Help Dave and Brian uncover Commodore history

A treasure trove of Commodore information exists that has not yet been unearthed and it’s sitting in a basement vault of an archive in Toronto. These documents were gathered in 1965 and contain information about Commodore’s co-founders, including three days of interviews with Manfred Kapp and five days with Jack Tramiel. There are corporate logs (called minute books) and financial documents that can uncover some strange paths the company took, such as a foray into the hotel business in the Bahamas, and the unique story behind Commodore Jamaica. And much more.

 

What will we find out about Commodore? We’ll never know unless we uncover them. We do know there have been hints about Commodore’s exciting past that need to be fully explored and written about.

 

In 2020, both Dave McMurtrie of the Commodore International Historical Society and Brian Bagnall, author of Commodore: A Company on the Edge, independently requested documents from the archives. However, the archives were shut down due to the crisis and only reopened in late 2021. Now we have been able to jointly request scans of the documents, but it comes with a steep price. The examination interviews with Tramiel and Kapp amount to 570 pages. At over a dollar per page that the archivist charges, this adds up fast. We want to unearth more than just the examination interviews, we want the thousands of other pages of business records, financial documents, sworn testimony, and evidence.

 

What it comes down to is we need your help! The best way to preserve these documents before they are lost to time is to back them up digitally and disperse them across the Internet. We will upload the documents to the Internet Archive  so they have a permanent and reliable repository for future generations to explore.

 

Your donation will be wisely spent. If you donate $10 USD ($12.60 CAD), you’ll be responsible for resurrecting 10 pages of material. Or if you’re feeling generous, $20 USD will unearth 20 pages. Every $1 USD ($1.26 CAD) donated will produce 1 page. We’ll credit you for the individual pages you’ve helped uncover right in the PDF. Imagine how much new information you could be responsible for uncovering! Your donation will make a big difference in learning about Commodore’s history. After living in the darkness for decades, these documents can finally see the light, and you can make it happen.

A sample of what we might find