[Alan Brinton]

Thanks. Here’s a little more.

I was concerned after posting the above that the Silvertone Orgamonicas might have been imported from Italy. I’m still not certain, but I did find the following posted at the Ukulele Hall of Fame in response to a question about where the inquirer’s vintage Harmony ukulele was made: “Your ukulele was made by The Harmony Company of Chicago Illinois. Harmony was owned by Sears, and manufactured many instruments for Sears under the Supertone (and later, Silvertone) brand names.”

The Harmony Company, founded in 1892 was purchased by Sears Roebuck in 1916. That’s the same year in which Sears introduced the Silvertone brand, which started out including phonographs and electronics, later adding musical instruments. Silvertone continued through 1972, and Samick (Korea) purchased the rights to the name, under which it started selling guitars.

Harmony was an actual musical instrument manufacturing company; Silvertone was just a brand name. Harmony did make the ukuleles. Harmony manufacturing continued until 1975. It may be that the Orgamonicas were imported to be sold under the Silvertone brand name.

In any case, the Silvertone Orgamonicas occupy an interesting spot in the history of Italian melodicas, whether they were actually made in italy or not.