Eldridge johnson was a delaware boy. He was born in wilmington, but soon at the age of three, he moved to dover. His family decided in the mid 20th century in the 1960s, it would be nice to have a memorial to him. This is why this was created in 1965 and opened to the public in 1967. To tell his story and to get a message out that this delaware native invented this spring motor that would take the flat disk machine to fruition and make it a success. As he was growing up here in dover, they didnt really do that well in school. He was such a genius that i think when you are young, you can Pay Attention and he was told growing up he would not be smart enough to go to college. Instead of trying to make that happen, they decided to apprentice him. He did live with an aunt up there. In that process, he learned an awful lot about what it took to have his own business. He was able to buy a machine shop in camden, new jersey and went from wire stitching all the way up through repairing machines. He got good at that trade and able to meet a male berliner who just invented the flat disk machine and put all the patents out and couldnt make it work well. Johnson was asked to create a motor that would be reliable. Thats what he did with the spring motor concept. By 1901, the two men decided it was time to form a company and it was called the Victor Talking Machine Company. Really on mr. Johnsons machines were referred to as talking machines. These were the ones that had an external horn as you see here. They were metal with a grass tip and they were run by a spring motor which he invented. This particular machine was known as the victor special. It was facility between 1902 and 1905 and it was a deluxe model because of the happened carving and special effects on the cabinet itself. It would have cost them a very high price of nearly 50. They had a recording by a famous italian. This recording was known as el solo mio. This was 78 revolutions per minute which is why they refer to as a 78 record. In the early days, he only recorded single face records. In other words, he had one song on one side. It was not only until after his death. Keep in mind it might have been two to three as compared to an average 75 cents. He was this such high demand that people were very willing to pay it. He was quite the rock star. This was going to be el solo mio or my sunshine. Again, that was a short sample. He was obviously the most famous tenor of all time. As a matter of fact even modern day tenors use this as a guide for a beautiful voice. Eldridge johnson was concerned with the fidelity and over and over made improvements to the way the sound was transmitted through the horn and eventually in 1906 he was able to patent the inside horn machine and called it a vikt rolla. Thats kind of a generic term today. We get a lot of questions from people who say they have a vikt rolla which could be another machine and that was a real success to put the horn they got tired of maneuvering around. It was a magic thing and the horn was folded upon itself and sandwiched or stuffed into that box. That was his major invention i would say in making this tiny machine play so well. They went to work to keep the customers happy. They came up with a style. It was remove and put in an area within the cabin itself. Now they decided which was a very clever idea to put doors on the front that allowed you to modify the sound. Now you had volume control doors. You could have the ability to soften the sounds and if you had a very scratchy record that would hide that sound as well. That would cost 75. The word victrola came from the word victor and added on ola. Victorola. Crayola and the motorola company. It was a popular thing to do in that time. As i wind it, i will play a record by a very famous i singer of that day named john mcformic. Very, very popular with the ladies of that day. Very, very wellknown for the irish songs and also he had a beautiful tenor voice. He used caruso as his model. When you and i were young, maggie by john mcformic. And also i can close the lid to have the same effect. Reopen the lid and my doors and you have extra volume again. It was also very important to bring this new available machine to the masses. He really was very much wanting to make sure that the music was heard by anybody who would like to hear it. In the years, he did manufacture talking machines that were very well priced. Most people could afford them. The machine i would like to show you now now that we have seen the other too was the cre denza. What make this is machine so very special was the fact that in 1925, the company had a big promotion referred to as victor day. On that day, customers were invited to go to the local stores and by the very first orthophonic machine and also records, these were records that were recorded elect rickally by the use of a microphone where earlier records were referred to as acoustic and they were recorded inside of a horn. A new way of recording provided the ability to record much more of an active of sound and they sounded like a live orchestra. November 1925. It had the large of horn the company ever produced. As i opened my doors, you will see a modern day speaker material. Earlier ones used the louvers. Are it had quite a very, very loud volume. As you can see, we still have the doors as the ones i showed you earlier on the victor ola for volume control. The word cre denza means a large piece of furniture. Thats why they called this the cre denza because it looked like a large piece of furniture in your home. As i wind it up, im first going to play a record done acoustically known as the light cavalry overture and recorded by the victor Symphony Orchestra and what im going to do is play a sample of this and then will compare it to the same recording done. I will lower my needle down to the groove and i will play a very short sample. Now, that was a sample of the recording done, again, mechanically. Now, im now going to play a sample of it done electrically. And also on the label, a customer would know it was done electrically because there would be a ve stamped on the base of the label. Now, these machines would have cost the customer an average of 300, which you can well imagine during that time period was quite a lot of money. But this was a very, very popular machine. Now, youre going to really fwhts the difference in the output of this recording. Notice the difference in the output of this recording. I wills close the doors, also, the credenza has something very special. It had room on both sides for storage of recordings, which was very important for the customer. But this was an extra little perk. You could close the lid and it would close hydraulically. There you go. This was the cred depp za. Again, from 1925 until 1928. And they produced approximately 14,000 of these in those few years. Another thing that we do here is talk about the story of nipper, the his masters voice dog. And theres all kinds of good, funny things to talk about this dog. He was a very clever dog. But he arguably has become the symbol for the sound industry in general. That was johnsons doing. He was a real dog a bull terrier, a little fox terrier mixed in and his owner, mark barode, was an artist and he did scenic landscapes. His older brother, francis, however, painted. He was so touched by nipper listening with a puzzled look on his face at some of the music that was being played in his brothers house. So, he decided to paint nipper with his coxed ear. The image that we all know so well today. And sure enough, the graham ma phone Company Purchased the painting. Maphone Company Purchased the painting. Thats when he brought it to the United States and made about the patent here on the trademark painting and it became a Great Success in england and in the United States at that time period and about the same time was when the johnson and berliner collaborated on getting the making the improvements for their machine. The his masters voice painting, started out being one Company Image with the Victor Talking Machine Company and before that, the Gramaphone Company in england and america, it is spread throughout the world now and even though it was acquired by rca once rca did take over Victor Talking Machine Company, it was first purchased in the agreement between johnson and rca in 1927 and it was finally made formal in by 1929. Rca did keep the trademark on all of their recordings and their radios because they owned the trademark and it was recognized and loved around the world by then. So, it was very Smart Marketing move. And rca, of course, kept that all the way through the decades. People love him around the world and i think thats what really made him a worldwide icon. Mr. Johnson, of course, was a selfmade man. Anyone at that time who did not have a chance to pursue a College Career as he was unfortunately able to do, tells an amazing story, one man who had such fortitude. He was a very brilliant businessman. He was even a more brilliant promoter. He took a Small Company and raised it to the highest level to the point where he had no competition nearly. And again, it was the true american success story. To learn more about the sins to our 2014 tour and watch videos from Historic Sites throughout the country, visit cspan p o cspan. Org local content. This is American History tv on cspan3. Each week, American History tvs real america brings archival films that helped tell the story of the 20th century. En think about the geography of