An interesting advertisement from 1907, not so much for its content but for its address: 10 Cedar Street in Kalamazoo. 10 Cedar Street is not a real address, nor was it in 1907; West Cedar Street begins in the 100 block, East Cedar Street in the 200s. However, 129 West Cedar Street was at that time the residence of Charles Q. DeFrance, Duplex Phonograph Company’s advertising manager. (DeFrance would later become the final president and general manager of the ill-fated firm.)
Evidently, orders that resulted from ads placed in this obscure Missouri newspaper (and perhaps elsewhere) were to be delivered to DeFrance’s home rather than to the Duplex company offices, perhaps to circumvent possible mail disruptions due to court-ordered company shutdowns. Similar ads ran in the same paper for nearly a year, until August 1908.
This same ad features the “Home Concert Collection,” a newly expanded assortment of sixteen complimentary ten-inch records.