Tonk Brothers

[Dolamon]

Does anyone have any information on this poor maligned set of brothers? Their name has been attached to L/H, Regal, Washburn, heavy duty kids toy trucks and Hank Williams music but ... I can't find any reference to them on the internet.

(Such things do exist!)

Any help identifying their career(s), history, interests, shoe sizes. etc would be appreciated.

Dion (who probably has too much time on his hands)

[Bob DeVellis]

There is some information in John Teagle's book "Washburn: Over One Hundred Years of FIne Stringed Instruments." Tonk was one of several interconnected Chicago-based music houses in the early 1900s. In a nutshell, they set up operation around 1893. Twenty years later, the last Tonk left the business, which was taken over by Paul Moenning, who continued to run the Tonk Bros. firm. In 1928, Lyon & Healy decided to concentrate on pianos and harps. They sold their Washburn name to J. R. Stewart and their wholesaling operation to Tonk Bros. The arrangement had Stewart building Washburns for exclusive distribution by Tonk Bros. (A slightly different version of the story has Tonk buying the Washburn name from Lyon & Healy and then hiring Stewart to do their manufacturing.) Stewart, expecting big things, geared up production and opened a new factory. Then the Depression hit when the market crashed in '29. Stewart was left overextended with Tonk not ordering any Washburns for fear of not being able to sell them. He went bankrupt in 1930. Tonk Bros. then bought the Stewart factory for a fraction of its value when it was auctioned off as a result of Stewart's bankruptcy. It also acquired the Washburn, Stewart and LeDomino brand names from the Stewart Co. Tonk sold the Stewart and LeDomino names to the Regal Co. When Tonk geared up Washburn production again, Regal was their builder, using the same factory that Stewart had built before the crash. Tonk continued to wholesale instruments from a variety of sources, including Kay and Stella. Many of these companies had interconnections that are difficult to sort out. Chicago was the center of instrument sales and manufacture by the 1930s and there are many incestuous linkages among the various firms it housed, including Tonk.

[Dolamon]

Outstanding Bob - there is also one very minor attribute given in Bob Bronzman's book on National Guitars. It seems one of the reason't the Dopera's moved to Chicago (besides various legal squabbles) was the huge reservoir of talent and distribution channels in Chicago ... which included the Tonk Brothers.

Thanks a lot.

Dion