The long row of phonographs looked like a collection gone bad. They were in various states of disrepair, they were dusty, and they were neglected.
The auction house staff had laid them out side by side on tabletops and under tables. Some were in what were once and could still be lovely cabinets. I was acquainted with the names Victor and RCA Victor and the familiar trademark dog listening to “His Master’s Voice,” but I also saw Edison and Brunswick stamped in gold script inside the top covers of several. Those were not familiar to me as phonograph makers, but I found out later that Thomas Edison (the light bulb) was the actual inventor of the phonograph.
None of them had the large horns that practically overshadowed the very early models.
These apparently had been someone’s prized possessions, because this person kept meticulous records. Underneath one table were binders with pamphlets, letters and other correspondence about phonograph records and players, along with record dusters and other related items I did not recognize. This collector – like most who value their holdings – seemed to have made himself or herself an expert on phonographs.
Although they were caked in dust now and needed work, these phonographs were likely dusted, repaired and cared for by their owner long ago. Now, they looked like old relics, tossed in the “we-don’t-want-them” bin by someone else who didn’t have the time or the inclination or the desire to preserve them.
I was curious as usual about where the previous owner had kept the phonographs, since there were so many of them and they looked so heavy. They came from an era when everything seemed to be made big, even down to the long fat arms whose needles played the 78 records. Once, these big babies exuded prestige and class for anyone who could afford them.
The earliest phonographs were popularized by a man named Eldridge Johnson, owner of a small machine shop in Camden, NJ, in the late 19th century. He had been asked by the inventor of a flat phonograph disc record to make a low-cost motor for his phonograph machine. Johnson started his own company – calling it the Victor Talking Machine Co. – in 1901 and made improvements to the machine. He was quite successful, but soon found that the huge horn that emitted the sound was a pain and people found them an unsightly sight in their homes.
Around the turn of the 20th century, Johnson and his company made cabinets to hide the horns and turntable, called this new invention the Victrola and patented it. In 1907, the first table top Victrola was introduced but it flopped. A cheaper model was sold four years later.
At the start, most of the phonographs were bought by the wealthy, but the company eventually made a cheaper model for everyday folks. The phonographs remained very popular, surviving a lull in manufacturing during WWI when the company made war-related products.
Competition from the emerging radio in the 1920s hurt the company’s sales, and retailers were practically giving away the phonographs. Johnson joined with RCA to sell radio-record player sets that did quite well. In 1929, RCA bought the company and called it RCA Victor.
Victor is known just as much for its recordings. Many of the country’s most noted classical singers and orchestras around the same time were on the label. The company also made what were called “race records” for African American listeners, combing dance halls and juke joints in the South looking for black blues and jazz singers.
Among the musicians who recorded in Victor studios were Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers, Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson, all of whom were on the label in the 1920s until the 1930s.
Victor saw competition for his phonograph from Edison, who formed his Edison Phonograph Co. in 1887. Brunswick, originally a billiards-equipment maker, got into phonographs in the 1920s. The company also produced records that were sold with its machines.
I wasn’t around when the phonographs sold at auction, but I’m sure they were a good buy for someone wanting to start a collection or repair them for sale.
