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Victor Talking Machine Company
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Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became the RCA Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America until late 1968, when it was renamed RCA Records.
Established in Camden, New Jersey, Victor was the largest and most prestigious firm of its kind in the world, best known for its use of the iconic "His Master's Voice" trademark, the design, production and marketing of the popular "Victrola" line of phonographs and the company's extensive catalog of operatic and classical music recordings by world famous artists on the prestigious Red Seal label. After Victor merged with RCA in 1929, the company maintained its eminence as America's foremost producer of records and phonographs until the 1960s.
In 1896, Emile Berliner, the inventor of the gramophone and disc record, contracted Eldridge R. Johnson, owner of a small machine shop in Camden, New Jersey, to manufacture a spring-driven motor for the gramophone. Johnson immediately became fascinated with the gramophone, and over the next several years developed a number of improvements for it and the process of disc recording. In 1900, Johnson formed the Consolidated Talking Machine Company of Philadelphia which, after lengthy and complex patent litigations, was reorganized in 1901 as the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey.
There are different accounts as to how the "Victor" name came about. RCA historian Fred Barnum gives various possible origins of the name. In "His Master's Voice" In America he writes, "One story claims that Johnson considered his first improved Gramophone to be both a scientific and business 'victory.' A second account is that Johnson emerged as the 'Victor' in 1901, from the long and costly litigations involving Berliner's gramophone patents and Frank Seaman's Zonophone. A third story is that Johnson's partner, Leon Douglass, derived the word from his wife's name 'Victoria.' Finally, a fourth story is that Johnson took the name from the popular 'Victor' bicycle, which he had admired for its superior engineering. Of these four accounts, the first two are the most generally accepted." The first use of the Victor name was on a letterhead dated March 28, 1901.
Herbert Rose Barraud's deceased brother, a London photographer, willed him his estate, including his DC-powered Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph with a case of cylinders, and his dog, named Nipper. Barraud's original painting depicts Nipper peering quizzically into the horn of an Edison-Bell phonograph. Barraud titled the painting "His Master's Voice". The horn on the Edison-Bell machine was black, and after a failed attempt at selling the painting to a cylinder record supplier of Edison Phonographs in the UK, it was suggested to Barraud that the painting might be brightened up (and possibly made more marketable) by substituting one of the brass-belled horns on display in the window at the new gramophone shop on Maiden Lane. The Gramophone Company in London was founded and managed by an American, William Barry Owen. One day in 1899, Barraud paid a visit to the shop with a photograph of the painting and asked to borrow a brass horn. Owen lent Barraud a horn and asked him to bring along his painting when he returned it. When Owen was shown the canvas a few days later, he offered to buy it if Barraud would paint out the cylinder machine and substitute a disc Gramophone. Barraud agreed to modify the canvas but he did not completely eradicate all remnants of his original brushwork. On close inspection of the painting, the contours of the Edison-Bell phonograph are visible beneath the paint of the gramophone. Emile Berliner acquired a United States copyright for the picture in 1900 and Eldridge Johnson adopted the Nipper/"His Master's Voice" trademark for use by Consolidated and the following year, for Victor.
In 1915, the "His Master's Voice" logo was rendered in immense circular leaded-glass windows in the tower of the Victrola cabinet building at Victor's headquarters in Camden, New Jersey. The building still stands today with replica windows installed during RCA's ownership of the plant in its later years. Today, one of the original windows is located at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C.
In the company's early years, Victor issued recordings on the Victor, Monarch and De Luxe labels, with the Victor label on 7-inch records, Monarch on 10-inch records and De Luxe on 12-inch records. De Luxe Special 14-inch records were briefly marketed in 1903–1904. In 1905, all labels and sizes were consolidated into the Victor imprint.
Victor recorded the first jazz and blues records ever issued. The Victor Military Band recorded the first recorded blues song, "The Memphis Blues", on July 15, 1914, in Camden, New Jersey. In 1917, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded "Livery Stable Blues".
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Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became the RCA Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America until late 1968, when it was renamed RCA Records.
Established in Camden, New Jersey, Victor was the largest and most prestigious firm of its kind in the world, best known for its use of the iconic "His Master's Voice" trademark, the design, production and marketing of the popular "Victrola" line of phonographs and the company's extensive catalog of operatic and classical music recordings by world famous artists on the prestigious Red Seal label. After Victor merged with RCA in 1929, the company maintained its eminence as America's foremost producer of records and phonographs until the 1960s.
In 1896, Emile Berliner, the inventor of the gramophone and disc record, contracted Eldridge R. Johnson, owner of a small machine shop in Camden, New Jersey, to manufacture a spring-driven motor for the gramophone. Johnson immediately became fascinated with the gramophone, and over the next several years developed a number of improvements for it and the process of disc recording. In 1900, Johnson formed the Consolidated Talking Machine Company of Philadelphia which, after lengthy and complex patent litigations, was reorganized in 1901 as the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey.
There are different accounts as to how the "Victor" name came about. RCA historian Fred Barnum gives various possible origins of the name. In "His Master's Voice" In America he writes, "One story claims that Johnson considered his first improved Gramophone to be both a scientific and business 'victory.' A second account is that Johnson emerged as the 'Victor' in 1901, from the long and costly litigations involving Berliner's gramophone patents and Frank Seaman's Zonophone. A third story is that Johnson's partner, Leon Douglass, derived the word from his wife's name 'Victoria.' Finally, a fourth story is that Johnson took the name from the popular 'Victor' bicycle, which he had admired for its superior engineering. Of these four accounts, the first two are the most generally accepted." The first use of the Victor name was on a letterhead dated March 28, 1901.
Herbert Rose Barraud's deceased brother, a London photographer, willed him his estate, including his DC-powered Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph with a case of cylinders, and his dog, named Nipper. Barraud's original painting depicts Nipper peering quizzically into the horn of an Edison-Bell phonograph. Barraud titled the painting "His Master's Voice". The horn on the Edison-Bell machine was black, and after a failed attempt at selling the painting to a cylinder record supplier of Edison Phonographs in the UK, it was suggested to Barraud that the painting might be brightened up (and possibly made more marketable) by substituting one of the brass-belled horns on display in the window at the new gramophone shop on Maiden Lane. The Gramophone Company in London was founded and managed by an American, William Barry Owen. One day in 1899, Barraud paid a visit to the shop with a photograph of the painting and asked to borrow a brass horn. Owen lent Barraud a horn and asked him to bring along his painting when he returned it. When Owen was shown the canvas a few days later, he offered to buy it if Barraud would paint out the cylinder machine and substitute a disc Gramophone. Barraud agreed to modify the canvas but he did not completely eradicate all remnants of his original brushwork. On close inspection of the painting, the contours of the Edison-Bell phonograph are visible beneath the paint of the gramophone. Emile Berliner acquired a United States copyright for the picture in 1900 and Eldridge Johnson adopted the Nipper/"His Master's Voice" trademark for use by Consolidated and the following year, for Victor.
In 1915, the "His Master's Voice" logo was rendered in immense circular leaded-glass windows in the tower of the Victrola cabinet building at Victor's headquarters in Camden, New Jersey. The building still stands today with replica windows installed during RCA's ownership of the plant in its later years. Today, one of the original windows is located at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C.
In the company's early years, Victor issued recordings on the Victor, Monarch and De Luxe labels, with the Victor label on 7-inch records, Monarch on 10-inch records and De Luxe on 12-inch records. De Luxe Special 14-inch records were briefly marketed in 1903–1904. In 1905, all labels and sizes were consolidated into the Victor imprint.
Victor recorded the first jazz and blues records ever issued. The Victor Military Band recorded the first recorded blues song, "The Memphis Blues", on July 15, 1914, in Camden, New Jersey. In 1917, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded "Livery Stable Blues".
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