[Arran]

I think that Dennis and his web page seem to have been responsible for the massive increase in Detrola interest in the past few years. The antique dealer Mark Stein (not to be confused with the author and commentator Mark Styne) attempted to spark a similar interest in Sears Silvertone sets but I don't think it was as successful. In Dennis' case his was more of a historical interest, in Stein's case he was probably trying to pump the market.
Stein was more or less responsible for the mania around Emerson sets with Ingraham cabinets, before that they were viewed as a cheap set with a pretty cabinet. His books are also responsible for the many erroneous claims of other makes like Stewart Warner, Brand Z, Stromberg Carlson, Truetone, Firestone, and even Canadian General Electric models being housed in Ingraham cabinets. The last one is so out to lunch I couldn't believe it, not only was Canadian G.E no where near Ingraham's factory in Bristol Connecticut geographically, it isn't even in the same country.
My guess is that Detrola's deal with Western Auto probably expanded their product distribution immensely over anything their own dealer network could have accomplished. Detrola likely would have stayed as a regional independent make like Remler or Garod without the contract to build Truetone sets for Western Auto. If I'm not mistaken many of the Western Auto dealers on the West coast had sets built for them by Gilfillan under the Western Air Patrol brand, pretty interesting sets.
Regards
Arran