History
The Curtis Mathes Corporation started in 1919 as Connor and Mathes, a manufacturer and retailer of automobile and tractor parts. By the late 1920s, the company moved into the air conditioning industry. It also manufactured wooden cabinets and eventually furniture, acquiring Hub Furniture in 1942.
The Curtis Mathes Corporation was founded in 1957 and entered the television industry. On June 2, 1983, its chairman, George Curtis Mathes Jr, 54, was one of twenty-three passengers killed in the Air Canada Flight 797 fire. The company then began to decline, going from a peak of 5000 employees and seven manufacturing facilities to about 50 employees in 1988 when it was sold to Enhanced Electronics. At the time of this sale, it was the last remaining fully U.S. owned electronics company. For a time, the company sold equipment sourced from Matsushita, Pioneer, Thomson, Samsung, Daewoo, Toshiba, and other manufacturers. In the late 1990s to early 2000s, the Curtis Mathes brand became an in-house brand for the KMart discount chain. As of late 2007, Curtis Mathes had re-emerged with products marketed at several discount retailers such as Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Meijer and Target.
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