Plaza Music Company was the distributor of
Banner and other 1920s popular dime-store labels (Domino, Jewel,
Oriole and Regal). Their assets ended up with ARC (American
Record Company) in 1929 but the company itself continued with the
Crown label after 1930. Plaza announced their own portable,
the PAL phonograph, in June of 1922 and followed up with the
Kompact cameraphone likely after the original cameraphones came to
the US from England in 1924. I am under the impression that
Plaza made the phonographs in the US using parts from Thorens, who
had an office in NY. However, I'm not fully convinced as
Plaza could just as well have bought whole branded machines from
England, whose gramophone industry was heavily dependent on
Thorens parts.
Kompact that doesn't seem to have the 'expanding turntable'
courtesy Toronto repair man, Don Woodrow:
Kompact with 'expanding turntable' dubbed the 'butterfly':
Shelby Sim of Sarnia
sent these pictures of a 'Pal Jr.' portable with a Thorens motor
in 2009:
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