The Sonora Phonograph Company operated in Saginaw between 1919 and 1930, but cabinets for the New York company had been made in Saginaw for a number of years. Sonora used the "bulge-line" cabinet patented in 1911 by John Herzog in the making of their phonographs.

John Herzog was born in Frankenmuth in 1867. As a young man he worked in furniture factories in Saginaw and Grand Rapids before going to Europe for further experience. With financial backing he established the Herzog Art Furniture Company on South Michigan Ave. In 1923 the Sonora Phonograph Company of New York officially merged with Herzog Art Furniture of Saginaw.

At the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco the Sonora phonograph was awarded a gold medal for its quality. Radios became popular in the1920's, and the company turned to the manufacture of radio cabinets. In 1929 the New York investors obtained complete control, and then went bankrupt in 1930. Sonora workers believed that if John Herzog had been in charge, the company would have survived the depression.

In 1916 alone over 67,000 of these phonograph cabinets were made in Saginaw.