PAYSON PEOPLE
Payson farmer and Edison dealer Charles E. Smith advertised the latest in home entertainment technology in The Paysonian. This ad for the Edison Diamond Amberola appeared in the local weekly newspaper in 1918. The amberola was invented by Thomas Edison and released into the market in 1908. The device was a hand-cranked talking machine with an internal rather than external horn that played phonographic cylinders placed inside. The cylinders were the first type of mass-produced recordings by Edison Records. Edison invented the amberola to compete with the Victor Talking Machine and established Blue Amberol Records (BAR) in 1912. The amberola achieved market dominance and was the most popular recording device by 1915. It continued to sell well — until radio stepped in as the desired apparatus for recorded sound. Edison's BAR went out of business in 1929. And on April 18, 1933, after making a trip to town earlier in the day, Charles E. Smith died suddenly at his home in southeast Payson. He was 73 years old.
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