Also Known As The Victrola!
In common usage, any upright or console model phonograph from the early 1900s, usually with a wooden cabinet body and an interior horn for the projection of sound, that plays 78 rpm records using a steel needle.
Table of Contents
History
The Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company(1901-1929) was an American corporation,
the leading American producer of
phonographs and phonograph records
and one of the leading phonograph
companies in the world at the time.
The company was founded by Eldridge R. Johnson, who had previously made phonographs to play Emile Berliner's Berliner Gramophone records.
Photo: A Victor Talking Machine
Some sources also claim Berliner as a co-founder; others say Berliner was never connected with the Victor company, though that may have been part of a ruse by Johnson to defeat the Zonophone lawsuits that had put Berliner Gramophone out of business (in the U.S. but reestablished in Canada) and threatened Johnson's phonograph business. (Zonophone had used patent ruses to defeat Berliner, the inventor of disc records whose technology Zonophone had copied.) In any event, Victor ultimately acquired the remaining assets of Berliner Gramophone; it also acquired Zonophone after defeating it in court.
Name and logo
There is some controversy as to how the name came about. Fred Barnum gives various possible origins of the "Victor" 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' from the lengthy and costly patent litigations involving Berliner and Frank Seaman's Zonophone. A third story is that Johnson's partner, Leon Forrest Douglass, derived the word from his wife's name 'Victoria.' Finally, a fourth story is that Johnson took thename 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."
Victor had the rights in the United States and Latin America to use the famous trademark of the dog Nipper listening to an early disc phonograph. The Nipper dog logo remains on the 1915 factory building, now converted to luxury loft
apartments by Carl Dranoff.
Acoustical recording era
After increasing the quality of disc records and phonographs, Johnson began an ambitious project to have the most prestigious singers and musicians of the day record for Victor Records, with exclusive agreements where possible. Often these artists demanded fees which the company could not hope to make up from sale of their records. Johnson shrewdly knew that he would get his money's worth in the long run in promotion of the Victor brand name. 
Electrical recording era
In 1925, Victor switched from the old acoustical or mechanical method of recording sound to the new microphone based electrical system developed by Western Electric. Victor called their version of the improved fidelity recording process "Orthophonic", and sold a line of new designs of phonographs to play these improved records, called "Orthophonic Victrolas".The large top-of- the-line "Credenza" models of Orthophonic Victrolas had a 1.8 m (6 foot) long horn coiled inside the cabinet, and are often considered the high point of the development of the commercial wind-up phonograph, offering audio fidelity seldom matched by most home electric phonographs until some 30 years later. They were introduced on "Victor Day", November 2, 1925.
On April 4, 1925, Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians recorded Collegiate, a song written by Moe Jaffe, which was the first electrical recording of a song, using Victor's new electrical microphone technology, rather than an acoustic horn.
In 1928, Johnson sold his controlling interest in Victor to the banking firm of Siegelman & Spyer, who in 1929 sold to the Radio Corporation of America, which then became known as the Radio-Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America later RCA Victor. (See RCA and RCA Records for later history of the Victor brand name.)
Victor (Japan)
The Japanese Victor Company (JVC), founded in 1927, severed its ties to RCA Victor at the start of World War II, and is still one of the oldest and most successful Japanese record labels as well as an electronics giant.
Enrico Caruso with a "Victrola" phonograph
1917 Victor Record label
The Victor recordings by Enrico Caruso between 1904-1920 were particularly successful, many of them conducted by Josef Pasternack. They were often used by retailers to demonstrate Victor phonographs; Caruso's rich powerful low tenor voice highlighted the best range of audio fidelity of the early audio technology while being minimally affected by its defects. Even people who otherwise never listened to opera often owned a record or two of the great voice of Caruso.Caruso and Victor Records did much to boost each other's commercial popularity. He made his final recordings in September 1920, only three months before his final appearances at the Metropolitan Opera. Some of these recordings were remastered by RCA to the 45-rpm format and rereleased in the early 1950s as companions to the same selections by Mario Lanza in the "Red Seal" series. Interestingly, however, the labels for the Caruso versions, although designated "Red Seal," were printed on a lighter (gold) background to distinguish them from the Lanza records. Many of both were also pressed on translucent red vinyl.
Victor recorded numerous classical musicians, including Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Victor Herbert, and Sergei Rachmaninoff in a series of recordings at its Camden, New Jersey studios. Rachmaninoff, in particular, became one of the first composer-performers to record extensively; he first made several recordings for Thomas Edison in 1919, then became an exclusive Victor artist from 1920 to 1942.
Orchestras were at a disadvantage in acoustical recordings, due to the limited frequency range of the recording equipment. Musicians had to gather as closely as possible around the recording horn. Percussion instruments, in particular, were used sparingly since many of them could not be heard on the recordings. However, Victor began making recordings of the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karl Muck and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski in 1917. In 1920-21, Arturo Toscanini made his first recordings, conducting the La Scala Orchestra, which was then on an American tour.
The origins of country music as we know it today can be traced to two seminal influences and a remarkable coincidence. Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family are considered the founders of country music and their songs were first captured at an historic recording session in Bristol, Tennessee on August 1, 1927, where Ralph Peer was the talent scout and sound recordist for Victor Records.
During the 1920s Victor also released "race records" (that is, records recorded by and marketed to African Americans).
Victor acquired its Canadian counterpart, Berliner Gramophone of Canada, in 1924.
The Victrola
Above: Cover of The Voice of the Victor (February 1927).
In September 1906, Johnson and his engineers designed a new line of phonographs with the turntable and amplifying horn tucked away inside a wooden cabinet. This was not done for reasons of audio fidelity, but for visual aesthetics.The intention was to produce a phonograph that looked less like a piece of machinery and more like a piece of furniture. These internal horn machines, trademarked with the name Victrola, were first marketed to the public in August of that year and were an immediate hit.
(R) The Victrola Victrola Model XVI, 1910s
Soon an extensive line of Victrolas was marketed, ranging from small tabletop models selling for $15, through many sizes and designs of cabinets intended to go with the decor of middle-class homes in the $100 to $250 range, up to $600 Chippendale and Queen Anne-style cabinets of fine wood with gold trim designed to look at home in elegant mansions.
Victrolas became by far the most popular brand of home phonograph, and sold in great numbers until the end of the 1920s. RCA Victor continued to market phonographs with the "Victrola" name until the late 1950s.
Further Reading
Books about Early Recording & Recordings
Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919 (Music in American Life)
Amazon Price: $23.07 (as of 12/01/2009)
List Price: $34.95
Used Price: $24.97
An act of cultural reclamation - the great lost heroes of black performance." New York Times "Brooks has uncovered a wealth of fascinating detail about the record business, its artists and the range of music they recorded 100 years ago. This engaging work of thorough scholarship is essential reading for anyone interested in the birth of commercial recording and African American music in the early part of the 20th century.
~Samuel Brylawski, Head, Recorded Sound Section, Library of Congress
Spotlight
Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925 (Haworth Popular Culture)
Amazon Price: $47.50 (as of 12/01/2009)
Popular American Recording Pioneers (winner of the 2001 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Award of Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research) covers important musicians who made popular records from 1895 until 1925. You will explore a compilation of facts on these musicians and their records that were scattered in hundreds of record catalogs, trade journals, newspaper clippings, hobbyist magazines, and other sources. Many of the sources used are so rare that only one known copy even exists. An ideal music history reference, Popular American Recording Pioneers is also for collectors of old phonographs, 78s, and cylinders. Some of the artists you will learn about include Billy Murray, Collins & Harlan, and Ada Jones.
Spotlight
A World of Antique Phonographs
Amazon Price: $32.97 (as of 12/01/2009)
List Price: $49.95
Used Price: $61.89
Enter the fascinating and beautiful world of antique phonographs. Brimming with visual delights, this volume boldly goes into the priceless collections of dedicated enthusiasts from around the globe, documenting the amazing rarities and charming curiosities of the phonograph. In this, their eighth collaboration for Schiffer Publishing, the award-winning authors have assembled over 400 full-color images of historic music machines, many never before photographed. The substantive text and captions add much previously unpublished information.
DVD Spotlight
Biography - Thomas A. Edison: Father of Invention
Amazon Price: $22.49 (as of 12/01/2009)
List Price: $24.95
Used Price: $33.66
Further Listening
Edison Sound Recordings - Bundle Pack (5 CDs)
Amazon Price: $74.75 (as of 12/01/2009)
List Price: $74.75
Used Price: $114.62
Record Making With Duke Ellington (1937)
This promotional short for Irving Mills' short-lived Master and Variety labels not only gives us a glimpse of Ellington and his band in the actual Master/Variety studios (as opposed to a soundstage set), but is one of the very few film accounts of how records were recorded, plated and pressed in the long-ago age of analog, shellac and 78 rpm. Narration is provided by pioneer radio announcer Alois Havrilla.
curated content from YouTube
78s for sale on eBay
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand by
Poll
Victrolas on eBay
Fetching new data from eBay now... please stand byCrosley Reproductions
Crosley CR49 Traveler Portable Turntable, Tan
Amazon Price: $120.12 (as of 12/01/2009)
List Price: $129.95
Used Price:
Guestbook
-
Reply
- papawu papawu Jun 20, 2009 @ 1:32 pm
- Fantastic job on this lens with some wonderful historical content. 5 stars.
-
Reply
- spirituality spirituality Jun 19, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
- Great lens - blessed by a squidangel :)
-
Reply
- Justin Dowdy Justin Dowdy Apr 5, 2009 @ 3:57 pm
- LOVED IT!
Thank you soooo much!
This helped my gramophone
Expedition a lot easier.
- Load More
Links
The History of Recording
- Milestones of the Millennium: The History of Recording
- Listen as Lisa and Dennis Rooney cover the history and impact of music recording in this online feature from the Milestones of the Millenium series. ...
- Technical history of recording -Introduction
- The following overview is for those interested in the technical side of sound recording's history. Actually, that is this site's focus. ...
- History of Radio
- De Forest began the longest lawsuit in radio history in 1915 when he sued .... Return to Recording Technology History Notes | this page revised 8/29/01.
- Recording: The History of Recorded Music (2010)
- With Clint Eastwood, Quincy Jones, Phil Spector. An eight-part documentary series that explores the interaction between technology and music in creating ...
- History of Phonograph Record Technology - Introduction
- There was sound recording before the phonograph, but not sound reproduction. In 1856 or '57, years before the invention of the phonograph, French inventor ...
- Historical Review of the History of Technoolgies for Recording Music
- Overview History of the Technologies for Recording Music and Sound. The first recording devices were scientific instruments used to capture and study sound ...
- BBC - h2g2 - The History of Magnetic Recording
- He published a description of magnetic recording in Electrical World magazine in 1888. In this article, Smith described the basic theory of all magnetic ...
- A Selected History of Magnetic Recording
- in magnetic tape recording history led to some pa-. pers on selected subjects (Oberlin Smith and Walter. Weber), of which this one is a preliminary version ...
- History of Magnetic Recording
- The following history was written by Semi J. Begun who pioneered magnetic tape recording at the Brush Development Company in Cleveland, Ohio. ...
- Films and Videos and CDs on Sound Recording History
- About A Hundred Years-A History of Sound Recording (Symposium CD 1222) marks a century of commercial recording in the United Kingdom, from Symposium Records ...
- The history of the recording industry
- The recording industry took off when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. Since then, the innovations have been increasingly dynamic.
- 78 rpm record labels
- An A to Z
Internet Radio Stations
- Radio Dismuke
- Dismuke's Virtual Talking Machine
- Rich Conaty's
- "The Big Broadcast"
- The Official Yesterday USA
- Player and Homepage
- WeimarRundfunk
- 20s & 30s Music
- Elite Syncopations
- Ragtime Radio!
- Radio Moscow
- Early 1900s
- RADIOLA!
- Andy Senior's radio broadcast!
- Sweet & Lovely
- Ian House's Radio Broadcast of jazz age music
- Ken McPhersons' Red Hot Jazz Podcasts!
- Ken McPhersons' Red Hot Jazz Podcasts!
A great selection of red hot jazz - always lots of new stuff to listen to!
On-Line Discussion Groups
- RedHotJazz
- This group is dedicated to all styles and aspects of pre-war jazz. It was named after the Red Hot Jazz Archives, with kind permission of Mr Scott Alexander.
- phonolist
- Antique Phonograph Afficionado List
- American Dance Bands
- In the first half of the 20th century America was a melting-pot of different cultures, and nowhere was that more apparent than in its music. The purpose of this group is to celebrate the huge variety of dance bands which existed at that time, as well as current bands that recreate their sounds.
- australian-dance-bands
- A discussion forum/website for all who loved the Australian Dance Bands and band vocalists of the 20's to the 70's,other bands and vocalists can also be discussed from the same era.
- british-dance-bands
- The forum for all who love the Great British Dance Bands of the 1920's,1930's and 1940's ( relevant bands thereafter) as well as the popular music of that era known as The Golden Age of British Dance Bands.
- Vintage Audio Circle
- A group that will discuss all aspects of vintage audio recordings and the artists and people who made them. Focusing on recordings from the earliest Edison experiments to cylinder recordings to 78s.
- 78-C-2
- For collectors of early sound recordings, including 78's to buy/sell or trade vintage recorded music - OPEN TO EVERYONE. This list is for anyone interested in buying/selling or trading early vintage sound recordings and related material.
- RED HOT JAZZ
- Dedicated to the preservation of jazz video and audio files from the 1920's to the present.
- hotjazzrecords
- Hot Jazz Records 1917-1937
The Red Hot Jazz Feed!
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byOn This Day In Jazz Age Music!
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byFeatured Lenses...
-
Vintage Sheet Music
-
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SHEET MUSIC People have always loved music. It is said that almost anywhere one goes in the world, there will be somebody playing some kind of rhythm and tune, even if it is just hitting two sticks together! In the early 1900s, p...
-
Everything Vintage!
-
vin·tage adj. Of or relating to a vintage. Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic.
-
Red Hot Jazz
-
JAZZ -noun 1. music originating in New Orleans around the beginning of the 20th century and subsequently developing through various increasingly complex styles, generally marked by intricate, propulsive rhythms, polyphonic ensemble playing, improvis...
-
SUPERBATONE RECORDS
-
SUPERBATONE CDs shine the coherent light on a wide variety of historic music and entertainment ranging in time from the very dawn of recording to the end of the 78 era (1888 - 1960). SUPERBATONE'S MISSION is to startle listeners with unknown, great m...
-
Crooners and Songbirds
-
The Jazz Age! Tin Pan Alley!! The Great White Way!!! croon ( P ) Pronunciation Key (krn) v. crooned, croon·ing, croons v. intr. 1. To hum or sing softly. 2. To sing popul...
Lensmaster confetta has been a member since July 27 2007, has rated 419 lenses, favorited 285, and has created 123 lenses from scratch. This member's top-ranked page is "SUPERBATONE RECORDS". See all my lenses
My Bio
DON'T FORGET!
ADD ME, NKAY?
follow confetta at http://twitter.com
Get the ON THIS DAY IN JAZZ AGE MUSIC! widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox!
Visit On This Day In Jazz Age Music
by confetta
ADD ME, NKAY?
follow confetta at http://twitter.com
Get the ON THIS DAY IN JAZZ AGE MUSIC! widget and many other great free widgets at... (more)
Explore related pages
SUPERBATONE RECORDS- SUPERBATONE CDs shine the coherent light on a wide variety of historic music and...
The Flappers!- flap*per n. 1. A broad flexible part, such as a flipper. 2. A young woman, espec...
The Jazz Age- The Jazz Age describes the period from 1918-1929, the years between the end of W...
Vintage Sheet Music- A BRIEF HISTORY OF SHEET MUSIC People have always loved music. It is said that a...
Ethel Waters- Background information: Born October 31, 1896(1896-10-31) Chester, Pennsylvania,...
Whispering Jack Smith- Jack Smith (31 May 1898 in New York City - 13 May 1950 in New York City) was kno...
