Warwick Manufacturing matchbook

[old_tv_nut]

I don't know exactly what year this is, or if they were manufacturing Silvertone for Sears at this time. Matchbook mentions Clarion brand and has imprint of a dealer with what appears to be a Geneva, IL phone number.

edit - no such address in Geneva IL, Geneva WI, or Chicago, so dealer location is a mystery.

[Einar72]

Interesting discussion over at ARF:

http://antiqueradios.com/forums//vie...2c1d9&start=20

Note there are VKers in the thread. According to the info, Sears had a controlling interest in Warwick. What became of Warwick after Sears hopped in bed with Sanyo and Toshiba is unclear from my brief research, other than the Clarion name is just more re-badged imports since at least the 1980's. Ugh.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

I don't know exactly what year this is, or if they were manufacturing Silvertone for Sears at this time. Matchbook mentions Clarion brand and has imprint of a dealer with what appears to be a Geneva, IL phone number.

edit - no such address in Geneva IL, Geneva WI, or Chicago, so dealer location is a mystery.

The original Clarion brand was used by Transformer Corp of America.
Warwick must've bought the right to the name. Usually the smaller retailers, sold the line.
They built radios for Firestone, Goodyear and others. They started supplying Sears in the early 50's. Probably around the time, Sylvania bought into Colonial, as there was few models built by them after that time.
As I understand, Sears was one of the worst firms to have as a customer.

[Eric H]

I don't know about the dealer but the Warwick manufacturing building is probably here.
http://goo.gl/maps/VJJnF

The newer looking building next to it is 4630 so either there was an address change at some point or this is it, or maybe the whole block was the Warwick plant?

[old_tv_nut]

[QUOTE=Einar72;3060991] ... What became of Warwick after Sears hopped in bed with Sanyo and Toshiba is unclear from my brief research...QUOTE]

They went through a period of "last one out please turn off the lights" and ceased to exist.

[earlyfilm]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

. . . Matchbook mentions Clarion brand and has imprint of a dealer with what appears to be a Geneva, IL phone number.
. . . . . - no such address in Geneva IL, Geneva WI, or Chicago, so dealer location is a mystery.

First clue to the age is that Warwick's address, on the match cover, which has a postal zone in it, and no zip code.

Second thing is to understand something in the past, you have to think like in the past and remember that phone numbers were not standardized in length as they are now.

Nordtvedt - Bolmgren was a large furniture store in the 1940's at 243-245 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, and their phone exchange was "GENEVA" and their phone number was "1821"

They did not need a city or state in their address 'cause every one knew where they were located.


Re: The Warwick factory

Just looking at the aerial photos on both Bing and Google, all the buildings in that block show the same style of construction with original skylight roofs, which do indicate age. I'd say the whole block and remains of the railroad siding (on the N.E. corner) were part of Warwick.

Jas.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by earlyfilm

First clue to the age is that Warwick's address, on the match cover, which has a postal zone in it, and no zip code.

Second thing is to understand something in the past, you have to think like in the past and remember that phone numbers were not standardized in length as they are now.

Nordtvedt - Bolmgren was a large furniture store in the 1940's at 243-245 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, and their phone exchange was "GENEVA" and their phone number was "1821"

They did not need a city or state in their address 'cause every one knew where they were located.


Jas.

Thanks!

I knew about the non-zip postal code, but there were a lot of years with television and without zip codes. Also, I understood that Geneva was probably the exchange and not the town. This could give some tighter bound on the year if the store was in Chicago, because for most of that time Chicago had 7-digit name/numbers (e.g., my grandmother's phone exchange was BErkshire 7). Beyond that, I would have had to start guessing the city, because those Scandinavian names could easily come from many places including Chicago.

Google Earth street view shows an old brick building that is a theater-in-the-round, and has been painted blue, obscuring any signage that may have been there for the furniture store.

[holmesuser01]

Great thread. The whole time I worked for Sears, I got no information from anyone about Warwick. This would be the late 1989-1994 era.

[bgadow]

My feeling is this came from the late 40s or very early 50s, "battery sets" sort of dates it. The first time I'd heard of Warwick was when I picked up a mid/late 50s Wards Airline AA5. When I checked the EIA number I found it was made by them. Must have been just before they became attached to Sears?