Montreal Gazette, January 12, 1911, page 1:
NEWS AND OPERA OVER TELEPHONE
Stay at Home and Hear What is Going on in the Outside World.
BOON TO THE LAZY MAN.
The Telephone Herald Company May Soon Establish a Plant in Montreal.
The day's news by telephone, opera, drama and vaudeville by telephone, and even the Sunday sermon by telephone, in the quiet of your own home, may soon be an accomplished fact in Montreal, as it has been in Budapest, Paris, and London for years, and lately established in New York and Chicago.
"A boon to the lazy man--and the very busy man as well, entertainment for invalids confined to their beds, amusement for the children in the nursery, a concert for the luncheon and the dinner hour, together with the best of the day's news, and all for five cents," is the description of the service of the Telephone Herald Company given by Mr. Ladislaus de Doory, who was in Montreal yesterday making preliminary arrangements for installing the system here. Mr. de Doory has enlisted the support of some prominent financial and businessmen, in Montreal, and a demonstration of the working of the system will be given shortly.
Every visitor to Budapest has been quick to learn of the "Telefon Hirmondo," as it is known there, for in every room of the leading hotels there is an attachment, and the habit is at once formed of listening to such of its service as has interest at the moment. A convenient programme tells what special feature is due at any moment, beginning with the exact astronomical time at 9 o'clock in the morning, and following with the local and foreign news, parliamentary and official happenings, weather sporting and fashion news, regimental band music, theatres and the opera until 10 o'clock at night. The central office from which this unique news service is disseminated through out the city is described as a news paper office. And instead of a passing fad it is stated to have achieved an enormous success in the past ten years, among the prominent subscribers being the Prime Minister, Baron Banffy, and all the other members of the Hungarian Cabinet, Marus Jokai, the famous author, the Mayor of Budapest, and 80,000 other subscribers, among the common people which are being added to at the rate of nearly 2,500 a year.
In Paris the system is called the Theatrophone, in London the Electrophone, and in the United States the Telephone Herald. Mr. Mainly M Gillam, of the New York Herald, is the president and patents for the invention have been taken out recently in Canada. In New York and Chicago the wires of the Bell Telephone Company are used for transmitting the news of the Telephone Herald, but the company will eventually install their own wires as is the case in Budapest.
Mr. de Doory said he was enthusiastic about the support given the project by the business men of Montreal, and the prospects for an early demonstration here. Mr. de Doory said he had learned from statistics that gramophones were more numerous in proportion to the population than in any other country. The people were apparently fond of staying as much at home as possible, and of having entertainment while at home. A great many people also attended the moving picture shows frequently, paying, perhaps, both for admission and car fare, and to these the very best entertainment and finest music could be given in their own homes for less than the cost of the picture shows. But the greatest boon would be to the aged and the invalid in their homes, patients in the hospitals, the blind and all those who have neither time nor money to go to the theatre, concert or opera.