The Rola Company 

Rainier Valley/606 Pine Street, Seattle, WA (1924)

34 Conneticut Street, Seattle, WA (1924-25)

45th and Hollis Street, Oakland, CA (1925)                                                            

ROLA manufactured loudspeakers, transformers, wires and the associated magnetic components, as well as radio sets commencing in 1924.

In 1923 Ben Engholm worked upon his radio set, and sought to develop a loud speaker, something which would meet his own needs, but would solve some of the problems which confronted the earlier radio fans. He developed what was to become the Rola Re-Creator which was reported to be superior to other units.

The company was incorporated August 4, 1924 by Ben Engholm, an enthusiastic young electrical engineer, and Henry S. Tenny, proporietor of the Northern Radio and Electric Company. The company was listed in the local Seattle directory as Radio Engineers and Manufacturers of the Rola Re-Creator.

 As a result of a fire the business was re-established at 34 Conneticut Street, Seattle.  

Rola trained a workforce of 62 and began 3 daily shifts in an attempt to meet demand. Capacity was said to be 5000 speakers per month and yet this was still not enough to keep up with orders.

On May 16, 1925 Engholm and Rola relocated to Oakland, California where the company began producing a new Field Coil Cone style speakerattached to the back of a thin,flat, wooden and radically shaped circular facade panel.

In time the Rola Company, Inc. was restructured in Cleveland, Ohio, and by 1930 a corporate offshoot, the British Rola company, was formed in Kingston upon Thames (Greater London), where it eventually paired with Celestion to make speakers for that market. 

Rola's longstanding Seattle connection finally slipped away when Tenny sold his shares in the company on July 1, 1931 -- and then, upon her husband's death in 1945, Engholm's widow sold out to Chicago's Muter Company. For decades, however, Rola's high-quality loudspeakers continued to be a popular component within many radios, televisions, stereos, Hammond organs, and guitar amplifiers (including early Gibsons, Epiphones, Oahus, Gretsches, Fenders, and Danelectros, among others). 

Rola speakers were also manufactured in Australia and New Zealand.