Like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. Throughout 2014, weve the had cities throughout the country. Heres a look at one of those cities. Eldridge johnson was a delaware boy. He was born in wilmington, but soon at the age of 3 he moved to dover, and his family decided in the mid 20th century, in the 1960s that it would be nice to have a memorial to him. So that is why this museum was created in 1965. It opened to the public in 1967 to tell his story and to get the message out that this delaware native invented the spring motor that would take the flat disk machine to fruition and make it a success. Er johnson, as he was growing up here in dover didnt really do that well in school, but he was such a genius that i think when youre young, its really hard to do well in school and pay attention, and he was actually told, growing up, that he would not be smart enough to go to college. So, instead of trying to make that happen, his parents decided to apprentice him to a machinist in philadelphia. So he did live with an aunt up there, and in that process, he learned an awful lot about what it took to have his own business. And eventually, he was able to buy a machine shop in camden, new jersey. And he went from wire stitching all the way up through repairing machines. He got to be very good at that trade in particular. And he was able to meet Emil Berliner by the way, who had just invented the flat disk machine and put all of its patents out for that, but he couldnt really make it work well, and it was johnson who actually was asked to create a motor that would be reliable. And thats exactly what he did with the spring motor concept. And so by 1901, the two men had decided it was time to form a company, and it was called the Victor Talking Machine Company. Early on, mr. Johnsons machines were referred to, simply, as talking machines. And these were the ones that had an external horn as you see here. Basically, they were metal with a brass tip. And they were run by a spring motor which he invented. Now this particular machine was known as the victor monarch special, and it was built between 1902 and 1905. And it really was quite a deluxe model because of all the hand carving and special effects on the cabin itself. And it would have cost the customer a very high price of nearly 50 in those years, which was an amazing amount of money for that time period. Now what id like to play first is a recording by a very, very famous italian tenor named enrico. And it was known as my sunshine. I would like to pick it up to 78 revolutions per minute, which is why they refer to it as a 78 record. In the early days, mr. Caruso only had single face records, in other words, he had one song on one side. It was only after his death in 1921 did they record two caruso songs for the customer. The average price of a caruso record might have been as much as 2 or 3 as compared to an average 75 cents. But he was in such high demand that people were very willing to pay it. He was quite the rock star of his time. Again, this is going to be o solo mio, or my sunshine. [ singing in Foreign Language ] again, that was just a short sample of mr. Carusos voice. He was probably obviously the most famous tenor of all time, even modern day tenors still use henrique caruso as a guide for a beautiful voice. Eldridge johnson was really concerned with fidelity, and he would over and over made improvements to the way that the sound was transmitted through the horn. And eventually, in 1906, he was able to patent the inside horn machine, and he called it a victrola which is kind of a generic term today. We get a lot of questions from people, and they say oh, they got a victrola when in reality it could be another machine made by a company not made by victor. But that was a real success to put the horn, which kind of had become an accessory that a lot of people got tired of maneuvering around, because it was delicate, and then its kind of like a magic thing that happened. The horn was folded upon itself and kind of sandwiched or stuffed into that little box, and that was his major invention. I would say, in making this little tiny machine play so well. Mr. Johnson and his engineers went to work to try to keep the customers very happy. And what they did, they came up with a style, referred to as a victrola. Now the word victrola actually was coined when the horn was removed and put in a concealed area within the cabin itself. Now they also decided, which was a very clever idea, to put doors on the front, which allowed you to modify the sound. So now you had volumecontrol doors. You also could take the lid and close the lid, which would give you the ability to soften the sounds, but also sometimes, if you had a very, a scratchy record, that would also hide that sound as well. Now this particular machine was called the victrola number nine. It weighs built between 1911 and 1926. It has a beautiful sound to it, and it would have cost you nearly 50 to even 75. Now the word victrola actually came from the fact three used the word victor, the name of his company. And he added on ola, victrola, which was done ve commonly during that day. A couple other examples would be crayola, the motorola company, the pianola company. It was a very, very popular thing to do during that time period. Now as i wind pie victrola, ive decided to play for you a record by a very famous irish singer of that day named john mccormick. Theres a lovely photo of mr. Mccormick in his younger years. Very, very popular with the ladies of that day. Beautiful voice. He was very wellknown for his irish songs, but also, he had a beautiful tenor voice. As a matter of fact, he used caruso as his model. He wanted to be an irish caruso, as he once said. And my particular recording i want to play for you is called when you and i were young, maggie, by john mccormick. Again, this is a victrola nine. You can close the doors to modi modify the sound for the horn here, and also you can close the lid and have the same effect. And ill reopen the lid, reopen my doors, and you have, of course, extra volume again. And it was also very important to johnson to bring this new available machine to the masses. He really was very much wanting to make sure that music was, was heard by anybody who would like to hear it. So in the ensuing years, he did manufacture machines that were talking machines that were very well priced, so to speak, meaning most people could afford them. The machine id like to show you now, now that weve seen the other two, was referred to at credenza, and it was produced between 1925 and 1928. And what makes this machine so very special was the fact that in 1925, the Victor Company had a big promotion, referred to as victor day, and on that day, customers were invited to go to the local victor stores and buy the very first, what was known as the orthophonic records and machine. These were recorded with a microphone, where earlier records were acoustic and recorded inside of a mechanical horn. The new way of electrically recording required the ability to record much more of an octave of sound, and they sounded much more like a live orchestra. So this was a very exciting day for the Victor Company. Again, november 1925. Now the credenza was probably the most famous model of all. Because, number one, it had the largest horn the companyd ever produced. As i open my doors, youre going to see a modernday speaker material. Earlier ones used the louvrers. And if i remove the horn and stretched it out, it measured approximately 6 feet. So 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 victrola for volume control. Okay. Now the name credenza came from the fact that the word credenza, if you look in the dictionary, simply means a large piece of furniture. So thats why they called this credenza, because it looked like a nice piece of furniture in your home. And this was a, this is a very, very popular machine for collectors. Now, as i wind it up, im first going to play a record done acoustically known as the light cal cavalry overture number one. And im going to play a sample of this, and then well compare it to the same recording done orphophonically. Now you have to get to a special momentum of 70 rpms. Ill lower the needle down to the groove and 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, the customer would know it was done electrically, because there would be a v. E. Stamped on the base of the label. Okay. 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 notice the difference in the output of this recording. There we go. Now, again, ill close my volume control doors, but also the credenza has something very special. It had room on both sides for storage of your 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. This was the credenza, 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 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. And everybody recognizes him around the world. And that was johnson and berliners doing to bring him to fruition. Nipper was a real dog, a bullterrier, maybe a little fox terrier mixed in. And his owner, mark berot was an artist and did scenic landscapes. His older brother francis painted. He was so touched with nipper listening with a puzzled look on his face at some of the music being played in his brothers house. So he decided to paint nipper with his cocked ear, the image that we all know so well today. And sure enough, the Gramophone Company purchased the painting and patented it. And thats when per lynner, a little later on, brought it to the United States and made that patent over 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, making the improvements for their machine. The his masters voice painting even though it started out as being one Company Image with the Victor Talking Machine Company and before that, the Gramophone Company in england and america, it has 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 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 them. 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. Well, mr. Johnson, of course, was a selfmade man. And of course, back in that time period, anyone who did not have the chance to pursue a college career, as he unfortunately was not able to do, it tells a really amazing story how one man who had such fortitude, he was a very brilliant businessman. He was even a more brilliant promoter. He took the business and raised it to the highest level to the point where he had no competition, really. And, again, its true american success story. To learn more about the cities on our 2014 tour and watch videos from Historic Sites throughout the country, visit cspan. Org local content. This is American History tv on cspan 3. With live coverage of the u. S. House on cspan and the senate on cspan 2, here on cspan 3 we compliment that coverage by showing you the most relevant congressional hearings and Public Affairs events, and then on weekends, cspan 3 is the home to American History tv which tell our nations story, the civil wars 150th anniversary, visiting battlefields and key events, american artifacts, touri museums. Looking at the policies and legacies of our commanders in chief. Top College Professors delving into americas past. And educational
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