. In 1917, the CPOMA initiated and financed an
independent organization to foster and renew social appreciation for musical activity and
education. The Canadian Bureau for the Advancement of Music (CBAM) had a
permanent secretary and a mission to encourage media coverage of musical events, lobby
for both music education in schools and a resuscitation of music in the home. CBAM was
founded as a permanent organization to embody the principles of the Music in the Home
campaign, which was an American innovation that encouraged the recognition of music
as an essential social activity, and manifested itself in the lobbying for piano instruction
in public schools and the call for the proper architectural planning of homes to include
room for pianos. CBAM furnished a weekly service of articles on various aspects of the
Canadian music scene to newspapers, and sponsored music contests for young people, a
national Music Day, and annual festivities at the CNE. This latter connection was not
coincidental—the CBAM agenda was closely in tune with the CPOMA, whose founding
rationale was coordinating musical activities at the CNE, and whose members were well
represented on the CBAM executive and board of directors.52 A successful tour of
western Canada was conducted to promote the first CBAM campaign, “Music in the
Home,” a trip that resulted in a rallying of many music dealers into local music trade
associations.53
The establishment of the Bureau shows that the piano industry had decided to
gather forces to shape its mature market by making a greater effort to respond to demand.
The Canadian Music and Trades Journal was a sometimes strident voice in the 1920s
ranting away at the avoidable evils that plagued the industry. The labour shortage of 1919
was of much import in affecting the trade and “easily takes its place in the quartette of
strategic problems along with the music-in-the-home educational campaign, the extension
51 CMTJ Vol. 20 No. 7, December 1919, profiled several industry leaders who were involved in local
training schools advisory boards, including W.N. Manning of Sherlock-Manning and Harry Sykes of
Thomas Organ & Piano.
52 The Toronto Piano Dealer's Association discussed the American experience and appointed a committee
to present the idea to the CPOMA. Charles Bender was a member of that committee, perhaps by virtue of
his being the second vice-president of the CPOMA. (CMTJ Vol. 17 No. 5, October 1916). The first
secretary of CBAM was John Fullerton, who also happened to be the editor of the CMTJ.
53 CMTJ Vol. 18 No. 7, December 1917.
18
of the market for player pianos, and the one-price system.”54 Musical ignorance was to be
countered by CBAM and piano lessons in the schools. Outmoded selling techniques
would be replaced with rigorous cost accounting and strict vigilance of the accounts
receivable, including an industry-standard “one-price” for trade-in pianos. The consumer
must finally be made to understand the player piano, for ignorance of it was the cause of
the weak post-war sales. And last but not least, the industry must admit it was wrong to
advertise pianos as lasting a lifetime, for pianos did in fact have a limited life after which
they become obsolete, just like automobiles. Used pianos, now the bane of the industry,
must be burned en masse in bonfires!55
While it appeared that in the 1920s the piano manufacturer was being shunted
aside to make way for the radio and automobile, prospects for sales in the 1920s were in
fact still quite auspicious, and many companies approached their pre-war production
fuelled by increased sales of grand pianos, the new high-class standard. However, fewer
companies were able to position themselves profitably in the increasingly competitive
musical products market. Rising costs of materials, inflation, and competition from used
pianos made many of the less vital manufacturers go under or consolidate with
competitors.56 The survivors responded to the changing marketplace of the 1920s with
strategies that often differed as much as they harmonized. “Music in Home and School”
and the cachet of a grand piano were popular themes for all, but Nordheimer Piano and
Music Ltd. decided to close its retail stores while the Gerhard Heintzman Company was
opening more retail outlets. The Sherlock-Manning Company focused attention on its
export trade to Australia and New Zealand at a time when most Canadian companies
were overwhelmingly oriented towards the domestic market. Most manufacturers did
agree on their most popular product. While the cries about the public’s ignorance
regarding the virtues of the player piano gradually faded, it became clear that the piano,
despite phonograph and radio competition, had not lost its eminent position as a coveted
musical status symbol.
54 CMTJ Vol. 20 No. 7, December 1919.
55 The editors of CMTJ constantly decried the absence of regular piano pyres, its idea of planned
obsolescence. Piano bonfires were actually reputedly carried out in the United States and Britain, although
not in great numbers.
56 Although attempts were made, no piano manufacturer successfully made the jump to the radio industry.
Williams Piano Co. attempted to shift half of its Oshawa factory to radio production, but the company soon
went out of business.
19
The proliferation of used pianos in the marketplace dictated that the new symbol
of refinement was the grand piano, both larger and more expensive than the common
upright.57 Martin-Orme of Ottawa, Mason & Risch, Bell, and Lesage all introduced
popular grand and “baby” grand models to the marketplace in the early 1920s to absorb
the demands of middle class consumers, which remained strong through the decade.
However, market adjustments and attendant financial straits marked the 1920s for all
Canadian piano makers, and many were not able to bear the burdens of debt loads taken
on by unnecessary expansion and re-organization. The onset of the depression in the early
thirties took a swift toll. Production plummeted to only 533 instruments in 1932 as
consumers decided that a new piano was not a necessity when a new roll for the player, a
piece of popular sheet music, or a movie ticket could be had for much less. If a big
purchase was to be made it was more likely to be a vacuum cleaner or a radio, which was
becoming more than just a canned music box with the advent of news, drama, and
comedy shows. In the 1930s, economic dislocation and changing consumer demand
cleared out all but the healthiest piano manufacturers. Of an estimated 27 in business in
192858, only five survived the Depression and the Second World War, as the piano
market shrank into its present niche as a popular, yet no longer universal, musical
instrument and domestic adornment.59 Those Canadian middle class concerns with
cultural refinement and material acquisition that thrust the piano market skyward in the
late-nineteenth century still persisted, but the mature consumer society also brought with
it a desire for novelty and variety in its goods, as well as a new appreciation for passive
musical entertainment. The piano had become one of the most prestigious luxury
consumer items for the middle class household to possess. It reigned supreme for a time,
but was eventually rivalled by the automobile and radio, which usurped the piano’s role
as the center of entertainment in the home. The piano rivalled the car and radio in terms
of the universality of its appeal and the depth of its cultural importance, but could not
compete as an economic or communication necessity. For a more detailed exploration of
57 Roell's The Piano in America makes a convincing argument that it was the used piano market and not the
radio that was the primary cause of the piano manufacturers' quick demise.
58 “Eras May Change but a Live Business Can Live as Long as a Nation”, a short company historical
pamphlet. (HCR Series OA MU3594).
59 The five were Heintzman & Co., Sherlock-Manning of Clinton, Mason & Risch of Toronto, Lesage
Pianos, and Willis Pianos.
20
the subtle character of this half-century shift in consumer demand and its impact on
Canadian industrial development, we turn now to the examination of Heintzman &
Company, who participated in the industry in its halcyon years from 1885 to 1930.
CHAPTER TWO
The Origins of a Canadian Piano Manufacturer:
“Ye Olde Firme”
Ten or twelve years ago pianos were counted a rare luxury, to be gratified
only in the case of the wealthy; now they have become so common that
they seem a necessary part of every household.
—— Heintzman Illustrated Catalogue, 1874.1
This thesis concerns itself primarily with the business operations of Heintzman &
Company from 1885 to 1930. This particular period was chosen as it roughly corresponds
to both the tenure of George C. Heintzman as the prime director of the company’s fate
and also, as we have seen, the heyday of the Canadian piano industry. The extant sources
were not concentrated enough to warrant a more restricted periodization, but such a long
chronological scope offers a wider range and variety of sources. Indeed, the longer period
lends itself to more useful and cogent generalizations about the character of the typical
Canadian piano manufacturer’s experience and late-nineteenth century Canadian
industrial history, and so it is the preferable route. This chapter will elaborate
characteristics of the Canadian piano market through the prism of Heintzman & Co.’s
early strategies of piano manufacture, distribution and sale.
i. Theodore August Heintzman, Pianoforte Manufacturer
Theodore Heintzman started up his piano manufacturing firm and ran it into
prosperity through high standards of technical quality, constant advertising, stable family
management, and astute market positioning that took advantage of the burgeoning
demand for his product.2 Unlike many Canadian manufacturers of the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, Heintzman & Company survived the pitfalls of economic recession
1 Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library Baldwin Room Ephemera Collection.
2 For the genealogy of those Heintzman family members involved in the company, see Appendix A.
22
and intense competition to make the successful transition from craft workshop to mass
producer of fine instruments. And unlike many family companies, Heintzman &
Company survived the death of its founder, Theodore Heintzman, and flourished into the
next generation. This chapter will set out the origins and details of the company’s
experience upon which an analysis of these crucial transitions can be erected.
Theodore Heintzman’s background before his emergence on the Canadian piano
manufacturing scene is not always clearly discernible; we have facts mixed liberally with
unsubstantiated corporate legends. It is known that Theodore was born in Prussia in 1817,
the descendant of a long line of woodworking Prussian craftsmen,3 and that young
Theodore apprenticed at one or several trades befitting his craftsman heritage: piano
maker, cabinetmaker, and machinist are all mentioned.4 Married with three children by
1850, he sailed with his family to North America to pursue opportunities in the New
World. He quickly gained employment in a New York City piano manufactory,5 then
moved on to Buffalo, perhaps to take advantage of the new rail connection of New York
State to the expanding Midwest markets of Chicago and Cincinnati. Theodore soon
became a partner in a piano manufacturing firm, Drew, Heintzman and Annowsky, where
he was responsible for instrument design and factory operations.6 Unfortunately his
partners, who held the financial strings, couldn’t keep the company afloat, and the
partnership split up in 1859.7 Mr. Drew went to C.L. Thomas’ Western Piano
3 Interview with William D. Heintzman, the son of Howard Crichton Heintzman and the last president of
the company (28 June 1994).
4 The Canadian Manufacturer, Vol. 14 No 11, 7 December 1888, related that Theodore was a master
machinist for the Borzig Co. of Berlin, and assisted in the construction of the first steam locomotive in
Germany.
5 Theodore worked at the piano factory of Lighte (also Lichte, Leuchte, or Liter) & Newton, New York
City. One account has him sharing a workbench with Charles Steinweg, later Steinway, who went on to
found the renowned Steinway & Sons of New York City. Another account has Theodore hiring Heinrich
Steinweg, Charles' father, as a soundboard maker at Lighte & Newton. Since an account book from the
time indicates that Theodore's stay with Leuchte & Newton was a short one, about 18 months (1 June 1850
to 27 September 1851), it is unlikely Theodore would have been in a position to hire anyone, although he
was paid at a rate of $20–24 per week, or $520–624 per annum, a respectable salary. According to Aaron
Singer's Labor-Management Relations at Steinway & Sons, 1853–1896 (New York: Garland Publishing,
1986), Heinrich Steinweg and his four sons came to America on 29 June 1850 and moved into the same
neighbourhood as the Heintzmans, but the Steinwegs are only noted in connection with Bacon & Raven
and William Nunns & Company piano makers, not Lighte & Newton. (p.8).
6 Various stories mention Theodore's employment by a piano manufacturer named Keogh and his
involvement in the Western Piano Company, which may have been the company backed by the Drew,
Heintzman & Annowsky partnership.
7 According to J.J. Thomas, a son of John Morgan Thomas. (CMTJ Vol. 20 No. 9, February 1920).
23
Manufactory of Canada in Hamilton and Theodore was convinced by a Toronto piano
maker John Morgan Thomas to join his company as superintendent.8 The Toronto City
Directories list Theodore as a Thomas employee for the early 1860s and his broad
experience was even featured in the company’s advertising in 1864.9 Theodore broke
with Thomas around 186510 but within the next year or two, Heintzman was able to strike
out with a new partner, his new son-in-law, Charles Bender, who provided the essential
start-up capital and financial savoir-faire.11 The company moved to a factory and store at
105 King St. West in the heart of Toronto’s fashionable shopping district.
By 1868, the firm, styled Heintzman & Company, employed twelve workers,
produced 60 pianos a year, and was soon to shift its operations to larger premises at
115—117 King Street West.12 The Manufacturer’s Census of 1871 ranked the piano
manufactory of T.A. Heintzman of Toronto as the second-largest in the province, behind
8 J.M. Thomas was C.L. Thomas' father. Wellington Jeffers, the financial editor of the Globe, wrote on the
occasion of George C. Heintzman's death that Theodore got $10,000 for the Buffalo company's assets
before he went to Toronto, a nest egg that may have come in useful when he struck out with Charles
Bender. (Globe, 23 February 1944).
9 “[J. Thomas & Co.] Instruments are all... Manufactured by American and German Workmen, under the
superintendence of Mr. T. Heintzman, who received the First Prize at the New York State Agricultural
Society, 1857, and has had thirty years' experience in the business, and was principal of the Mechanical
Department of the late Western Company of Buffalo....” (Mitchell's Canada Gazetteer and Business
Directory for 1864–65 (Toronto: J.W. Mitchell, 1864) reprinted in Roback, “Advertising Canadian Organs
and Pianos...,” 34).
10 The R.G. Dun & Co. Manuscript (Canada, Vol. 26, 360, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library,
Harvard Library Graduate School of Business Administration, hereafter RGDM) noted that Theodore failed
in connection with J. Thomas. This would seem to indicate a close arrangement, perhaps partnership. The
Mitchell's directory for 1866 lists Theodore as the proprietor of his own pianoforte manufactory at 23 Duke
St.
11 Charles (a.k.a. Karl) Bender, a tobacconist by trade, and the Heintzman family were members of
Toronto's First Lutheran Church, a congregation with a large German immigrant contingent. The
partnership lasted until Bender retired in 1875, although ownership of the 115–117 King St. W. property
remained in the Bender family even after Charles' death in 1877. Ann (nee Heintzman) Bender retained the
property until the company moved its Toronto store to 193–7 Yonge in 1909.
One controversy surrounding Heintzman & Company concerns the exact year of their foundation.
According to Herman Heintzman, piano manufacturing activities under the name of Heintzman &
Company can be dated from 1866. He swore an affidavit to the effect that the “name of Heintzman & Co.,
had been in use by the present firm since 1866 and the firm owns the TradeMark name of Heintzman & Co.
acquired in 1888.” (AO RG 8 I–1–D 1903 #2470). Many dates from 1850 to 1866 are implied or explicitly
stated, based mainly on the dates that Theodore Heintzman came to America (1850), the family's move to
Buffalo (1852), Theodore's first partnership for the manufacture of pianos (1856), Theodore's move to
Toronto and into the employ of John Thomas (1860), his own business (1865) and finally, the
establishment of his partnership with Charles Bender (1866), which was the enduring incarnation.
12 Within two years of residence at 105 King plans were drawn up for a new four-storey factory and
warerooms at 115–117 King Street West, adjacent to the prestigious Rossin House (later the Prince George)
hotel. (RGDM, Canada, Vol. 26, 360).
24
Weber & Co. of Kingston.13 Heintzman & Co. produced 40,000 dollars’ worth of pianos
a year with only 16 employees. Based on raw material and product value figures from the
Manufacturers’ Census of 1871, Heintzman & Co. added value of $1902 per employee
compared to the eight other Ontario piano manufacturers, who averaged $277.14 While
the Heintzman & Co. figure is surely inflated due to the small raw materials value noted
(only $2370), the $40,000 in product value works out to an average price of $449 per
piano.15 This would seem to indicate that not only was Heintzman making a more than
healthy profit on its product, but also that Heintzman pianos were a cut above the
competition in terms of price, and by implication, quality. Above all, Theodore
Heintzman concerned himself with the craft aspects of his trade. He left the financial
details of the business to others—first to son-in-law Charles Bender and then son
Herman—and focused on perfecting those technical developments that allowed the
Heintzman piano to surpass its rivals.16
The essence of any piano’s sound is the technical arrangement of the strings—the
string scale. The essence of the distinctive Heintzman piano sound—the bright yet
mellow tone—was a product of Theodore Heintzman’s high level of craftsmanship and
technical achievement.17 Other major improvements that contributed to the superior
sound of Theodore Heintzman’s pianos were the continually improved bridge designs
that added clarity to the piano sound. Theodore made several improvements to bridge
13 According to the Census of Manufactures of 1871, the largest piano manufacturer in the Dominion, by
value of products ($56,250) and number of employees (50) was Weber & Co. from Kingston.
Although T.A. Heintzman is the only name listed as proprietor in the census, the company was
still a partnership between Heintzman and Charles Bender.
14 See chapter 1, section ii for a note on the method used to derive the value-added figures.
15 This figure is derived by dividing the $40,000 by 1871 production of 89 pianos. A Heintzman & Co.
catalogue dated to 1873 quotes piano prices from $350 to $600. (Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library
Baldwin Room Ephemera Collection). In 1871 Weber & Co. of Kingston boasted of “an output of over 500
pianos over the last two years....” If, for one year, the company produced 250 pianos at $56,250 total value,
their average piano was worth $225, hence they were producing lesser grade piano than Heintzman. Given
the embellishment of piano producers of the time, and census inaccuracies, these numbers can in no way be
taken as definitive, but nevertheless they seem useful as general indicators.
16 A profile of Theodore and his four sons in the Canadian Manufacturer stated that Theodore spent much
of his time studying the problem of how to make improvements. (Vol. 15 No. 11, 7 December 1888).
17 William D. Heintzman further described the sound as an unrivalled “pure, clear treble” combined with “a
pretty good bass” surpassed by only a few German makes. (28 June 1994). Heintzman was popularly
considered the equal of a Steinway, one of the finest brands in the world. (John Fraser, Toronto Telegram,
14 August 1971).
25
design and patented the trademark Heintzman Agraffe bridge in 1873.18 Several patents
later the agraffe—thus far only associated with Heintzman square and grand pianos—was
successfully adapted to the new upright design pianos that had come into vogue in the
1880s.19 With patent #51607 (“Agraffe for Upright Pianos”) in 1896, George Heintzman
was able to instill the rich full sound of a Heintzman grand to its upright pianos—hence
the “upright grand” for which Heintzman became renowned. Although there were other
improvements both in design and construction technique achieved into the twentieth
century20, the basic Heintzman piano sound, grand and upright, was more or less
established by the 1890s. The high profile of the product was matched by the prominence
of the company and family in Toronto industry and community.21
All told, Heintzman & Co. was very successful in its first twenty years. It moved
and expanded its premises twice, and increased production until 1000 pianos had been
built by 1879, despite the deep recession plaguing the economy in the late 1870s.22 In the
early 1880s, the company’s reputation, the National Policy, and rising demand all drove
Heintzman’s annual production figures upwards, quintupling them over the period
18 Patent #2915—“Heintzman’s Improved Bridge.” The Agraffe is a transversal steel bar which forms an
integral part of the cast iron plate near the top—it keeps the strings, which run through holes in the bar,
from slipping, providing an even tone for each note and helps the piano stay in tune longer. The Agraffe
was originally for the square pianos that were popular up until the 1880s, and adapted to the grand pianos
that Heintzman had begun producing by 1886. The novelty was featured early and prominently in company
advertising in 1873: “Heintzman & Company's Agraffe Bar Pianos are distinguished for their Singing
Quality, Volume and Purity of Tone, Elastic Even Touch, Durability of Construction, and Beauty of
Finish.” (Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library Baldwin Room Ephemera Collection).
19 Patent #14021 (1882)—“Heintzman’s Improved Double-Bearing Bridge for Upright Pianos” was an
intermediate stage.
20 Patent #20313 (1884)—“Upright Piano Actions” was an improvement to the piano action, the
technologically most complicated part of the piano. “Acoustic Rims” attempted to give soundboards of
uprights the same shape and sound as those of grands by isolating acoustically dead areas of the
soundboard. “Prior-Tone” was the technique of building the instrument before adding the cabinet-work.
“Duofulcrum” was a design to balance the white and black keys. In 1894, the company succeeded in
producing a transposing piano, which transposed music into any key by a simple lever movement. (CM Vol.
26 No. 4, 16 Feb 1894).
21 For years, William Heintzman, Theodore's second son, was elected to the Executive Committee of the
CMA, the bastion of Tory protectionist sentiment, and Theodore, Herman and George all joined the
Toronto Board of Trade in the mid-1880s, all professing to be Conservatives in politics. Herman was a
town councillor in West Toronto Junction for many years.
The Heintzmans were also active members of the First Lutheran Church, Toronto, and in the
Liederkranz Society. In 1898 Theodore donated an altar, chandelier & lectern for the new First Lutheran
Church building on Bond Street, Toronto. (Louis P. Barbier, Follow the Footsteps of Your Forefathers..., ff.,
and The Toronto Board of Trade: “A Souvenir” (Montreal & Toronto: Sabiston Lithographic & Publishing
Co., 1893), 191).
22 Serial numbers reached 1000 sometime in the middle of 1879, according to the company's production
ledgers. (HCR Series OE).
26
1879—83, from 105 pianos in 1879 to 514 in 1883.23 Obviously, growing pains were
attendant on several fronts, both of physical dimension and corporate organization. In
1887 the company skirmished with the nascent Knights of Labour.24 Of more import,
despite additions to the company’s premises at 115–117 King St., factory space was
insufficient. Charles Bender had retired from the partnership in 1875, leaving Theodore
Heintzman in sole proprietorship.25 Now, in the 1880s, Theodore was in his late sixties
and faced with the enormous pressures of guiding his company through the stresses of
rapid growth.
In response, Theodore Heintzman appointed his third son George as general
manager and superintendent of the factory in 1885.26 This date seems early, as George
would have been only 25 years old at that time, but given George’s later display of talent
for the business, it is plausible that George eclipsed his older brothers even at this early
age to become responsible for the manufacturing operations of the company.27 And it can
hardly be argued that he lacked experience. The Toronto Board of Trade: “A Souvenir”
of 189328 gave the most detailed and chronological account of George’s early piano
making activities. From the age of 14, it transpired, George worked in all aspects of his
23 From 1880 to 1882 the Heintzman company almost doubled piano production (200 in 1880 to 394 in
1882), a jump that, economic boom of the early 1880s aside, they surely attributed in large measure to the
new 17.5% tariff on imported pianos. (See Appendix B). In 1882, Heintzman & Company were represented
at a manufacturers' meeting in June of 1882, presided over by Sir John A. Macdonald and D.L. Macpherson,
which decided to appoint an ad hoc committee “to set before the electors of Ontario the advantages that
have already resulted from the National Policy.” (CM Vol. 1 No. 12, 9 June 1882).
24 Labour historian Gregory Kealey's Toronto Workers Respond to Industrial Capitalism 1867–1892
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), 191, 212, recounts Heintzman's “victimization” of the
Knights of Labour in the spring of 1887. The company had fired three wood polishers who also happened
to be active unionists and got a strike for its trouble when it refused arbitration. Further information
concerning the labour conditions and relations at Heintzman & Co. for the period under discussion is
virtually non-existent in the sources investigated.
25 York County Partnership Record CP#1074 dates the dissolution of partnership to 10 December 1875
(AO RG 55–17).
26 CMTJ Vol. 28 No. 5, October 1927, et al.
27 Herman (b. 1852) had entered the cigar-making business after leaving school and probably joined the
piano business in the 1870s, though possibly as late as 1885. (The Toronto Board of Trade: “A Souvenir”,
191). Theodore's second son, William, was often referred to as a piano maker, and he seems to have been
content to focus his attentions on that task, leaving the management to his brothers. By the time of
Theodore's death in 1899, he had fallen from favour. Although nominally a partner in 1894, Theodore's will
indicates that he had been dispossessed of his share in the business and that it would be up to Herman and
George whether or not he would be re-admitted. He seems to have rehabilitated himself so that by after
1903 he is mentioned as Inspector of Factories and after Herman's death in 1921, took over the latter's vice-
presidency. As far as George's young age is concerned, it should also be noted that Theodore's youngest
son, Charles, became manager of the Junction factory in 1888, when he was only 24.
28 191.
27
father’s business. After ten years, he apparently went to the United States where he was
employed by Steinway and other well-known American piano firms, returned to Toronto
to be made foreman of the Heintzman & Co. action department for three years, and then
“finally being made superintendent of the whole of the manufacturing department.”29
ii. A New Factory
Upon assuming responsibility for the manufacturing operations of Heintzman &
Company in 1885, it must have soon become clear to George that the company needed a
larger factory. The company had occupied the same premises at 115–117 King St. West
since at least 1873, when production was only about 100 instruments per annum. Some
expansion was accomplished, but as orders rocketed in the early 1880s the company was
unable to further extend its King St. property.30 Another site was necessary, and the time
was right to find one. Late-nineteenth century Canadian municipalities fought with each
other to attract and keep industry in their own tax bases. Tax exemptions, cash incentives,
and free land were available to any company that shopped around.31 One of the most
successful of these municipal ‘headhunters’ was the town of West Toronto Junction, a
village incorporated in 1888 for the central purpose of attracting industry.32
West Toronto Junction was developed primarily as a speculative venture in which
several investors had bought up large tracts of land near the junction of the Canadian
Pacific and Grand Trunk Railway lines and were looking to induce factories to establish
29 ibid. The time estimates must be taken warily, though, as they add up to a minimum of 17–18 years
before becoming superintendent (i.e. c.1887–8). The article also subsequently states that George then
entered the selling department and represented the company at the 1886 Colonial Exhibition in London,
England, ambiguously implying that George was in the selling department at this time.
In a record of employees' work from 1883, George is listed as an “Upright Regulator”, a job in the
action department. (TAHP). Later, he is responsible for an itemized breakdown of piano parts and assembly
costs, dated c.1885, which not only leads one to believe that his responsibilities had grown, but also that the
company was becoming more sophisticated in their cost accounting practices and production details.
30 Dean Beeby, “Industrial Strategy and Manufacturing Growth in Toronto, 1880–1910,” Ontario History
76 No. 3, September 1984, 202.
31 See Elizabeth Bloomfield, “Building the City on a Foundation of Factories...,” and Paul Maroney,
"Municipal Bonusing in Kingston, Ontario, 1873–1914,” Ontario History 85 No. 2, June 1993.
32 York County Deputy Reeve and landowner Daniel Webster Clendenan sought the incorporation of the
village of West Toronto Junction primarily for the purpose of financing a waterworks that would attract
industry. (G.D. Garland “Suburbanization and the Transition to Monopoly Capitalism,” M.A. Thesis,
University of Toronto Department of Geography, 1978, 49–52). See also Beeby, “Industrial Strategy and
Manufacturing ...,” 202–204.
28
themselves there by means of tax exemptions and other incentives. Heintzman was the
first company to relocate in West Toronto from Toronto, and was the first to receive a
municipal tax exemption.33 Construction was started on a new factory west of the city in
late 1887, on a lot with 275 feet of frontage along the main Canadian Pacific Railway
(CPR) line, adjacent its depot to the east. The new Heintzman & Co. manufacturing
premises comprised a brick building with stone trimmings of four storeys and over
36,000 square feet. It included facilities for a machine shop, piano cabinetmaking,
veneering, a drying kiln, and a wire working department to make bass piano strings.34
Capacity was estimated at about 30 pianos per week (1560 per year) from the hands of a
potential 250 employees.35 By March of 1889, the Junction factory was almost ready to
assume production. Piano making machinery was moved from the 115–117 King St.
factory to West Toronto.36 The company was now re-organized around a geographic
33 The village of West Toronto Junction was incorporated in June 1887. As soon as the West Toronto
Junction Municipal Council was elected, January 1888, Heintzman & Co. applied for tax-exempt status,
and were subsequently granted a ten-year exemption from municipal taxation. (By-law No. 14 (22 March
1888), West Toronto Records (hereafter WTR) RG104 Series D1–D3, City of Toronto Archives). The
Heintzman factory had been started before the tax exemption was granted (CM Vol. 13 No. 11, 2 December
1887), but it was likely understood that Heintzman's move was conditional upon it. In return for the tax
exemption, Heintzman & Co. had to guarantee to employ no less than 50 hands 10 months out of the year.
The timing of Heintzman's move was opportune, as provincial legislation restricted practice of
bonusing soon afterwards. See Beeby, “Industrial Strategy...,” 202. As has been noted, municipal help was
also made available to nascent piano manufacturers in other Ontario towns. See Maroney, “Municipal
Bonusing in Kingston...,” for an example of municipal bonusing of an existing piano manufacturer,
Wormwith & Co., in 1909.
34 CM Vol. 15 No. 11, 7 December 1888. Although company advertising often claimed that all parts of the
Heintzman instrument were made by the company, even as late as 1890, attaining acceptable economies of
production did not justify the on-site production of many parts previously built in house, including actions,
soundboards, and keyboards. And like most Canadian piano manufacturers, Heintzman & Co. imported
many of their actions until domestic supply companies emerged in the 1890s, often formed by former
Heintzman employees. The metal piano plates were cast in foundries to their specifications, but likely
bored, japanned, and finished by them on site. By 1904, Heintzman was getting their piano plates from
Guelph founder Thomas Griffin, along with Gerhard Heintzman, Morris, Gourlay, Winter & Leeming,
Ennis, Mason & Risch, Mendelssohn, Berlin, Evans Bros. and Haydn. (CMTJ Vol. 9 No. 2, September
1904). Heintzman & Co. was unusual in its winding of its own bass strings. Treble strings may have been
acquired from the American parts giant Dolge & Sons.
35 ibid. The factory lived up to capacity first in 1902, when they produced 1560 pianos. Production initially
stabilized at about 800 pianos a year, and even declined to 622 in 1896, the depths of a recession,
whereupon there was steady growth to a peak of 3052 in 1912. (See Appendix B). Hard employment
figures are difficult to find. A company pamphlet from the 1930s claimed 200 craftsmen employed at the
Junction in the 1890s. (HCR MU3594). The number does not seem unreasonable, though perhaps it was
more in the range of 150. A Goad's Insurance Atlas map noted 400 hands employed in 1912, a year of top
production. (Vol. VIII, 1903 edition, Revised to 1912). The map shows the expansion of facilities that took
place over the factory's first twenty years to handle the extra capacity.
36 CM Vol. 16 No. 6, 15 March 1889. New work was to be started at the Junction factory while old work
finished at King St. The Junction Comet and West York Gazette reported that “Heintzman & Co. have a
29
separation of the retail and manufacturing operations; 115–117 King Street West was
converted to a downtown retail and warehouse space, while the Junction factory
concerned itself with piano manufacture and distribution, as well as the acquisition and
storage of raw materials.37
At last the company had achieved the necessary expansion—with cheap water and
a tax exemption to add flavour to an already sweet location.38 The company factory was
adjacent the CPR depot at the junction of its east and west lines, with direct rail access to
the woodlots of southwest Ontario and the markets of western Ontario, western Canada,
eastern Canada, and downtown Toronto.39 With the opening up of western Canada, ease
and thrift of transportation were key advantages in a piano market growing rapidly in
both number and geographical distribution of sales. With the increased production
capacity and locational advantages of its new factory, Heintzman was well positioned to
penetrate that market deeply.40
large gang of men on moving their piano machinery etc., from Toronto. It is expected the removal will be
nearly completed by the end of the week.” (Vol. 1 No. 3, Friday 8 March 1889, 4, cited in Garland,
“Suburbanization and the Transition...,” 80–1).
37 Wood was the main piano raw material. Although the exact origins of Heintzman & Co.'s wood supply is
unclear, the veneers were certainly imported as was New York state spruce for soundboards. Native woods
were certainly obtained from southern Ontario woodlands, which were directly connected to the factory by
rail. The large quantities and bulk of the wood made transportation to the Junction much easier than to
downtown Toronto, as was necessary before 1888. Since it was imperative that wood used for the
instrument be properly seasoned and selected it was advantageous for piano manufacturers to supervise the
process themselves. At the Junction Heintzman & Co. had plenty of space to store wood, and a kiln to
further dry it as necessary. As production increased into the twentieth century, the company acquired
neighbouring lots on which to store wood. For a description of the variety and origin of woods used as
inputs in piano manufacturing, see G. Gerald Blyth, “Pianos in the Making,” Canadian Forestry Magazine
Vol. 16 No. 10, October 1920, 450–453.
38 In 1889 the West Toronto Junction Municipal Council passed By–Law #94, which added the provision of
water at cost to tax exemption provisions for all factories that employed more than 20 hands and had at
least half of their employees resident in the town. (WTR RG104 Series D1–D3). In 1897 the tax exemption
was extended to 1 January 1905 (ibid.). Other land improvements were also used as inducements used by
the Junction councillors, so it may be that Heintzman received other “bonuses”, such as the railway siding
that was built. Such improvements were not out of order, since by 1899 the Heintzman & Co. Junction
factory was considered the principal industry of the suburban town. (Toronto Evening Star, 25 July 1899).
39 West Toronto Junction was so named because of the junction of the CPR's eastern and western routes,
originally Ontario & Quebec and Credit Valley Railways, respectively. However, the stations of the Grand
Trunk, the Toronto, Grey & Bruce, the Northern, and the Great Western Railways were also nearby,
making the area one of the best served by rail in the country. (Garland, “Suburbanization and the
Transition...,” 22).
40 Further locational advantage may also have been accrued when Wagner, Zeidler & Company, the
proprietors of the Dominion Show Case Company, and makers of piano keyboards, built a new factory on a
site directly across the tracks from the Heintzman & Co. factory. (Garland, “Suburbanization and the
Transition to Monopoly Capitalism,” 82). Although there is no proof that Dominion Show Case provided
Heintzman with keyboards, the connection seems plausible on circumstantial evidence. Carl Zeidler of
30
iii. Advertising, Exhibition, and Distribution
Heintzman & Co.’s further success in an increasingly competitive marketplace
depended very much on maintaining its high profile through the marketing and
distribution of its product. Since the average piano took four months to build, as demand
skyrocketed in the 1880s, anticipation of that demand and capacity to fulfill it became
necessary. Therefore Heintzman & Co. built a larger and more efficient factory. Yet
concurrent pressure was also brought to bear on the sales and distribution apparatus of the
company, which had to reconcile piano demand and the company’s production. During a
period of strong and expanding demand for pianos such as experienced in late-nineteenth
century Canada, such reconciliation did not create any major production crises for the
company. However, under the guidance of George, the family wunderkind gifted with a
flair for creativity, publicity and the personal connection, the company’s marketing and
distribution systems evolved in a practical direction that emphasized constant expansion.
Market penetration was facilitated not only by a quality product and effective
distribution, but also by communication of the company’s name and reputation by means
of effective advertising. According to H.E. Stephenson and Carlton McNaught, pianos
were the first “luxury” articles to be extensively advertised, and among the most
noticeable users of advertising space in newspapers and periodicals of all manufacturing
industries.41 In the early 1870s, Heintzman & Company promoted its wares broadly and
advertisements appeared regularly in local newspapers such as the Toronto Globe, the
London Free Press, and the Woodstock Sentinel-Review, as well as those trade
periodicals such as the Canadian Manufacturer that would reach the businessman
consumer.42 Participation in trade fairs and exhibitions was another strategy Heintzman
& Co. used to make sales and gain kudos for the product. In its early advertising, th
company emphasized the technical attributes of its product and noted the ten “firsts” and
e
Wagner, Zeidler & Co. was mentioned in Herman Heintzman’s obituary as an old friend, strengthening the
likelihood of a supplier connection.
41 The Story of Advertising in Canada: A Chronicle of Fifty Years (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1940), 15, 187.
See also Roback, “Advertising Canadian Pianos and Organs, 1850–1914,” ff.
42 A Time Book contained in the Heintzman & Co. Records dated 1855–1869 lists several newspapers
under the “Liabilities” rubric, including “Recorder”, “Telegraph”, and “Guardian”. (HCR Series OA MU
3595).
31
4 diplomas it won at provincial exhibitions from 1867–1872.43 Heintzman could not only
count on individual buyers at these fairs, but also made many contacts and bulk sales to
schools, conservatories and convents, a trade that was coveted by every manufacturer for
it served the dual purpose of advertising the product while making a sale in quantity.44
Heintzman & Co. developed a deserved reputation in the country as a Canadian
piano brand to rival the world’s great makers, and attracted the discriminating Canadian
middle-class piano purchaser.45 At the Toronto Industrial Exhibition of 1888, the most
effusive description was reserved for the Heintzman & Co. display. The instruments on
show in the Music Pavilion were of a “very elaborate and fascinating character” and
included a cabinet grand finished in natural oak: “Never before was there such an elegant
and completely artistic and elaborate instrument shown at Canada’s Great Fair.”46
Heintzman’s instruments were exalted as “unrivalled and unexcelled either in this or in
any other country,” and more tangibly, it was noted that the company had been the
recipient of a commemorative bronze medal at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in
London.47 The Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 had been a milestone event for the
company. As far as can be determined, it was the first overseas foray by the company,
and George Heintzman was likely the guiding force. When the new factory was brought
on line in the spring of 1889, it seems that Theodore’s youngest son, 25-year-old Charles,
was given superintendence over operations. George’s tenure as the head of manufacturing
seems to have been short, for by that time his reputation as a salesman had eclipsed his
43 Facsimiles of their most prestigious medals were featured on their piano fallboard stencils. All early
piano advertising contained citations of “First Prize,” “Bronze Medal”, etc., to enhance the reputation of the
house, although with the frequency of trade exhibitions and proliferation of categories, it was not difficult
for almost every “contestant” to walk off with a medal or two.
44 Heintzman advertised its institutional sales often. An undated mock-up of an ad in HCR Series OC
MU2597 notes the University of Toronto, the Toronto and Vancouver Boards of Education, the Calgary
School Board, Alberta College, and the Convents of Mount St. Vincent and St. Joseph's as satisfied
Heintzman & Co. customers.
45 Heintzman & Co. also moved to protect a piano manufacturer's most valuable asset, its name. On 25
August 1888 the brand name “Heintzman & Company” was registered under Trademark and Design Act
(Chapter 13 R.S.C.), the name having been in use since 1866. (HCR Series OA MU3594). Heintzman & Co.
may have been moving to thwart any cheap knock-offs of its instruments under the Heintzman or similar
name by other manufacturers, a practice known as stencilling that was becoming rampant in the United
States. (See Roell, The Piano in America, 1890–1940, ff.)
46 CM Vol. 15 No. 6, 21 September 1888.
47 ibid. This reputation was attributed to technical improvements made to the pianos—a hallmark of all
superior makers—including a patented duplex bridge, bridge ring, improved upright action, etc. The
general flourishing state of the industry was, naturally, “thanks to the National Policy of Canada which
makes such “high chimneys” possible....”
32
technical interests.
Family lore abounds with stories of George’s flair for publicity, and the trip to the
London exhibition is a fine example. The Canadian Manufacturer’s description of
Canadian piano manufacturers at the Exhibition volunteered little detail as to the
Heintzman experience, except that the Exhibition had proved “a desired means of
introduction to the English market, and a good business with Great Britain and Europe is
now anticipated.”48 However, William D. Heintzman, George’s grandson, relates that as
George was tuning and playing the Heintzman pianos in anticipation of the exhibition
opening, he was interrupted and asked if he would receive a visitor. Impressed by the
sounds emanating from behind the curtain, the “visitor”, who turned out to be Queen
Victoria herself, is reported to have remarked, “We didn’t realize that such beautiful
instruments could be made in the colonies.” She was impressed enough to invite George
to Windsor Castle for tea.49 Wherever the truth lay, the story must have made for positive
publicity; after all, associating the piano, the epitome of Victorian family entertainment,
with the eponymous Queen, was a marketing feat indeed.50 More tangibly, the Exhibition
seems to have provided the aforementioned introduction to the English market.51 And
according to the Canadian Manufacturer, Heintzman instruments were bound for even
more exotic destinations in 1887:
Messrs. Heintzman & Co.... are meeting with very large demands for their
instruments, both at home and abroad. In addition to a large number of
sales effected in Great Britain through their London agency, they have
recently closed a contract with the Halifax Piano Company... for 100
instruments to be delivered within the year. Last year their sales through
their Montreal agency amounted to more than 450 instruments. The firms
48 Vol. 5 No. 18, 24 Sept 1886. Heintzman had five uprights and 2 grands on display. Other Canadian
exhibitors included Mason & Risch (9 pianos), R.S. Williams (7 pianos), Newcombe (4 uprights, 2 grands),
Lansdowne (6 uprights), and Dominion Organ & Piano Co. (6 pianos).
49 He accepted. There are various versions of this story in print, including McKenzie Porter’s “The Piano
With the All-Canadian Tone” (Maclean’s, 11 May 1957, 36), the Toronto Star (2 October 1976), and Kelly,
Downright Upright, 64.
50 See Neil McKendrick's description of Josiah Wedgwood's association of Wedgwood china with royalty
in McKendrick, et al., The Birth of a Consumer Society, 102, 108 and ff. Steinway & Sons also emphasized
their royal patrons on their fallboard stencils. (See Theodore E. Steinway's People and Pianos (New York:
Steinway & Sons, 1961)).
51 The Canadian Manufacturer noted “At the recent Colonial Exhibition in London, the Canadian exhibit of
musical instruments surprised the British public, and many of the most prominent musicians, including Dr.
Stainer, spoke in eulogistic terms of the pianos manufactured by Messrs. Heintzman & Co., of Toronto.
The thirty-seven years that this concern has been engaged in the manufacture of pianos have resulted in the
establishment of a most enviable and honorable reputation.” (Vol. 13 No. 1, 1 July 1887).
33
are now in correspondence with parties in Australia, who discovered the
excellence of these goods at the Colonial Exhibition in London last year,
which will most probably eventuate in the sale of large numbers of the
Heintzman pianos in that far off country.52
However, the emphasis on the export trade is likely for publicity purposes, for the
company’s efforts were directed in a more domestic direction. Since George’s “brilliant
success” at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, he had travelled “all over the Dominion
introducing and building up the reputation of the firm, and is now looking after the
principal interests of the business throughout the World.”53 Great Britain, eastern Canada
and Quebec seemed ably covered by agencies, but the west was very much virgin
territory, where Heintzman & Company travelling salesmen had a more direct role to
play. Legend credits George with having ridden on the cowcatcher of the first
transcontinental train into Vancouver while passing out company leaflets. While it is
impossible to substantiate this, George did embark on trans-Canadian sales trips in the
late 1880s, and a network of Heintzman dealers emerged in the Canadian west along the
railway lines of the CPR as a result of the contacts George established.54
iv. Making the Sale
Despite his far-flung travels in the late 1880s, George also spent time in the
Toronto retail operations of the company. George’s daily sales journal from 1887
survives and gives valuable insight into the character of piano salesmanship of the time.
In particular, the character of middle-class consumerism is evident from the strategies
apparent in George’s salesmanship.55 Accommodation was the word, as George would
take the potential customer on a factory tour, visit them at home, set up a Heintzman
52 Vol. 13 No. 1, 1 July 1887. Unfortunately an accurate evaluation of Heintzman & Co. exports to England
is not attainable.
53 Toronto Board of Trade Souvenir, 191.
54 It may have been on one of these trips that he acquired a piece of property for the company in Saskatoon,
perhaps in anticipation of a retail outlet being established. The property, acquired 12 March 1889 was later
exchanged for the site of the eventual Heintzman branch in that city. (HCR Series OB MU3601). J.W.
Patterson (Winnipeg, 1880s), M.W. Waitt & Co. (Victoria, 1890), Jackson & Co. (Brandon, 1895), J.L.
Meikle & Co. (Winnipeg, 1897), The Thompson State Co. (Nelson, 1897), R. Hawson & Co. (Revelstoke,
1901) are a few of the early dealers throughout western Canada. (HCR Series OE).
55 TAHP. The journal covers the period 17 February to 7 December 1887 and records sales, salesmen visits,
customer names and other useful details.
34
piano in the house on trial, and take in used pianos, organs, or even wood as partial
payment in return.56 Competition was stiff and sales were conducted with a personal
touch; visits and even cold-calling of customers by the manufacturers themselves were
regular practices. A typical sale was that made to the Hallett family. Ms. Hallett, the
daughter, was eager for a Heintzman piano, and invited George “up to see her Pa & Ma”
to sell them one.57 He went up a few evenings later for a chat and it turned out that Ms.
Hallett’s sister was trying to convince their mother that a Newcombe was the preferred
choice. George notes that “Octavius [Newcombe, the proprietor of Toronto’s Newcombe
Piano Co.] was up himself only last night.”58 However, George convinced them to come
down and see his wares and got them to let him “put a style 10 in her house, beside [the]
Newcombe” and went up on the next Wednesday to try and close the sale, which he
did.59 George was not afraid to put a Heintzman piano beside the competition, for his
usually prevailed in the comparison.60
Subtlety and ambience were crucial assets for the successful piano sale. First of
all, the retail surroundings were designed to appeal to the discriminating client, as well as
impart an air of refinement and wealth to the purchase and purchaser. Conspicuous
affluence was a good part of the piano’s appeal, and the Heintzman & Co. showrooms
reflected its ornamental purpose in elegant style. In 1887, the 115–117 King Street store
was renovated:
The second floor flat was to become a large show room: a “beautiful
boudoir” with artistic hangings and ornaments on the walls, and expensive
carpets and rugs on the floor. The ground floor, previously the
showrooms, was to be converted to elegant offices with pictures, vases,
56 AO, Kelly & Porter Records Series C (Client Case Files) MU5670 contains an example of a piano for
lumber transaction.
57 George's Sales Journal, 2 August 1887. (TAHP).
58 ibid., 4 August 1887.
59 ibid., 6 August to 11 August 1887.
60 “Went up to Miss McKinnon last night and closed sale with her, ad wrote post card to Dominion to take
this piano away.” (ibid., 6 August 1887).
Setting up an “in-house” comparison was a favourite strategy of George's, presumably to sell the
potential customer on the higher quality of the Heintzman instrument, whose higher price might deter
purchasers early on. Newcombe (6 August), and especially Dominion pianos (30 July, 7 November) did not
do well against Heintzman’s, being of generally lower quality, but George was equally willing to set up
next to a Steinway (15 November). The impression given is that Heintzman bested most of the competition
when compared, with only Mason & Risch and Nordheimer ever succeeding in taking many sales from
Heintzman.
35
etc., to complete the decor.61
This “beautiful boudoir” was designed to impress all those who entered therein,
especially the women, and a factory tour was often offered to appeal to the technical
curiosities of the men. In the targeting of the potential client, the piano man was at his
most devious. On July 29 George called a Mr. Jack Pensom in while he was passing and
showed him pianos. George knew he had just been married and “is going to buy. Mason
& Risch are acquainted with his wife, and no doubt will have to work this careful[ly], he
will be in again with his wife.”62 Disagreement among husband and wife, father or
daughter, was common and it was George’s role to convince the opposing party; indeed,
he often had to sell the piano twice.63
The role of the piano in the Victorian middle-class values has been much
discussed.64 A woman’s opinion regarding the piano to be purchased was important both
because of her role in deciding the ornaments of the home—considered the feminine
sphere—and for the practical reason that women were the primary players of the
instrument. The importance of women in the choice of a piano is well highlighted in
George’s journal. The typical sale involved a discussion of the financing arrangements
with the man of the family, and then a consultation with the lady of the house as to the
style or brand suitable. Rare was the man who dared buy without bringing in his
wife/daughter/sister to confirm the purchase. A fairly typical case was one where George
interceded when a couple, the Lemmons, had ordered a Dominion Piano up to their
house.65 On November 17, George persuaded the Lemmons to cancel the order until they
had visited the Heintzman showrooms. The wife and husband came separately and on
November 17 “they consented to placement of a Style 3 in her house, on approbation, if it
suits, she will keep it.”66 Although the decision was mutually arrived at, there was a
61 CM Vol. 17 No. 5, 6 September 1888. See chapter 3, section iii for a description of a later incarnation of
the Heintzman retail warerooms.
62 George's Sales Journal, 29 July 1887. The couple bought a Heintzman.
63 Sometimes he failed. On 5 November, a Mr. Stubles and his daughter “came in to look at some Pianos,
daughter is going to be married, and they will want Piano. she requested me to go and see her husband...”
But by 10 November, while the daughter was still “in favour of our Piano,... it will be a hard fight with
Nordimer [sic].” There is no indication of a sale, so this may be one occasion when George's persuasive
talents failed him. (TAHP).
64 Roell, The Piano in America, especially chapter 2.
65 George's Sales Journal, 7 Nov 1887. (TAHP).
66 ibid., 17 November 1887.
36
recognition of the home as the woman’s domain (N.B. “her house”) and the woman’s
veto power over the sale.67
Another strategy the company began to use in the late 1880s to bolster the
reputation of its brand was the association of the Heintzman & Co. instrument with
prominent musicians and musical events. This end was accomplished in several ways.
Complimentary Heintzman grands were offered to international artists such as Enrico
Caruso and Emma Albani for use on their Canadian tours.68 Grand piano models were
named after renowned opera stars such as Luisa Tetrazzini and Nellie Melba, “the
Australian Nightingale”. Promotional music sheets were published with titles—the
“Heintzman Waltz” and the “Heintzman March”—that put the company brand
foremost.69 A Heintzman band was also organized to give concerts.70 Another attempt to
associate the Heintzman with royalty came in 1901, when George arranged for the
Heintzman to be used on the Canadian tour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and
York. A Heintzman piano adorned the Royal train and the Royal steamer “Empress of
India”, as well as being used at the concert at Massey Hall. In 1911 the company
produced a commemorative booklet of the 1901 Royal Visit, no doubt to capitalize on the
then-recent coronation of the Duke and Duchess as King George V and Queen Mary.
This direct association of the Heintzman piano with the seat of Victorian culture was an
overt appeal to the tastes of the Canadian piano consumer.71
Institutional buyers were also given special consideration both for the credibility
and publicity they lent to the Heintzman product. The Toronto Press Club, the Toronto
Central Fire Hall, and the Regina North-West Mounted Police detachment were all
67 “Wilson came in with Page? to look at Pianos will have to sell this man right, as he has great influence,
will come in with his wife again.” (ibid., 12 November 1887).
68 The Canadian virtuoso Dame Albani was featured on a promotional fan for the ladies (c.1903). Her
“double-sided” testimonial spoke to the attributes of Heintzman's newly introduced Baby Grand. (HCR
Series OA MU3594).
69 Promotional sheet music was a constant Heintzman & Co. advertising device, as evidenced by the three
different versions of the “Heintzman Waltz” extant. (EMC: “Heintzman & Co.”).
70 The Heintzman & Co. Band was composed of 40–45 players and played regular summer concerts at
Toronto's Hanlan's Point and gave concerts at special events such as the Montreal Exposition. (HCR Series
OA MU3594, EMC).
71 In a Toronto Globe ad from 1927, it was HRH the Prince of Wales who was patronizing the Heintzman
product. (15 September).
37
recipients of discounted Heintzman pianos.72 Schools and religious institutions were
important for bulk sales. In the fall of 1888, ten pianos including a large parlour grand on
display at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition were sold to the St. John Ladies’ Seminary of
Saint John, New Brunswick, and several pianos including a rosewood case grand with “a
very elaborate and fascinating character” were destined for the Ontario Ladies’ College in
Whitby.73 Catholic institutions were the easier sales. George “went up to St. Joseph’s and
made a bargain with the Superior for [a] Style 10 [piano and] we take [a] Newcombe
[piano] in exchange, and get $150....”74 When the western convents of the Sisters of St.
Joseph wanted to buy pianos, their eastern counterparts suggested Heintzman & Co. and
came in to investigate piano prices on their behalf. George obliged them with “special
prices” and was gratified with bulk sales.75 Sales to Protestant churches, however,
required more patience. When Mr. McDonald of Berkely St. Methodist Church came in
to investigate prices for a piano for his church, he had to present his findings and return
“with the committee to decide.”76
v. Summary
Theodore Heintzman’s location in the heart of a city growing in both population
and wealth provided the company with a solid market to exploit from an early date,
despite general recession in the late 1870s. The tariff magnified his success and provided
resources for expansion of the manufacturing premises to a location with technical and
distributional advantages that allowed the penetration of a national market. The
superiority of Heintzman & Company’s product allowed it to conduct a marketing policy
of extensive advertising and exhibition based on the singular merit of the instrument.
72 CM Vol. 15 No. 6, 21 September 1888. Edmonton Journal 15 Sept 1958. Heintzman presented “one of
their best instruments” to the Central Fire Hall, Toronto, “for the use of the firemen.” (CM Vol. 16 No. 4,
15 Feb 1889). Toronto's Ryerson (1899) and King Edward (1902) Schools are examples from the piano
registers. (HCR Series OE).
73 CM Vol. 15 No. 6, 21 September 1888.
74 George's Sales Journal, 21 October 1887. (TAHP).
75 ibid., 19 July 1887. The Sisters of St. Joseph in Fort William bought some pianos and on 1 August the
Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Fort William bought as well. The convent trade was always a featured part of
Heintzman testimonials.
76 ibid., 15 November 1887. George offered them a $40 discount on a cash sale for a piano valued at $310
to $352.
38
Artists’ testimonials, sponsorship of musical events and tours, association with royalty
and high Victorian culture—and sales technique itself—all appealed to the particular
tastes and aspirations of the Canadian middle-class consumer and served to establish and
secure the reputation of the Heintzman instrument in the late-nineteenth century. As the
twentieth century approached, pressures of a more practical kind—primarily product
distribution and company organization—dominated Heintzman & Company’s operations.
CHAPTER THREE
Marketing and Retailing a Household Name
Probably no name is a more universal household word in Canada than that
of Heintzman. This is due to the fact that the Heintzman piano is to be
found in most of the leading homes in the Dominion.
—— Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of York (1907)1
The pressures attendant upon the approaching zenith of the piano industry made
the period 1894–1899 crucial for the Heintzman family company. The death of Theodore
Heintzman in 1899 was a reminder that the craftsman-based piano-making business was
gone. It had been replaced by a booming industry populated by competing corporations
who struggled to outdo each other in a maturing marketplace with subtle modifications in
product and new approaches in marketing. Rapidly increasing production in addition to
the rising importance of sales to institutions and distant destinations forced changes in the
company’s manufacturing, marketing, and distribution approaches in the late 1880s and
1890s. Expositions and exhibitions were venues for many piano sales for the company,
but all sales—retail and wholesale—still centred on the 115–117 King St. factory.2 Like
many manufacturers of the time, sales outside Toronto were accomplished indirectly
through dealers or directly by company salesmen, of whom Heintzman employed four in
the 1870s.3 But in this period the distribution system of dealers and salesmen started to
undergo a gradual transformation as the company’s fortunes gravitated towards western
Canada. With its promising market potential yet underdeveloped infrastructure, the
1 Toronto: J.H. Beers & Co., 1907, 53.
2 Heintzman & Co. were also agents for the American Estey and Taylor & Farley reed organs. Repair,
reconditioning, and sale of used organs and pianos taken in exchange was also an important aspect of the
115–117 King St. operation.
3 The music dealer C.W. Lindsay, with branches across Quebec, was the exclusive Heintzman dealer in that
province, as well as the city of Ottawa. The Maritimes were covered by several small chains centred on the
larger cities.
Heintzman salesman Bill Fletcher used to carry a piano around the countryside by horse drawn
wagon, fake a breakdown in front of a local farmer's house, and request shelter for the delicate instrument
in the farmer's parlour, then coyly sit down and play some tunes. The piano rarely left its “emergency”
destination. (Toronto Star 2 October 1976).
40
Canadian west presented new challenges to Heintzman & Company, which in turn came
at a time when the company itself was in the process of transition from first to second
generation control. Heintzman & Co. met these new challenges with a new corporate
organization, a new method of distribution, new products, and new production records in
the advent of Canada’s Century.
i. Corporate Transition
In its 4 May 1894 issue, the Canadian Manufacturer announced that “Heintzman
& Co. are forming themselves into an incorporated joint stock company with a capital
stock of $205,000, the better to enable them to carry on and extend their business of
manufactures of pianos and other musical instruments.”4 The announcement was
inaccurate, for the Heintzman company was not incorporating, but simply re-organizing
itself to make the transition to a second generation of Heintzman family control.
Theodore, who had been the sole proprietor of the company since 1875 when the
company produced 67 pianos out of its 115–117 King St. factory and warerooms, was
now, at age 77, still nominally in control of a company that produced over ten times that
number of pianos and had a large factory and two bustling retail stores. In practice,
Theodore had begun to retire himself to the practical aspects of piano design while his
four sons together ran the family business.5 To facilitate the transition, Theodore entered
into equal partnership with sons Herman, William, George and Charles on 13 July 1894.6
By deduction it may be assumed that George had assumed direction over the company at
this time, if not earlier. George had the most prominent industrial profile of any of the
brothers, and the move to establish retail outlets occurred soon after the partnership was
4 Vol. 26 No. 9, 4 May 1894
5 CM Vol. 14 No. 11, 7 December 1888. With a private company like Heintzman & Co., it is very difficult
to divine the exact job that each family member held, particularly in the 1890s. As mentioned, Charles was
the factory superintendent until he became an invalid c.1896, while William's position is not clear. Herman
is mentioned in the Toronto Assessment Roll of 1893 as manager of the 115–117 King St. location, and
George as a salesman. By 1898 George has become the manager but Herman is not mentioned.
6 York Co. Partnership Record #399, 7 November 1894, “Declaration of copartnership between Theodore
A. Heintzman, Herman Heintzman, William F. Heintzman, George C. Heintzman, and Charles T.
Heintzman, a relationship that has subsisted since 13 July 1894.” (AO: RG 55–17).
41
registered, a policy that had George’s leadership imprint on it.7
When Theodore Heintzman died in 17 May 1899 at the age of 82, at his home in
West Toronto Junction, the company’s course was well navigated. Theodore’s will left
his interest in Heintzman & Co., valued at $35,597, to George and Herman.8 The
company was held in partnership by George and Herman until 1903, when the decision
was taken to incorporate.9 The company was incorporated under the name Heintzman &
Co., Limited “...to manufacture and deal in pianos, organs, piano-players and all other
musical merchandise....”10 The new capital structure provided for $800,000 divided into
8,000 shares of $100 dollars each. George and Herman Heintzman were the primary
shareholders with 4178 and 3122 shares respectively, followed by the nominal holdings
of William Heintzman (100), Thomas Eagen (40), William Ray (40) and Charles Bender
(20).11 The company’s directors were George (the new president), Herman (the new vice-
7 Company history notes attribute the first retail stores to George's “presidency”. (HCR Series OA
MU3594). As far as industrial profile is concerned, George represented (along with G.C. Royce of Whaley,
Royce & Company) Canadian piano manufacturers at the 1896 Tariff Commission hearings. (CM Vol. 33
No. 12, 18 Dec 1896). The piano manufacturers desired the duty to be left as is i.e. 35%, and wanted a
reduction in the piano hardware tariff (25%) and veneer duty. Walnut veneer was assessed at 10% duty, but
the manufacturers wanted it considered as a foreign wood (5% duty). The piano action manufacturers were
represented by A.A. Barthelmes, a former Heintzman & Co. employee) who claimed fifty hands and a
factory output equal to half the actions used in Canada. He also estimated Canadian piano production in
1895 at about 5,000 and 1896 about 6,000, commenting that “the Canadian manufacturers control the
market in this country.” Barthelmes exported auto-harps to Australia in competition with Germans, but
betrayed his export ignorance by saying he didn't know that 90% of the duty upon raw materials used for
export was refundable.
8 Charles had died on 11 December 1897 at the age of 33. William, though noted as a partner in 1894,
seems to have been excluded in the interim. At the time of the will's execution, William was a resident of
Memphis, Tennessee. Theodore left William an $800 annuity, but his will also stated that “it is my desire
that, at any time after my death, should the conduct of the said William Francis, in the opinion of my said
sons Herman and George Charles, warrant it, William Francis may be re-admitted into the said business of
Heintzman & Company upon such terms and conditions, however, as my said sons Herman and George
Charles shall see fit to impose upon him.” (“Last Will and Testament of Theodore August Heintzman,” AO:
York Co. Surrogate Court Records No. 13506).
George was given Theodore's West Toronto Junction home at 288 Annette St. “as a reward for his
faithful devotion to the interests of the said firm of Heintzman & Company.” (ibid.).
9 The company incorporated by Letters Patent on 25 March 1903. (AO: RG 55 I–2–B Vol. 72 No. 46).
10 ibid.
11 Summary of State of Affairs, 1903–06 (HCR Series OA MU3595). 500 of the shares were not allotted or
subscribed for.
Charles Bender was Theodore's nephew, the son of his partner C.A. Bender, snr. At the time of
incorporation he was sales manager of the 115–117 King St. store. T.H. Eagen, the factory superintendent,
was a longstanding employee of the company. He likely became factory superintendent after Charles
became an invalid a year or two before his death in 1897. William Ray was the long-time company
accountant and a former assistant manager at the 115–117 King St. store.
42
president), and William Ray, the company’s new secretary-treasurer.12 The motivation to
incorporate is not clearly spelled out, but with nearly all the shares held within the
Heintzman family, the acquisition of new capital does not seem to have been a major
consideration. It is more likely that the company sought the prerogatives of financial
protection that incorporation offered—limited liability and a public credit profile that
allowed more ambitious corporate risk-taking—as well as the industrial prestige
conferred.13
ii. The Distribution System
Up to the 1890s the majority of Heintzman piano destinations were to small
Canadian towns, especially in Ontario. Elora, Fergus, Markham, Peterborough,
Woodstock, Port Credit, Berlin, Brockville, Ingersoll, Alliston, Owen Sound and
Arnprior were only a few of the small Ontario towns to which Heintzman pianos were
sent. The well-to-do farmers and gentry of rural and semi-rural Canada boosted the
market for Heintzman instruments beyond the middle classes of larger cities such as
Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Halifax, Quebec City, Winnipeg and Victoria. For
the first thirty years of its existence Heintzman depended on a distribution system
combining factory outlet retailing, wholesale trade and travelling salesman. In Toronto,
the 115–117 King Street address served as both factory and warerooms, then was
converted exclusively to a retail outlet when the Junction factory was built.14 Outside
Toronto, less accessible rural areas were covered by the company’s own travellers, but
customers in town could obtain Heintzman instruments through the local Heintzman &
Co. agent, usually a local retail music store.15
For some unknown reason, Heintzman & Co. corporate records for the period 1903 to 1931 are
not on file at the Company Records Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Corporate Affairs, thus making the
corporate character of this closely held company even more difficult to divine.
12 ibid.
13 It is about this time that the company began to style itself “Ye Olde Firme” Heintzman & Co. Ltd., a
tribute to the company's age and by implication, the permanence and quality of its product.
14 The Junction factory also had warerooms on a small scale. See the Goad's Insurance Map reproduced in
Garland, “Suburbanization and the Transition...,” 83.
15 There is some question as to how exclusive Heintzman agencies were. Certainly the company's travelling
salesmen were not excluded from the hinterland of a town served by a local Heintzman agent. Heintzman
& Co. even carried on a wholesale trade with many dealers in Toronto—an area ostensibly served by its
43
By 1890 the network of dealers was extensive and reached from Victoria to
Halifax.16 The dealers included nascent music retail chains such as C.W. Lindsay of
Montreal and E.C. Corbeau of Regina, as well as reed organ manufacturers like D.W.
Karn of Woodstock and W. Bell & Co. of Guelph, and general stores such as Canada
Book & Drug Company of Nelson, B.C. Wholesale pricing varied by distance and by
dealer. A style 12 piano shipped to Victoria in 1890 was sold for $600, when sent to
Halifax in 1891 it only cost $450.17 C.W. Lindsay, one of Heintzman’s earliest dealers,
was given preferred wholesale prices.18 Since C.W. Lindsay was consistently
Heintzman’s most prolific dealer, with nine branches covering eastern Ontario and
Quebec by 1914, the discount was certainly appropriate.19 By 1894, C.W. Lindsay had
emerged as the dominant dealer in Quebec and eastern Ontario, with Lavigueur &
Hutchison and Gervais & Hudon in Quebec City, W.H. Bell in Saint John, N. B., Miller
Bros. in Charlottetown and Halifax, and the Halifax Piano Co. of the same city. All these
dealers sold significant quantities of instruments, as did various agents in the Canadian
Northwest, including J.W. Patterson and J.J.H. McLean of Winnipeg, and M.W. Waitt &
Co. and Evans Bros. of Victoria. Just outside Toronto, southern and western Ontario was
served by a plethora of small dealers serving the small centres, and the emerging market
of the Canadian Northwest was by and large covered by general stores and the company’s
travelling salesmen.
The exact impetus for the opening of Heintzman’s first retail stores outside of
Toronto is not explicit, but several trends allow one to deduce it.20 The first branch stores
large retail headquarters at 115–117 King St. Frank Stanley and the Daniel Bell Co., reed organ
manufacturers, were two Toronto dealers.
16 There is little evidence of any foreign dealers, and American sales were rare.
17 Piano #7721 sent to Victoria. Piano #6807 sent to Halifax.
18 In 1889 Heintzman pianos wholesaled in the $200–250 range and retailed for $300–400. In 1912 C.W.
Lindsay's discount worked out to about 7% below the average wholesale price.
19 The Montreal agency mentioned in Vol. 13 No. 1 of the Canadian Manufacturer (1 July 1887) was in
fact C.W. Lindsay. (See chapter 2, section iv.). The estimated Heintzman production in 1886 was 571
pianos. If in fact C.W. Lindsay was responsible for selling even half the 450 pianos that was attributed it in
the CM, then it was the major Heintzman dealer of consequence.
20 A company history c. 1925 stated that “The increased demand for Heintzman pianos during this period
[1890s–1900s] was stimulate[d] as well by the fact that Heintzman & Co. began to open up branches of
their own in the principal cities in Ontario and the Canadian West. These outlets for pianos, together with
Agencies in other centres, accounted for the remarkable increase in the output....” (HCR Series OA
MU3594).
Secondary literature on the subject of retailing is significant but its salience to the experience of
the Canadian piano manufacturers/retailers is often tangential. Glenn Porter and Harold Livesay's
44
to be set up were in London (1895) and Hamilton (1896). Since the stores were
established soon after the new 1894 partnership, the retail stores were likely an
expression of George’s growing control over the company’s direction.21 As mentioned,
the distribution of Heintzman instruments in the southern and western Ontario area was
based on a dealer in every town, complemented by the company’s own salesmen. It must
have become clear to George that, given the irregularity of this system and the factory’s
location, it would be easy to rationalize distribution by shipping pianos directly from the
factory by rail to London and Hamilton as regional distribution depots. In addition, the
piano industry was also diversifying into so-called “small goods”—first sheet music and
supplies directly related to their piano customers, and later, phonograph records,
phonographs themselves, and player piano rolls—all piano-related products that could
justify the establishment of retail stores at those distribution points.
Heintzman & Company’s horizontal integration of distribution, from company
factory to company retail store to customer was not an entirely novel idea for a Canadian
musical instrument manufacturer, although only a few other industries—clothing and
textiles in particular—established retail store chains of long standing.22 Certainly
Canadian piano manufacturers differed from their neighbours to the south, of whom none
Merchants and Manufacturers: Studies in the Changing Structure of Nineteenth-Century Marketing
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1971) describes the elimination of wholesalers and middlemen by
manufacturers with the creation of concentrated urban markets and more efficient communication that
made producer-owned sales networks and regional branches feasible. However, their argument is
concerned with capital as opposed to consumer industry oriented marketing and sales. Canadian research
often ignores music and piano retailers entirely. (See especially C.H. Cheasley, The Chain Store Movement
in Canada, McGill University Economic Studies No. 17 (Montreal: McGill University Dept. of Economics
and Political Science, 1929), an article that argues erroneously that the first chain store in Canada started in
Hamilton in 1913 (p.57)). Gaetan Gervais' article “Le commerce de detail au Canada, (1870–1880),” RHAF
33 no. 4, mars 1980, 521–556, is an excellent look at the genesis of small-scale Canadian commerce.
21 See chapter 3, section i.
22 A.&S. Nordheimer began as music dealers with branches in Ontario and Quebec and began piano
manufacturing in association with Gerhard Heintzman in the 1880s. Their branches were often short-lived,
no doubt victims of the logistics of branch management in the 1870s and 1880s. (EMC: “Nordheimer Piano
and Music Co.”). The W. Bell & Co.’s incorporated successor, Bell Organ & Piano Co., Ltd., was probably
the first piano or organ manufacturer to establish a second retail store for its wares outside the city of
manufacture. The company had a store in London as early as 1890 from which to sell its instruments, and
later expanded to St. Thomas and Hamilton. (London City Directories). Mason & Risch recognized the
value of a retail establishment as well, and preceded Heintzman & Co. into London in 1893. (City of
London Municipal Assessment Rolls). R.S. Williams was another organ and piano manufacturer with retail
aspirations, and had stores in Calgary, Winnipeg, London and Montreal by 1903. (Kelly, Downright
Upright, 91).
J.J.B. Forster’s article on James Beatty Grafton (Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. 13 395–
397) notes that the dry goods retail chain of J.B. & J.S. Grafton, one of the earliest retail chains in Canada,
can be dated from the opening of the second store in Owen Sound (1889) and four more stores in the 1890s.
45
established any retail chains beyond a factory outlet or a flagship headquarters store.23 At
any rate, Heintzman & Company’s two new stores were quite successful, especially the
London branch, which moved to a larger store in 1899 and again in 1907.24 From the
piano registers, it seems the London store in particular served as a convenient
headquarters for the company’s travellers in the region, and as a more proximate
distribution point for their sales.25 This hybrid distribution system of sales by travellers
and Heintzman’s own branches alongside existing dealers characterized the southern and
western Ontario market until 1914, when the company seems to have decided to shift the
emphasis to expanding its retail store chain, which accumulated new Ontario branches in
Chatham (1907), Fort William (1908), Stratford (1911), Sarnia (1914), Windsor (1914),
St. Catharines (1914), Peterborough (1916), Niagara Falls (1918), Brantford (1919), Galt
(c.1921), St. Thomas (1921), and Woodstock (c.1921).26 This retail emphasis was
23 The Baldwin Piano Company, renowned American piano manufacturer, was originally a music retail
operation that began manufacturing pianos in 1891. Their retail stores were run almost as independent
music dealerships as divisions under the control of company partners. Though hailed as the “model
organization” in piano distribution and sales as Steinway was in piano production and marketing (Alfred
Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. 2, cited in Roell, The Piano in America, 1890–1940, 99), Baldwin
does not appear to have centrally-managed retail branch stores until the 1920s. Indeed, Lucien Wulsin II,
who became the company president and turned Baldwin into one of the most successful piano
manufacturers in the world, related that the decentralized sales effort of the partner-run divisions was “no
longer efficient or effective” by 1930. In 1953, the company had a “closely knit sales force all reporting to
Cincinnati [the company’s headquarters]...” and operated “eleven company-owned retail stores and supply
hundreds of dealers with the products of our factories.” (Lucien Wulsin, “Dwight Hamilton Baldwin and
the Baldwin Piano,” Newcomen Lecture, April 1953.) Indeed, the idea for this new company structure may
have had Canadian roots. Wulsin reputedly came to Canada to visit Heintzman & Company in the late
1920s in order to investigate their retail operations, which were a combination of company-owned retail
stores and independent dealers. (Interview with William D. Heintzman, 28 June 1994).
24 The branch moved from 236 Dundas to 217 Dundas, on the corner of Clarence, in 1899, a move which
more than tripled the frontage (from 19'8" to 72'4"). In 1907 the branch moved again to 242 Dundas.
(London Assessment Rolls, 1894–1910).
25 The manager of Heintzman & Co.’s London branch was also the district manager for western Ontario,
which included, at various times, the Chatham, Windsor, Sarnia, and Stratford branches. (CMTJ Vol. 26 No.
10, March 1926). By 1921, the Brantford manager was responsible for the Woodstock and Galt branches.
(CMTJ Vol. 22 No. 6, December 1921). Out west, Calgary was the obvious district node.
26 Dates given here are estimates based on information contained in the Heintzman piano registers. (HCR
Series OE). The exact number and date of establishment of Heintzman branches during this period is hard
to determine. The Heintzman piano registers designate piano shipments by the name of the dealer and the
city. For sales by Heintzman’s own branches and travellers, the designation is “H&Co.” followed by the
city name (Toronto is designated as “City” in the early registers). This leads to some confusion as to
whether a shipment to a particular city is to an actual branch store or merely a traveller’s customer in that
city. The dates mentioned here are the first shipments in quantity, as far as can be determined, to cities in
which Heintzman branches were known to have existed by the time a Heintzman circular was printed that
can be dated to 1917 (HCR Series OA MU3594). This method has shortcomings, as travellers’ sales to a
city might predate the actual branch, while piano sales may have been insignificant at other branches. Short
of a detailed exploration of city directories or assessment rolls for each town mentioned after the
46
influenced by the manner and success of the company’s penetration of the Canadian west.
Initially, Heintzman & Company’s western distribution system mimicked that
used in the rest of Canada. The first piano shipped west by Heintzman was #773 which
was sent to Winnipeg on 16 May 1876, and it was followed by other, if irregular,
shipments to that city in the decade that followed. It was not until the transcontinental
line of the CPR was completed that pianos could be shipped in quantity. Concurrently
with the extension of western rail service, George personally established a wide network
of dealers and travellers to penetrate the emerging Canadian Northwest and gain an early
market presence for the company. The move to company-owned retail stores may have
been a response to inefficient service by western dealers, but it is more likely that George
believed that larger profits and surer distribution was to be achieved through company-
owned outlets. Certainly established dealers existed in all the cities in which Heintzman
established branch stores. Yet it must have become clear to George that distribution could
be rationalized, with more profits to the producer. Although piano production seems to
have remained fairly constant throughout the 1890s, 1897 marked the beginning of a
surge in production.27 That autumn the factory was “unusually busy” and was “being
operated over-time to overtake orders.”28 The unusual activity was attributed to “in part
designation “H&Co.”, no sure answer is readily available, although the Heintzman circular from the 1920s
in MU3594 does list the branches and gives a firm indication of their number and distribution in that
decade, if not their exact dates of opening, or closing.
27 See Appendix B. A.A. Barthelmes estimated Canadian piano production in 1895 at about 5,000 and 1896
about 6,000. (See chapter 3, section i.). Production in 1900 was estimated at 10,000 (CMTJ Vol. 2 No. 2,
January 1901). If Heintzman production records are compared to these estimates, a vague idea of the
company’s share of the trade may be established: 15% in 1895, 10% in 1896, and 13.25% in 1900. The
Canadian piano production figures are, however, almost certainly inflated. Production figures were
jealously guarded by companies and no government agency recorded them with any accuracy. Actual
Heintzman & Co. market share could quite possibly be as high as 20% or even 25%, with Mason & Risch,
Bell Piano & Organ, Nordheimer, Dominion and Gerhard Heintzman its main competitors.
28 CM Vol. 35 No. 7, 1 October 1897, and No. 10, 19 November 1897. It should be noted that the piano
trade, like many consumer industries, was seasonal in nature. Sales, hence production, peaked in the last
four months of the year then fell off until the next August, when trade fairs, the school year, the harvest,
and Christmas combined to resuscitate consumer spending. It is apparent that the Heintzman factory evened
out production over the entire year by shipping most of the pianos made earlier in the year to its branches
during the winter, spring and summer, and then focused on supplying the Exhibition and City trade for the
fall. Of the total 1906 piano production of 1855 pianos, 310 pianos (16.7%) were shipped to the Toronto
branch in only four months, from September to December. (HCR Series OE).
Piano production timing could also be a tricky arrangement. Since the standard upright took from
three to 4 months to build, timing was crucial. The constant increases in demand experienced by the piano
industry in the early years of the twentieth century hid the risks of overproduction until the dips in demand
of the Great War, the inflation of 1920–21 and the 1930s brought it to the forefront of manufacturers’
attentions.
47
the Company’s increased demand for pianos in Manitoba.”29 The market was clearly
gravitating beyond the old axis of the St. Lawrence and leading west on the tail of
massive immigration.30 With it, the music business was diversifying, and profit
opportunities stretched to products other than straight pianos, such as the player pianos,
phonographs and their related accessories. Heintzman & Company-owned outlets would
not only make money retailing non-Heintzman manufactured products, but the company
also eliminated the middle man and increased its margin on pianos wholesaled to its own
branches.31 So the company’s new strategy of establishing music stores in still-growing
Prairie communities served the double purpose of facilitating and rationalizing
distribution of Heintzman & Co. products to the Prairie market, in addition to actively
engaging the company in retailing as an equal and profitable complement to its
manufacturing activities.
In February of 1906, the Toronto Globe noted that the report to the directors of
Heintzman & Co., Ltd., stated “the year had been one of phenomenal success—the
greatest by all odds in the history of the firm.”32 2140 pianos—which the paper
characterized as “famous” and “the most costly in Canada”—had been built in 1905, the
highest annual total in the history of the company.33 With production increases averaging
13% over the previous seven years and with no signs of slowing, the time could not be
29 ibid.
30 In 1891 the population of the Canadian West (Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and British Columbia)
was 350,000, in 1901 (with the addition of Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Yukon) it was 645,000 and in
1911 1,735,000, a fivefold increase in only twenty years. By 1931, the population had reached 3,061,000,
indicating that the western piano market had a great deal to do with the success of Canadian piano
manufacturers and Heintzman & Co. in particular. (Historical Statistics, Table A2–14).
31 The branches were also charged a higher wholesale price for the pianos that were sent to them, thus
putting more money directly into the head office coffers. (HCR Series OE).
32 17 February. Although the paper stated that it was the annual meeting, it was reporting on the company
dinner which took place the evening of the day of the annual meeting.
33 ibid. The centrepiece of the evening was one of the illuminated, embossed and framed addresses popular
in the era which was presented to George Heintzman on the occasion of the recent introduction of the
Heintzman quarter grand piano. The purple passage congratulated George for his “latest and greatest
achievement”, the 5'8" quarter grand.
The presentation had a precedent. At 4 o’clock on Theodore’s eightieth birthday (17 May 1897)
the factory employees had gathered on the lawn of 288 Annette St. in West Toronto Junction and held a
party for their boss, who was declared to be the “grand old man of Heintzman & Co., Ltd. [sic].” The
employees presented Theodore with a silver lyre on a walnut shield that would hold his portrait and the
most modern of musical instruments, an Edison phonograph with a large and assorted case of tubes. As the
Heintzman band entertained the party stretched on into the evening when presentations were made by the
president of the Liederkranz Club and the pastor of the German Lutheran Church [First Lutheran].
(Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of York, 53–54).
48
riper for western expansion. As early as 1889, the company seemed to have taken
preparatory steps to expand out west, as evidenced by Theodore Heintzman’s purchase of
a lot in Saskatoon.34 In 1906, the first Heintzman branch on the Prairies was opened. As
with the London, Ontario, branch, the new Calgary store, situated as it was halfway
between Winnipeg and Victoria, served as a base and a distribution point for the
company’s travellers. Calgary was followed by branches in Saskatoon (c.1908), Regina
(c.1910), Moose Jaw (c.1910), Edmonton (c.1910), Victoria (1917), Nanaimo (1917), and
Lethbridge (1918).35 Though the distribution system still depended on the symbiosis of
dealers and travellers, ultimately the company had turned to company-owned branch
stores as a response to market opportunities.
iii. The Heintzman Retail Experience
By 1910 the corporation’s emphasis on retailing was much in evidence in its
flagship store. Sometime before 1908 George had arranged to buy the 115–117 King St.
store building from the estate of Charles A. Bender, snr., which was controlled by
George’s sister Anne Bender (nee Heintzman). The price paid was, at $60,000, a bargain.
On 10 November 1908 an arrangement was consummated whereby Heintzman & Co.
would exchange properties with J.F. Brown & Co. furniture manufacturers. With the
115–117 King St. property (valued at $125,000), $110,000 in cash, and the assumption of
a $125,000 mortgage, Heintzman & Co. obtained an eight-storey building at 193–5–7
Yonge Street and a warehouse at 152–4–6–8 Victoria Street.36 An architect certified that
the eight-storey building had been occupied since its erection in 1904 by the J.F. Brown
Co., as a furniture and house furnishing wareroom, sales room and for office purposes.37
34 HCR Series OB MU3601. A deed for Lot 388, Parish Lot 59, Plan 13, in the District of Portage La
Prairie, 12 March 1889 is in the name of Theodore A. Heintzman. In 1894 it was transferred to the new
partnership, and on 30 July 1912 transferred to Heintzman & Co. from George, Herman and William.
35 Dates deduced from HCR Series OE. CMTJ Vol. 18 No. 6, December 1917, noted Heintzman branches
in Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria, Nanaimo, and Moose Jaw.
36 AO Heintzman Papers, Series OB MU 3601. The Yonge St. property was measured at roughly 64'6"
(Yonge frontage) by 264' deep through to Victoria St. The two companies agreed to lease their old
properties from each other until 31 December 1909, when they moved into their new premises. The
Victoria Street part was sold in December 1912 for $170,000. The mortgage was discharged in 1923.
37 30 September 1908.
49
Though not fireproof, it was “very substantially and solidly built of Concrete Foundation
and heavy Brick Walls...” and in first class condition throughout.38 Hardwood floors,
vacuum system heating, sprinkler system, freight and passenger elevators, and an electric
light generating plant completed the facilities. With the acquisition of 193–5–7 Yonge the
company gained more space for its retail activities, and Heintzman’s flagship store was
transformed into a piano palace.
A company circular from 1913 portrayed the decoration used to transform the
Heintzman building into a paragon of middle-class consumption. Over the Yonge St.
entrance was projected a handsome canopy of bronze and glass leading into a lobby that
featured
...octagonal columns in Italian Renaissance and pilasters of Missisquoi
marble surmounted by elaborate capitals in bronze [that] carry a ceiling of
great beauty and design. The walls between the pilasters are treated in
effects of old Spanish leather.... The eye will dwell with great satisfaction
on the palatial staircase in Missisquoi marble and bronze which leads to
the piano parlors above.... Beautifully designed stained glass surmounts
the series of plate glass windows which light the foyer and corridor.39
Various rooms on the second and third floors were named and appointed with the
corresponding piano styles: the Dutch, Louis XVI, Empire and Louis XV salons were
featured, the walls of which were “hung in rich silks of rose and green and gold [and] all
the wood work being in polished ivory enamel.”40 The decoration was continued to the
fourth floor, the site of the Victrola Parlors and the 300-seat Recital Hall, where free
public Victrola recitals and concerts were conducted on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The
fifth floor was restricted to used pianos and the sixth and eighth floors housed the repair
department, where 40 technicians fixed and tuned and refurbished the stock. The seventh
floor was set aside for the Artists’ Room, where visiting artists could come and play
Heintzman pianos at their leisure while on tour or merely visiting the city.41
Heintzman’s other branches were decorated and designed in the same fashion as
193–7 Yonge. In 1913 the Hamilton branch managed by A.L. Garthwaite moved into
38 ibid.
39 “Sixty Years’ Progress Pamphlet”, c.1913. (HCR Series OC MU3597).
40 ibid.
41 An advertisement in a Massey Hall Programme from 1912 also lists 193 Yonge St. as the downtown
studios of The Columbian Conservatory of Music. (Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library Baldwin
Room Ephemera Collection).
50
new premises at the corner of King and John Streets. The 12,000 square foot three-storey
building included a recital hall, four soundproof Victrola rooms, several piano and player
rooms, and a repair department on the third floor.42 The choice of street corner location
was conscious and made “possible a splendid show window” in which the plate glass had
already been installed.43 The move of the Edmonton branch to new premises in 1920
displays similar priorities. The company often bought the building it occupied when
feasible—in this case the Cristall Block building on Jasper Avenue.44 According to the
manager, W.J. Davis, the previous Heintzman & Co. accommodation was altogether too
inadequate for demonstration purposes.45 The Cristall block store was organized as a
showroom with four phonograph demonstration rooms, one record demonstration room,
and two larger player piano demonstration rooms. “Heintzman Hall”, as it was known,
had a sales staff of 14 all year round and carried not only the standard Heintzman & Co.
player and straight pianos, but also featured the popular Victor, Brunswick and Sonora
talking machines, and “His Master’s Voice” and Victor records.46 W.J. Davis, one of the
most active Heintzman managers, arranged for visiting artists to use Heintzman Baby
grands while visiting Edmonton, and drew large numbers of people to the store through
the sale of tickets for high-class concerts.47
Involvement in the musical life of the community, accessibility to artists who
might give testimony to the Heintzman’s merits, and a well-designed and decorated store
are constant themes of the Heintzman & Co. retail strategy. Consistency was even
required for the colour scheme. In 1917 the Moose Jaw branch’s main display room and
demonstration rooms were painted in cream “in conformity with the decorative scheme of
Heintzman branches.”48 This implied consistent control over retail operations by the head
42 CMTJ Vol. 13 No. 10, March 1913.
43 ibid. Garthwaite’s next step was to arrange Saturday afternoon recitals.
Only seven years later a CMTJ representative found “painters and decorators busily engaged in
renovating” the inside of the Hamilton store. (CMTJ Vol. 21 No. 6, November 1920).
44 The Cristall block was acquired 27 December 1919. Heintzman bought the building which housed its
Fort William branch in 1913 (CMTJ Vol. 13 No. 12, May 1913) and bought the site of its Windsor store in
1914.
45 CMTJ Vol. 20 No. 8, January 1920.
46 ibid., and Vol. 21 No. 2, July 1920.
47 CMTJ Vol. 22 No. 1, June 1921. “Mr. W.J. Davies of Heintzman & Company, Ltd., points out that there
has been a most gratifying demand for Heintzman Baby Grand pianos this spring, and that this particular
model is greatly admired by visiting artists who use it in recital work.” (CMTJ Vol. 22 No. 11, April 1922).
48 CMTJ Vol. 18 No. 7, December 1917.
51
office, and efficient execution by branch managers. The new emphasis on retail activities
of the company modified the management techniques of company officers. After Charles
Bender became general manager late in the first decade of the century, the position of
sales manager of the Toronto store went to a non-Heintzman family member for the first
time. The top executives could no longer concern themselves with the daily operations of
the Toronto retail store, which had become one among two dozen outlets. The trans-
Canadian business trips of Charles Bender, G.B., Howard and George are routinely
mentioned in the CMTJ. The western branches, Montreal, and the eastern provinces were
the usual destinations for these trips, on which Heintzman & Co. executives managed the
geographically spread-out retail branches and confirmed their personal relationships with
their network of dealers and travelling salesmen.49 The western Canada and Western
Ontario branch managers also visited the company headquarters in Toronto to confer with
management on an annual basis. Experienced branch managers, often lifetime Heintzman
employees who began as Heintzman travellers, were shifted to the new branch stores to
facilitate the store’s integration into the community. The banquets of the Toronto sales
staff were well-reported events where camaraderie, selling contests and lots of singing
each had their function in elevating employee morale.50 In a marketplace crowded with
new products differing only by their brand names, efficient distribution and the
enthusiasm of the sales employees took on new importance.
49 These relationships provided Heintzman & Co. with reliable agents as well as friends and staff. Gideon
Hicks, a Victoria dealer and Heintzman agent, was the first manager of the company’s Victoria store, and
the eventual ownership of J.J.H. McLean & Co., Heintzman’s Winnipeg agents, by the Redmond family
was a direct result of George Heintzman’s encouragement of the senior Mr. Redmond to go out west.
(Interview with William D. Heintzman, 28 June 1994). E.C. “Eddie” Corbeau, a salesman in Heintzman’s
Toronto store, was no doubt related to the E.C. Corbeau that was a Heintzman & Co. agent for many years
in various Saskatchewan cities.
50 CMTJ Vol. 23 No. 10, March 1923. A company salesman in the Toronto might expect a diamond tie-pin
or other prize for winning a sales contest.
Since the 1890s company picnics had been an annual Heintzman & Co. event, particularly for the
factory staff and their families.
52
iv. The Products
Since the eighteenth century when Cristofori had radically transformed the
keyboard of his time by striking the strings with felt hammers and in doing so gave birth
to the new pianoforte, piano manufacturing had always been predicated on constant
improvement of tone and design.51 The small tinny-sounding square pianos of the 1870s
had given way to the popular uprights of the late nineteenth century, which more closely
approached the rich tones and power of the grand piano. Heintzman’s “Upright Grand”
was one of these improved instruments that populated middle-class Canadian homes in
the thousands during the first decade of the twentieth century. But keyboard technology
still did not rest and in this mechanical era, the piano too became mechanized.
At the time the player piano was the most exciting new instrument of the
twentieth century. Though not in the vanguard of Canadian player piano construction,
Heintzman & Co. joined in time to experience its most exuberant years. The first
Canadian player pianos were produced in the first five years of the century, but the lack
of a player piano of its own did not adversely affect Heintzman’s piano production.52
However, as it became apparent that the pneumatic novelty was not a transient trend,
Heintzman & Co. developed its first player piano. Prototypes were constructed in 1908
and shipped to the Toronto store in the fall.53 Heintzman’s first six years of player piano
production coincided with the highest production in the history of the company. The
factory produced 14,585 instruments in the five production years 1909–1913, an average
of 2917 instruments a year. The difference in Heintzman piano production between 1908
production (2369) and the consistent figures over 3000 pianos for 1911–13 may be
51 See E.M. Good, Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos: A Technological History from Cristofori to
the Modern Concert Grand (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982), for description of the variety and
creativity involved in pianoforte development.
52 See Appendix B. During this period, Heintzman & Co. may have been agents for an American or another
Canadian brand.
53 HCR Series OE. By this time Heintzman was consistently producing over 2000 instruments a year. In
1909 player production reached 202, and in 1910 307 were shipped.
Straight pianos were made in production batches of 12, as were players as of 1909 (Grands were
usually made in batches of two, but by 1913 batches of six were common for Mini and Baby Grands). The
pneumatic actions were acquired from various sources, including the Otto Higel Co. of Toronto. Heintzman
may even have made their own player actions as there is an ambiguous notation in the registers of “H&Co.
metal players” shipped in 1910. Generally, however, player action origins are not noted, as they were for
straight actions. In 1913 a player grand was built, wholesaling for $800, but players grands were not made
in any quantity; perhaps only a half dozen Heintzman & Co. player grands were ever made.
53
directly attributable to the addition of a player piano line.
Where the company followed the industry trend in the player pianos, it was poised
to lead in another. Heintzman & Co. had been producing grand pianos since the 1880s
and had introduced several models since the beginning of the century. Thus it was in a
favourable position to take best advantage of the demand for a quality brand name
instrument in grand form that became a significant proportion of piano demand from the
early 1900s onwards. As pianos in upright form became more common, so did the desire
to obtain that extra bit of prestige allowed the owner of a grand piano. Heintzman & Co.
produced a well-known, highly respected, and fairly costly brand of piano—all
characteristics which appealed to the cultured and refined consumer, or his emulator.
Heintzman & Co., by virtue of both its reputation and its designers’ skill, was able to
develop and market several new grand piano models and sizes to furnish this market. The
Baby Grand, the Quarter Grand, and the Miniature Grand evolved in complement to
Heintzman’s top-of-the-line concert and full-size grand pianos.54 A Heintzman Mini
Grand could be obtained for as little as $600 retail, compared to an average $450 for a
Heintzman upright. For the wealthier consumer, further cachet was still possible. The
purchase of a full-size Queen Anne or Louis XVI grand piano models would add a touch
of royalty to the home, while the Melba and Tetrazzini models suggested an exalted level
of refinement and musical accomplishment.55 The Victoria branch records list the
profession or trade of many Heintzman customers who bought instruments on time in the
early 1920s. The prestigious grands were sold to the local manager of the Canadian Bank
of Commerce, a merchant, and two dentists, while players went to an engineer, a farmer,
a printer, and the manager of the Model Furniture Company. New Heintzman uprights
were sold to a miner, a sailor, a clerk, a teamster, a machinist and a minister. Whatever
54 The size of the grand was also a factor, as few owners had space for a full-size grand, even if they could
afford one. The small upright piano also came into vogue in this period for similar reasons of space, and
Heintzman seems to have indulged these customers as well. The CMTJ “Regina News Letter” noted: “At
the local Heintzman branch the Journal was informed that there is an increasing demand for the small piano.
The citizens of Regina are appreciating more and more the musical qualities of the instrument in a small
case and the fact that it not only accommodates itself to the small home or apartment but it is less
cumbersome in any home.” (Vol. 21 No. 11, April 1921).
55 The Melba grand was named after the “Australian Nightingale”, Nellie Melba. Luisa Tetrazzini ordered a
grand for her castle in 1922, and she was considered sufficiently distinguished to have a model named after
her. Full size grands were priced according to their relative rarity and prestige value. Queen Anne and
Louis XVI models ranged from $1000 to $1750 retail, depending on the veneers. A concert grand
wholesaled for $1050 in 1923. (HCR Series OE).
54
their station, it seems, the piano was available to almost anyone, and their wealth only
determined the model and not the acquisition of the instrument itself.56 And almost
everyone could afford a phonograph and later, a radio, even in addition to their piano.
With the advent of the player piano, the phonograph and the radio, a profound
change was transforming the nature of musical refinement and accomplishment, hence
the products offered to the marketplace. Piano-playing facility, the culmination of long
hours at the keyboard, was no longer necessary. Music was now accessible to anyone
who could afford the instrument. A player piano was more expensive than a straight
piano, but a simple phonograph could be had for as little as $15. Thus the market for
musical merchandise was widening in the range of products offered even as that for
pianos hit a plateau and remained relatively static. Perforated rolls for player pianos, and
records, were the most important goods to emerge from this new trend, aside from the
players and phonographs themselves. At first, these small goods were adjuncts to the big-
ticket items. Heintzman gave away $15 worth of rolls with the purchase of a player “as it
enables the customer to have use of the piano, and also facilitates sale of the same.”57 In
1913, at the acme of piano sales, the role of small goods was still not clearly defined for
many Heintzman stores. D.J. McCutcheon, the Calgary branch manager, closed out his
small goods and sheet music department owing to “the piano business requiring all the
available space.”58 Yet with setbacks in piano sales in the recession of 1913–15, the
piano roll department had to contribute to the bottom line. Heintzman & Co. tried a
circulating library of piano rolls but did not “think it a good proposition from th
standpoint—there is nothing but second hand music on your shelves....”
e dealer’s
59 Instead, “the
music roll department should be a large one with every business, and be quite a source of
revenue instead of an expense, as it is with many firms at the present time.”60
With the onset of war, the non-keyboard products sold in Heintzman & Co.’s
stores came to dominate, and the branches began to reflect this. With foresight,
Heintzman & Co. was successful in obtaining the Victor, Sonora, and “His Master’s
56 HCR Series OF–6.
57 CMTJ Vol. 12 No. 12, May 1913.
58 CMTJ Vol. 12 No. 11, April 1913. McCutcheon was especially optimistic that sales for smaller
instruments suitable for apartments would be significant.
59 CMTJ Vol. 12 No. 12, May 1913.
60 ibid. “A great many firms simply consider it as a necessary evil to the sale of player pianos and act
accordingly.”
55
Voice” line of talking machines and records. In 1913, the London branch was noted for
its “important Victrola department” and the Heintzman exhibit at the Western Fair that
fall featured the Victor line of talking machines along with Heintzman and Weber
pianos.61 Branches were modified with new phonograph demonstration rooms with
increasing frequency in the 1910s and early 1920s. The St. Catharines branch manager,
G.F. LeRoy anticipated a “materially increased talking machine business as the result of
the installation of three soundproof rooms... [with] partitions of plate glass.”62 The
addition of these new products and the required physical additions proved their worth at
times when the piano market sagged. In predicting a “big” autumn of 1917 after the
depressed early years of the war, E.S. Crawford, the Heintzman & Company London
District Manager, focused his sights on the prospects for Victrola and Victor sales, and
did not mention pianos. During the business doldrums of 1920–21 the Victor line again
bolstered branch sales.63 In the Christmas season of 1921, W.J. Davis, the manager of
Heintzman & Co. Edmonton, reported a splendid Christmas trade, saying that the demand
for pianos had “greatly exceeded that for phonographs and records....” this Christmas,
however he also noted that “the reverse state of affairs was experienced” the year
before.64 Inflation had seriously hurt piano sales, but even as prices retreated in 1921 and
piano sales improved to the point where customers exchanged their previously obtained
talking machines for new pianos,65 recorded music had established itself to the detriment
of the possibility of the piano market completely recovering to its pre-war apogee.66
61 CMTJ Vol. 13 No. 11, April 1913, and Vol. 14 No. 4, September 1913. Although nowhere specified, the
Weber pianos were presumably those made by Weber of Kingston, Ontario, and sold as a second line by
Heintzman branches.
62 CMTJ Vol. 14 No. 12, May 1913. See also chapter three, section iv for details of the modifications to the
Hamilton and Edmonton warerooms.
63 The Heintzman Regina branch advertised its Victrolas: “Enjoyment always results from the purchase of a
Victrola” ran one of its newspaper ads. (CMTJ Vol. 21 No. 12, May 1921 May).
64 CMTJ Vol. 22 No. 8, January 1922.
65 CMTJ Vol. 22 No. 2, July 1921.
66 From the late 1910s, mentions of Heintzman branch sales hardly failed to include reference to
phonograph and record sales. Typical was a note in the Edmonton News column of CMTJ (Vol. 24 No. 12,
May 1924): “In the record department of Heintzman & Co., where Miss Matheson is the popular managing
clerk, astonishment was expressed that the sales in that department should keep up to such a very high
figure. Heintzman & Company, according to manager Davis, has no reason to feel other than optimistic.”
Although all piano salesmen were men, “Miss Mathesons” were considered more appropriate for the record
and music roll departments. Given the large proportion of women who purchased these particular products,
the piano retailers may have felt that the particular musical tastes involved demanded a saleswoman.
56
v. Summary
In the first quarter of the twentieth century, Heintzman & Co., Ltd., had grown
from one factory and three stores to a retail chain of 26 branches across Canada.67 By the
early twenties the company was content with its market penetration and worked simply to
solidify its hybrid distribution network of dealers and company-owned outlets. This is
clear from its advertising strategy: unlike the majority of its contemporaries, Heintzman
& Co. did not advertise in the CMTJ, the unofficial industry periodical, but rather focused
on local papers serving its branch cities. Obviously, Heintzman & Co. management was
not concerned with advertising the company’s products to the dealers and manufacturers
who constituted CMTJ’s audience; they were not soliciting agents for their products and
thus felt no need to advertise to the trade.68 Marketing Heintzman pianos and acquiring
complementary lines of successful musical products—radios, phonographs and the like—
became the corporate focus as the company entered the volatile 1920s.
Heintzman & Company also acquired the agency for Brunswick products in the early 1920s, and
over the decade introduced its Brunswick talking machines, Radiolas, and records to its customers. (CMTJ
Vol. 22 No. 9, February 1922; Vol. 25 No. 9, February 1925; Vol. 27 No. 9, February 1927).
67 On 23 October 1926 the Edmonton Journal noted Heintzman & Co.’s 26 branches and 15 dealers. By
1919 about 75% of the pianos shipped were to Heintzman’s own branches, though the existing dealers such
as C.W. Lindsay, Ltd. (Quebec & Eastern Ontario), Phinney’s Limited (Nova Scotia), and J.J.H. McLean &
Co. (Manitoba) were large retail chains with whole provinces to cover. Five single outlet dealers survived
in Ontario (Allandale, Collingwood, Trenton, Kitchener, Simcoe). Private shipments all but disappeared
from the registers, hinting that the distribution system had attained an acceptable geographic coverage to
obviate much of the need for travellers.
68 This policy is likely responsible for the general lack of coverage of Heintzman & Co. Where large
advertisers such as Willis, Sherlock-Manning, Mason & Risch and Gerhard Heintzman, were often featured
in articles and trade notes, references to Heintzman are usually incidental and brief. The consistent lack of
coverage of Heintzman & Co.’s display at the CNE, CCE and Western fairs in favour of CMTJ advertisers
are cases in point. Heintzman & Co. exhibited every year of the period covered by this thesis, 1885–1930.
CHAPTER FOUR
Selling a Luxury as a Necessity
Music in the modern home has come to be a requisite of the first
importance to the cultured and refined, the magnet which attracts the son
and daughter to the fireside of the parents and the charm which makes
home a haven to the tired mind and body after the day’s toil and
commercial strife. Musicless homes, according to the results of
investigation, are in the majority of circumstances those forgotten by the
son or daughter after a few years in the business world. The modern
inventions which have been brought into action to instill a spirit of repose
and refinement in the residence—the electric light, telephone, well
modelled furniture—these have played their part in the uplifting of
citizenship to its present lofty plane. Yet there is one influence which has
done more perhaps than any of the rest in instilling the refining
influences—the organ or piano.
——— Commercial and Industrial Edition of Port Hope,
Bowmanville, Orono and Newcastle, Ontario (1916)
The day they repossessed my mother’s baby grand I heard them leave,
scaring the canary. The house forgot to breathe, then the fridge began,
louder than ever. The walnut bench still stood, crammed with a thick
Scarlatti in a yellow jacket and the sheet music from Rose Marie. I was
supposed to be their own Yehudi Menuhin someday or failing that, to
simply “play for your own comfort.” Anyway there we were, the empty
space filling the room. I know they expected me to cry but I was mad, at
the canary, its small bones, its timid knees, its inability to make a sound.
——— Nina Bruck, “The Heintzman—1933.”1
The outbreak of war in the fall of 1914 came in the midst of a general economic
downturn visible in 1913. The piano industry was generally healthy, but from 1914 to the
beginning of the next war saw a period dominated by war and the business cycle.2 A
slump from 1913–15, a selective boom from 1915–20, another deep slump in the early
1 Matrix 40 (Summer 1993), 13.
2 Drummond, Progress Without Planning, 148–149.
58
1920s, and prosperity in the later twenties culminated in economic collapse from 1929
onwards. The Great War brought several problems for the industry which excepted it
from the benefits of the wartime economy. The enlistment of many skilled piano
craftsmen was exacerbated by the eventual rationing of wood, metals, and fuel—all the
major production inputs of the industry.3 Since Canadian piano manufacturers were
labelled as members of a luxury industry, they were relegated to a lower priority status.4
The demand for pianos, particularly the automatic kind, remained solid and picked up as
the war wore on, but this first major decline for the industry heralded a more uncertain
era to come. Economic dislocation, saturation of the piano market, and competition for
the middle-class dollar from phonographs, vacuum cleaners and automobiles all
conspired to humble Canadian piano manufacturers by 1930. Yet Heintzman profited
from some of these same trends by emphasizing the diversity of musical products offered
through its own retail stores, particularly the radio and phonograph, while attempting to
minimize the attendant dislocations by participating in industry-wide piano marketing
organizations. Throughout, the company maintained management stability and a
willingness to stretch beyond piano manufacturing to further enhance its profit margins.
i. Association and Management Activities
Much of the credit for spurring and sustaining the demand for pianos against the
predations of other luxury commodities such as automobiles, phonographs and radios
goes to the piano manufacturers themselves, who rallied together during the war and
strongly backed new Canadian trade and music appreciation organizations. Heintzman &
Co. executives were prominent members and directors of many of these organizations,
whose aims ranged from a general promotion of music appreciation among Canadians to
local dealer agreements on piano tuning fees. Local Heintzman branch managers took
3 EMC: “Piano-building.”
4 The “luxury” industry label is one Canadian piano producers fought against periodically from the war
onwards. Their campaign was intimately tied to their emphasis of the necessity of music (hence pianos) in
homes and schools, as well as an effort to avoid the government’s luxury taxes.
The American piano makers proved themselves more effective lobbyists, though admittedly in a
less austere economic situation. The American government allowed them “essential” status for the brief
years of American World War I involvement. The piano manufacturers spent the early years of the war
usurping the German export market.
59
part in various music and piano dealers’ organizations. The Toronto Retail Piano Dealers’
Association was one of the first and most active of such organizations, and the sales
manager of Heintzman & Co.’s Toronto store was the usual representative. Dealers’
associations also emerged in London and Regina, and Heintzman managers were active
participants. E.S. Crawford, who took over the management of the London store in 1913
and was elected second vice-president of the London Retail Piano Dealers Association
for 1914, thought the benefits of the organization were clear:
[Crawford] thought that each [association member] had benefited by the
work of the association financially and socially. His opinion was that the
rental of pianos, the charges for which had been insufficient until the birth
of the local association, had added materially to the cost of doing
business... [as had piano boxes]. With the understanding there was among
the local dealers, both these evils had been eliminated.5
As Crawford noted, the value of such trade associations went beyond industrial
congeniality, but were active institutions that modified the competitive context by means
of fixing service rates.6
Similar issues were on the agenda of the national piano manufacturers’ body, the
Canadian Piano and Organ Manufacturers Association (CPOMA). George was involved
in the CPOMA until 1913, when Charles Bender, then the company’s general manager,
became the regular company representative.7 At the 1917 CPOMA Annual General
Meeting, over which Bender presided as president, the members discussed uniform
industry guarantees with the result that a one-year warranty on player-pianos and three
years on straight pianos was adopted.8 At the same meeting, E.C. Scythes, the president
of a new music lobbying organization, the Canadian Bureau for the Advancement of
Music (CBAM), noted that “In later years... the spirit of co-operation and friendliness has
developed, to the great advantage of the trade and those in it.”9 The most significant
product of this new spirit was certainly CBAM itself, an organization set up to engender
5 CMTJ Vol. 14 No.9, February 1914. The LRPDA was formed in 1912.
6 Roy Hockin, manager of Heintzman & Co.’s Regina branch, was elected to the executive board of the
reorganized Regina Retail Merchants’ Association in 1925. (CMTJ Vol. 25 No. 9, February 1925).
7 The title of Heintzman & Co. General Manager does not appear before its application to Charles Bender.
George seems to have made a regular habit of vacationing for several months early in the year (after the
busy piano season) from about 1913 onwards. As general manager, Charles Bender was probably
responsible for the daily operations of the company. By the 1920s, he regularly presided over company
sales employee banquets and other social evenings in George’s absence.
8 NLC: CPOMA Minutes 1912–1945.
9 CMTJ Vol. 18 No. 7, December 1917.
60
an appreciation of the aesthetic beauty and social utility of music. Charles Bender was
both a member of the committee of the Toronto Retail Piano Dealer’s Association that
introduced the idea of CBAM to the CPOMA annual meeting in December 1917, and a
CPOMA vice-president. At that meeting Charles was elected President of the CPOMA
and the Bureau was founded under his auspices. He served the Bureau as vice-president
for two years, and remained on the Board of Directors until 1921, when George Bradford
Heintzman began to represent the company in his place.
George Bradford Heintzman, or “G.B.” as he was known, was George
Heintzman’s eldest son. Born in 1892, he followed his father into the family business and
apprenticed at the piano trade. His name does not appear in direct connection with
Heintzman & Co. until after he was discharged from the Royal Flying Corps in March
1917 and began to represent the company in various organizations. With his brother
Howard Crichton (b 1896), G.B. was groomed to run the company.10 Herman’s sons
Charles and Theodore were also involved. The younger, Theodore, was involved in the
manufacturing end of the business, but was killed in June of 1918 while serving in the
Royal Flying Corps. His elder brother Charles became sales manager of the Heintzman &
Co. Toronto branch in the 1910s and was appointed assistant general manager of the
company in March of 1917. Charles’ corporate role into the 1920s is vague, and apart
from his succession to his father’s ownership interest in the company when Herman died
in 1921, the management seems to have stayed with George’s side of the family.11
The task of managing Heintzman & Co. in the 1920s rested with six men: George,
Charles Bender, Henry J. Ragen, Charles Theodore, G.B, and Howard. From the outbreak
of the war George, the president, and Herman, the vice-president, appear to have
relinquished the quotidian operations to their nephew Charles Bender, the general
10 Thomas Eagen, the long-time factory superintendent, died in 1916, and Howard had replaced him in the
job by 1925. Meanwhile, the war intervened and only after it had ended did Howard begin his
apprenticeship. (Interview with William D. Heintzman, 28 June 1994).
11 Herman’s share of the company was listed in probate papers at a valuation of $286,200, and the entire
estate at $692,531. Presumably Herman had dispensed with 260 of his shares since 1903. Although Charles
is mentioned as attending a meeting of the Toronto Retail Piano Dealers Association in connection with
William Heintzman, Herman’s brother, assumed the now-vacant, and likely honorary, post of vice-
president.
61
manager, Charles Theodore, his assistant, and H.J. Ragen, the secretary-treasurer.12
George turned 60 in 1920, and although he occupied the presidency until 1942, his role
became, superficially at least, typical of many corporate presidents of the time—a
respectable Establishment figurehead.13 The difference was that the Heintzmans’
Establishment profile was due very much to George’s own accomplishments in business,
and despite his long annual winter voyages—to indulge his golfing or automobile
hobbies14—he remained very much involved in major corporate decisions. Charles
Bender took an active role in the industry as a whole, in addition to his growing
management responsibilities. He continued to serve on the executive and committees of
the CPOMA until 1926, in addition to his involvement in CBAM. G.B. and Howard
Heintzman also became active in the industry. G.B. was the obvious heir apparent by
virtue of both age and experience. He was a member of the CBAM Board of Directors
throughout the 1920s and became its president for 1923–24, at age 32. He then turned his
attention to the CPOMA, joining the Exhibition Committee in 1925, being elected second
vice-president for 1927, first vice-president for 1928, and president in 1929. His brother
Howard, meanwhile, apprenticed in the factory with an eye to assuming the factory
superintendence. The extensive apprenticeships of G.B. and Howard under the watchful
eyes of father George and uncle Charles assured stable management and an eventual
orderly succession in a business climate that was to require both.
ii. Expansion and Merger
While Canadian piano production as a whole was reduced from a resuscitated
24,762 units in 1917 to a plateau hovering around 17,000 in the 1920s, Heintzman & Co.
12 The profiles of Herman’s son Charles Theodore and H.J. Ragen are slight. Charles is mentioned as an
executive of the company, but his role is unclear. Ragen, who was also less prominent, was the financial
man and paymaster, following the Heintzman tradition of hiring financial help from outside the family.
13 George’s status was confirmed in 1921 when he was elected to the board of the Imperial Bank of Canada,
to succeed the late Sir William Gage. George had been a shareholder of the bank for many years. (CMTJ
Vol. 22 No. 1, June 1921). George was also a member of several Establishment organizations, including the
Freemasons and the Empire, Canadian, National, Lambton Golf Clubs. In 1928 George purchased a 15-acre
parcel of land in so-called “Millionaires’ Valley” near the Bayview golf course, where he intended to build
a mansion, but never did move from his home at 23 Woodside Avenue.
14 In the winter of 1921 George won the golf championship of south Florida while wintering in Palm Beach.
(CMTJ Vol. 21 No. 10, March 1921).
62
seems to have acquired market share in the process, presumably due to a thinning out of
the competition.15 Heintzman & Co. grand pianos were in great demand as were its
bungalow piano models, and player pianos, especially the refined reproducing piano,
promised a revived interest in keyboard instruments. Heintzman & Co. made an effort to
market this new player piano that could exquisitely mimic the finest piano performance;
in the spring of 1923, Toronto branch manager E.D. Gray spent a few days down in New
York getting some ideas on the merchandising of reproducing pianos.16 In concert with
the boom in record players, records, and other musical goods, revived piano sales had
boosted retail sales to the point of allowing Heintzman & Co. to pursue its policy of retail
expansion and improvement in mid-decade. By the summer of 1925 new branches had
been established in Nelson, B.C. and Port Arthur, Ontario, and Prince Rupert in 1928,
while the branches in St. Thomas (1923), Chatham (1925), Moose Jaw (1925), Windsor
(1926), and Port Arthur (1928), were moved into new stores.17 The Port Arthur store
began to thrive, new employees were added to the St. Thomas store, and two assistants
were given to Clifford Gray, the district manager headquartered at London, who
predicted a good 1925 fall and winter trade in Western Ontario.18
Throughout the 1920s piano production was steady and complemented nicely by
profits from the company’s retail stores. The strong foundation in piano manufacturing, a
solid distribution system, a confident adoption of complementary musical goods, and
stable management, made Heintzman & Co. a strong competitor. These traits seem
unremarkable on the surface, but, given the number of casualties among Heintzman’s
industrial contemporaries, they were also fundamental keys to success. Small firms with
15 The war and recession of 1920–21 strained the resources of several piano manufacturers. Karn Organ &
Piano Co. and Bell Piano & Organ Co. required re-organization and re-capitalization, while others were
forced to assign.
In 1917, Heintzman & Co. produced about 2322 instruments, or 10.7% of total Canadian
production according to the Department of Trade and Commerce. (op. cit.). Serial number deduction from
the piano registers estimates 1922 production at 2372, or 14% of the market. (See Appendix A). A popular
quotation of Heintzman production in 1922 is 3000 instruments, which would account for 18.2% of the
trade. (EMC 424).
16 CMTJ Vol. 23 No. 10, March 1923.
17 The Windsor store was a replacement for the one that burned down the year before.
Apparently, travelling salesmen still figured into the company’s sales strategy. In 1925, E.D. Gray,
the Toronto retail sales manager, spent the summer assisting the company’s outside salesmen in rural
Ontario. (CMTJ Vol. 26 No. 4, September 1925).
18 CMTJ Vol. 26 No. 3, August 1925. Gray was not speaking through his hat, and the next summer went
into the music retail business for himself.
63
restricted access to capital were vulnerable to brief downturns in the piano market and
unpredictable consumer demand. But in the late 1920s the Canadian piano industry
heavyweights began to tumble.19 Two of them, Gerhard Heintzman, Ltd., and
Nordheimer Piano & Music Company, Ltd., approached Heintzman & Co. and fell into
its lap within months of each other.20
In June of 1927 the Associated Press made public the merger of Heintzman &
Co., Ltd. and the Nordheimer Piano & Music Co., Ltd, both of Toronto.21 Merger was a
generous term, and the transaction could be more likened to a liquidation. As of 1
January 1928, Heintzman & Co. arranged to buy out Nordheimer’s piano and sheet music
stock and collect their paper, amounting to more than $200,000 dollars.22 After a
liquidation sale by Nordheimer, Heintzman & Co. acquired very little of Nordheimer’s
stock. Nordheimer real estate was not involved and the Nordheimer owners gained no
subsequent ownership interest in Heintzman & Co. In describing the motives behind the
transaction, Albert Nordheimer, president of the company bearing his family’s name,
declared that
It was a transaction not influenced by dollars and cents only. Having a
high regard for the personnel of the firm, and the standing of Heintzman &
Co., Ltd., I felt that the merger now effected to be most appropriate and
logical.23
Furthermore, Nordheimer’s decision was a reflection of his views of industry prospects:
I have every confidence in the piano business and the transaction is not to
be taken as an indication that I have not, for I have no pessimistic views of
the trade or of the country. It is true that conditions affecting methods of
doing business have changed, and the industry will necessarily adjust itself
to accordingly, but there will always be a need for pianos, and the better
the instrument, the greater the need.24
19 Bell Organ & Piano Co., the giant of the industry in the late nineteenth century, stumbled towards death
from the war onwards, piano production finally petering out in 1928. (Bell, “A Short History of the Bell
Piano and Organ Company, 1864–1928,” 12).
20 A memorandum of C.A. Bender from 3 April 1947, suggests that there was no active pursuit of either
company by Heintzman & Co executives. (HCR Series OA MU3594).
21 CMTJ Vol. 28 No. 1, June 1927.
22 HCR Series OA MU3594. Heintzman agreed to pay $185.00 for any remaining uprights and $400.00 for
any remaining grand pianos. Nordheimer held a sale for the rest of 1927 and according to Bender,
Heintzman had “very little to take over” when January rolled around.
23 CMTJ Vol. 28 No. 1, June 1927.
24 ibid. Nordheimer compared the piano industry’s situation to that of the railroad business, concluding that
the piano industry was “overtracked”, but that immigration and population growth in general would soon
remedy the problem.
64
Nordheimer’s motives for selling his company were well-known. In 1918, he had been
devastated by the death in France of his son and logical successor, Major Victor
Nordheimer. Reaching retirement age himself, he wished to withdraw from the business
but apparently no family members were available to assume control.25 Maintaining the
prestige of the family name was his prime consideration in disposing of the business, and
he apparently refused repeatedly to licence the use of the Nordheimer name to any other
piano manufacturer.26 Although he had expressed a determination that the Nordheimer
brand and piano would not outlive his involvement in the business, the deal allowed
Heintzman & Co. to obtain the right to use the name and manufacture Nordheimer
pianos.27
The other half of the Heintzman reputation in Canada belonged to Theodore’s
nephew, Gerhard, who had built up a successful piano company in his own right.28 His
death in 1926 also precipitated a crisis of transition in the family company that he had
founded. His son, Armand Heintzman, was involved in the business but felt that it was in
the best interest of Gerhard’s estate that the business be disposed of in order that the
estate could be distributed as he had directed.29 Soon after Gerhard’s death, George
Heintzman was approached and in what was believed to be the largest individual
transaction in the history of the Canadian music business, it was announced that
Heintzman & Co. would buy out Gerhard Heintzman, Ltd. The deal was consummated in
October, when Heintzman & Co. agreed to take the finished output of the factory,
including “the residue, glue, screws etc. together with stock in their store on Queen
Street, West, their branch [sic] at Belleville, Ontario and Kitchener, Ontario, together
with a few pianos in their Owen Sound branch.”30 The purchase also included all Gerhard
25 This situation was not singular. The future of another family company of long standing, the Rosamond
Woollen Company of Almonte, Ontario, was also devastated by the loss of its “Crown Prince” in the Great
War. (See Richard Reid, “The Rosamond Woollen Company of Almonte: Industrial Development in A
Rural Setting,” Ontario History 75 No. 3, September 1983, 266–289).
26 CMTJ Vol. 28 No. 1, June 1927.
27 Bender Memo, HCR Series OA MU3594. Heintzman & Co. began advertising the Nordheimer piano in
1928 and manufactured it as an auxiliary line until 1964. (Kelly, Downright Upright, 67). In the fall of
1927 extensive alterations were being made to the Heintzman Building at 193 Yonge, in anticipation of
acquiring the Nordheimer sheet music stock, one of the best in Canada. (CMTJ Vol. 28 No. 7, December
1927).
28 See chapter 1, section iii.
29 CMTJ Vol. 28 No. 5, October 1927.
30 Bender memo, HCR Series OA MU3594.
65
Heintzman, Ltd. accounts receivable, both wholesale and retail, while the factory and all
retail stores were to be closed. Both the Nordheimer and Gerhard Heintzman companies
had fallen victim to the perennial threat to family companies that Heintzman & Co. had
avoided: the lack of a suitable successor.
The occasion of the buyout elicited a rare comment from George on the prospects
of Heintzman & Co. and on a subject that seems to have been on many manufacturers’
minds in the late 1920s, the future of the piano industry. George stated that his firm
would be in a better position than ever to carry on the production of high-grade
instruments and wield a still greater influence in the country’s musical culture.31 When
asked his opinion of the future of the piano industry in Canada, George responded at
length:
Could there be a more emphatic expression of my optimism than
the purchase we have just made? The piano industry in Canada is on a
more sound basis than it has ever been, with a brighter immediate future
than it has ever had....
Consider the development of our musical institutions, the growth
of our ladies’ colleges, and all [the schools] teaching continually growing
piano classes. Besides the conservatories and colleges, do you realize what
is taking place in the movement to teach piano playing in classes in the
public and high... schools? Then you have the piano-in-the-home activity.
Everybody knows that no home is complete without a piano.
As your own publication has repeatedly emphasized, the piano is the
basis of all music. It is the one complete solo instrument, increasing in use
and popularity for two hundred years, and it will continue to do so. The
piano dealer in Canada is fortunate in the franchise represented in the homes
all about him, and the need for the piano in homes and in every institution
where people regularly gather.32
George’s statement is a fine example of the unrestrained optimism that overcame piano
manufacturers in their public pronouncements. But though his words read like an
advertisement for CBAM, Heintzman & Company had reason to be optimistic. At their
August 1928 conference in Toronto, Heintzman & Co.’s western managers “were more
optimistic then they had been for several years... [being] more than ever sold on the
permanence and stability of high-grade piano business and that much of their success will
31 CMTJ Vol. 28 No. 5, October 1927.
32 ibid.
66
be increased sales of Heintzman & Co. grand pianos.”33 In 1929, when Canadian piano
production had been reduced to about 9,000 instruments, Heintzman & Co. production
accounted for approximately 18% of the total.34 The company also possessed in the
neighbourhood of 20 branches and at least $725,000 in real estate, and a product line that
included three major Canadian brand name pianos as well as major radio, phonograph,
and record lines, and one of the best sheet music departments in the Dominion.35 The
company was poised for continued success for the next decade but the Great Depression
changed its prospects quickly.
iii. Epilogue
The twin collapses of Prairie wheat prices and Canada’s export trade aggravated a
general economic depression which delivered a profound shock to consumer confidence.
All the arguments of George Heintzman and his confreres to the contrary, the necessity of
musical instruments—and pianos in particular—came into question. In the early thirties,
the answer was obvious. In many consumer industries production all but collapsed, and
piano production was one of them. Piano production plummeted to 533 instruments in all
of Canada in 1932, and still further to 384 in 1933.36 The CPOMA did not meet from
1932 until 1940.37 The Canadian Music Trades Journal itself switched its focus and
name to the radio trades—one consumer industry that enjoyed a measure of success—
before it ceased publishing in January of 1933. Heintzman & Co. was mentioned in its
pages only in connection with the activities of its radio department. In December of 1929,
33 CMTJ Vol. 29 No. 3, August 1928.
34 The 1929 industry estimate is quoted from G.B. who was president of the CPOMA in 1930. The
Heintzman figures are deduced from the serial numbers, and summarized in Appendix B.
35 The real estate estimate is from documents associated with a 1931 re-incorporation which included the
factory and five other stores. The exact number of company owned stores in 1929 is not known, though the
Edmonton store property and others may have been sold in the interim. A handwritten note on a letter of 21
Aug 1928 quotes a valuation of the factory and 195 Yonge at $105,000 and $578,250 respectively. (HCR
Series OA MU3594).
36 Foreign Trade Vol. 11 No. 266, 2 February 1952, published by the Foreign Trade Service, Department of
Trade and Commerce, 114–116. This production figure is not to be conflated with 1932 total new piano
sales. Most companies had overestimated the needed production for enough years that piano stockpiles
were huge and manufacture virtually halted.
37 G.B. was a prime mover in the re-establishment of the CPOMA. The CPOMA met on Heintzman
premises in 1940, when G.B. was elected vice-president for 1940 and was president through the war. (NLC:
CPOMA Minute book).
67
the Heintzman & Co. Fort William branch inaugurated an annual radio show at the
Lakehead to spur Christmas radio sales.38 The company’s commitment to radio sales was
evident in a picture that appeared in the CMTJ of March 1931. Heintzman & Co.’s
Regina branch had a company car to deliver pianos, radios, and records, and undertake
house calls to service radios, but in 1931 the radios and records were selling for near
cost.39 In 1933 a Style N piano was retailed for $495—the lowest price in fourteen
years.40 The company salesmen tried to get rid of the old stock—sometimes years old—
while the factory was idle and piano production dropped to its nadir. A respectable 1590
instruments produced in 1929 dropped to only 93 in 1934—a 94% decrease. Howard, the
factory superintendent, spent much of his time collecting from Heintzman piano
customers who were delinquent in their payments.41 By 1934, a company catalogue listed
only 13 remaining Heintzman & Co. branches: Hamilton, St. Catharines, London,
Chatham, Windsor, Peterboro, Sarnia, Fort William, Regina, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon,
Calgary, and Edmonton.42
Heintzman was one of only a half-dozen piano Canadian piano manufacturers to
survive the Depression. To what did Heintzman & Co. owe its survival? The piano
manufacturing operations of Heintzman & Co. did not make money for the company for
30 years—from the onset of the Depression until 1959.43 Thus, it was the retail stores and
their stocks of sheet music, records, phonographs, radios—and even refrigerators in the
depths of the Depression—that enabled the company to survive. A lack of debt and an
absence of significant capital expenditures allowed the company to not only survive the
depression, but the competition of cheaper forms of music and entertainment such as
radio and moving pictures, and the austerities of another war. The company experienced
a measure of post-war prosperity and continued to produce pianos until the next severe
recession bankrupted it in 1980.
38 CMTJ Vol. 30 No. 7, December 1929, and Vol. 31 No. 7, December 1930.
39 CMTJ Vol. 31 No. 10, March 1931, HCR Series OA MU3594.
40 ibid.
41 Interview with William D. Heintzman, 28 June 1994.
42 TAHP. The company branches were forced to sell non-musical appliances alongside their musical
merchandise to stay solvent.
43 Interview with William D. Heintzman, 28 June 1994.
68
iv. Conclusion
This thesis has examined an industrial response to the emergence of a Canadian
middle-class consumer society. Canadian piano manufacturers – and Heintzman & Co. in
particular – succeeded in satisfying a rapidly expanding and broadening market for their
product through extensive marketing and adaptation of their distribution systems to
penetrate the market more effectively. Heintzman & Co. developed a superior product,
then advertised and exhibited it to appeal to the affinities of the middle-class consumer
for quality and a name brand. By virtue of the entrepreneurship and managerial acumen
of various members of the Heintzman family, “Ye Olde Firme” Heintzman & Co., Ltd.,
was thus established as an icon of Canadian musical culture. The company’s success
throughout the period under study owed much to stable family management; George
Heintzman in particular explored new markets and expanded the family firm to exploit
the popularity and prestige of the piano, a commodity that embodied the Victorian ideals
of the emerging Canadian middle class in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth
centuries. Heintzman & Co. also exemplified the maturity of the industrial response to
consumerism by its successful transition from a simple manufacturing-wholesaling
arrangement to a comprehensive distribution system eventually depending on the
company’s own retail outlets which catered to the increasingly wide range of consumer
demand in a mature market. The sale of radios and phonographs in addition to production
of a variety of sizes and styles of piano allowed the company to exploit fully the
spreading appreciation of music evinced by the Canadian population. This retail strategy
of expanding its market penetration and especially its product lines allowed it to survive
and prosper even when the market for its main line of manufacture, the piano, faltered
and stumbled for several years running. While other piano companies failed to survive,
the industry leaders—notably Heintzman & Co., Mason & Risch, and Willis, who all
possessed general musical product retail operations—were able to weather the depressed
demand of the thirties and resuscitate a strong piano market in the post-Second World
War era. This renewal itself was very much founded on the continued role of Heintzman
& Co. in promoting and selling the piano’s use in home and school through its retail
branches, a policy that was the culmination of the experience it gained satisfying
Canada’s emerging consumer society.
69
APPENDIX A
Heintzman Family Involvement in Heintzman & Co., 1850–1934
Theodore August Heintzman
(b Theodor August Heintzmann 19 May 1817 in Berlin, d 25 July 1899 Toronto)
Co-founder (1865), Sole proprietor (1875–1894), and Partner (1894–1899).
m Matthilde Gruenow
Anna Luisa (b 1845 Berlin, d 1933)
m Charles Arthur Bender, snr. (b c.1829, d 1877)
Co-founder (1865), Responsible for financial matters (1865–75), Retired
(1875).
Charles Arthur Bender, jnr. (b 22 Sept. 1869)
Factory manager (1897?–1903), Retail sales manager
(1903–c.1910), and General manager (c.1910–1930s).
Herman (b 23 March 1852, d December 1920)
Bookkeeper (1874–c.1890), Retail sales manager (c.1890–1894),
Partner (1894–1903), and Vice-president (1903–1920).
m Lucy Spink
Charles Theodore (b 1885)
Retail sales manager (1910s–191?), and
Assistant general manager (191?–?).
William Francis (b 1856, d 1925)
Partner (1894–?), Inspector of factories (1900s), and
Vice-president & factory superintendent 1921–25.
George Charles (b 7 Mar 1860, d 1944)
Factory superintendent (1885–c.1888), Partner (1894–1903), and President
(1903–44).
m Clara Hunter
George Bradford (b 1892, d 1961)
Vice-president (1924–1942), and President (1942–56).
Howard Crichton (b 1896, d 1949)
Factory superintendent (1924–1949).
Charles Theodore (b 7 Mar 1864, d 11 Dec 1897)
Factory superintendent (c.1888–c.1895), and Partner (1894–1897).
70
Milestones of Heintzman & Co., 1850–1934
1850 The Heintzmann family immigrate to New York City
1852 The family moves to Buffalo, where Theodore participates in various
piano making ventures, including the partnership of Drew, Heintzman
& Annowsky
1860 Theodore comes to work for J.M. Thomas in Toronto as foreman
and/or partner until 1864
c.1864 Theodore moves out on his own to 23 Duke St.
1866 Theodore enters into partnership with his son-in-law Charles Bender to
make and sell pianos at 105 King St. E. under the name of Heintzman
& Co.
c.1869 Heintzman & Co. move to larger premises at 115–117 King St. W.
next to Rossin House
1875 Partnership dissolved and Theodore becomes sole proprietor of
Heintzman & Co.
1883 Production has nearly quintupled since 1879—from 105 to 514
1885 George Heintzman becomes factory superintendent and general
manager
1886 Heintzman & Co. display at the Colonial & Indian Exhibition in
London, England, and begin to penetrate western Canada
1889 West Toronto Junction factory assumes full production of Heintzman
& Co. pianos
115–117 King St. is converted to retail and warehouse facility
1895 The first company-owned retail outlet is established in London,
Ontario, and followed by a store in Hamilton the next year
Theodore takes in his four sons as partners
1899 On Theodore's death, Herman and George become the owners of
Heintzman & Co.
Piano production reaches 1180 instruments
1903 Heintzman & Co. incorporates, fashioning itself “Ye Olde Firme”
Heintzman & Co., Ltd. George, the president, and Herman, the vice-
president are the major shareholders
1906 Opening of a branch store in Calgary begins a new wave of retail
expansion
1910 The downtown Toronto retail store is moved to the eight-storey 193–7
Yonge St.
1911–3 Piano production peaks at over 3000 instruments
71
1917 A Company pamphlet lists retail branches in 17 cities, as well as 13
dealers. Charles Bender, jnr. is general manager
1921 William becomes vice-president, replacing Herman
1924 G.B. assumes vice-presidency from William; Howard becomes factory
superintendent
1926 Heintzman & Co. distribution network consists of 26 branches and 15
dealers
1927 Heintzman & Co. absorb Gerhard Heintzman, and on 1 January 1928,
Nordheimer Piano & Music Co.
1933–4 Piano production bottoms out at less than 100 instruments
The number of Heintzman & Co. branches is reduced to 13
72
APPENDIX B
Estimated Heintzman Piano Production, 1871–1939
Year Spec.
1871 89
1872 98
1873 100
1874 106
1875 67
1876 89
1877 66
1878 90
18791 05
Ser.
1880 200
1881 266
1882 394
1883 514
1884 524
1885 555
1886 603
1887 611
1888 763
1889 861
Year Ser.
1890 710
1891 865
1892 862
1893 807
1894 747
1895 773
1896 622
1897 887
1898 949
1899 1180
1900 1325
1901 1541
1902 1564
1903 1748
1904 2032
1905 2148
1906 1855
1907 2411
1908 2369
1909 2648
Year Ser.
1910 2783
1911 3052
1912 3052
1913 3050
1914 2740
1915 2046
1916 1998
1917 2322
1918 3061
1919 2064
1920 2513
1921 n/a
1922 n/a
1923 2279
1924 1748
1925 2058
1926 2625
1927 1905
1928 2227
1929 1590
Year Ser.
1930 715
1931 194
1932 418
1933 97
1934 93
1935 171
1936 370
1937 348
1938 282
1939 373
N.B. Spec.= Specifically noted. Source for 1871–1879 and 1883–1887 is TAHP.
Ser. = Estimates derived from serial numbers in HCR Series OE.
Due to the incompleteness of entries, the dates used to derive production for a
particular year vary, thus estimates for some years may be anomalous.
73
APPENDIX C
Estimated Canadian Piano Production, Various Years
Year Units Value
1895 5,000
1896 6,000
1900 10,000
1913 32,000
1917 24,762 $5,057,702
1922 16,482 4,351,856
1927 17,236 4,053,269
1929 9,000
1932 533 151,586
1933 384
Sources: CM Vol.33 No.12, 18 December 1896; EMC. “The Piano Industry in Canada,”;
Foreign Trade 11 no.266, 2 February 1952, p.114; NLC: CPOMA Minute Book.
74
APPENDIX D
Canadian Piano Exports and Imports, 1884–1924
Imports
Fiscal Year Ending 30
June Units Value Value per unit
1884 495 $125,725 $253.99
1889 1057 229,238 216.88
1894 299 64,259 214.91
1899 495 85,216 172.15
1904 659 108,388 164.47
1909 1037 200,203 193.06
1914 2398 425,527 177.45
1919 985 197,977 200.99
1924 1032 249,876 242.13
Exports
Fiscal Year Ending 30
June Units Value Value per unit
1884 $1,399
1889 86 26,855 $312.27
1894 213 53,386 250.64
1899 237 56,191 237.09
1904 341 74,852 219.51
1909 250 65,481 261.92
1914 196 51,408 262.29
1919 301 72,496 240.85
1924 533 164,420 308.48
Source: Canada. Parliament. Trade & Navigation Returns, 1885–1925
75
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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76
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Interview
William D. Heintzman, 28 June 1994.
