Cultural Decadence: The Victor Phonograph

Thomas Edison with the phonograph

As so the story begins, when entrepreneur Emile Berliner invented the mass-producible phonograph record. Thomas Edison's phonograph was invented in 1877, as was the first invention capable of both recording and playing sound. Despite this, and the fact that there was no rational way to mass-duplicate cylinders, the Victor Talking Machine Company abandoned Edison's tin cylinder and became the largest producers of the forerunners of modern-day records. After Berliner and Eldridge Johnson, the owner of a small machine shop in Camden, New Jersey collaborated in developing a low-cost spring motor for the disc phonograph, a vendetta of lawsuits followed, and eventually Berliner was restricted to selling his products in Canada, but not the U.S. In 1901 the Victor Talking Machine Company was founded by Johnson.

The Victor Talking Machine Company logo

Soon enough, the Victor Talking Machine Company focused on the manufacture of musical recordings, by promoting its victrola, (a phonograph with its main mechanical parts concealed in a cabinet) by selling its products nationwide. Contrary to popular misdefinition, the victrola thus only applies to the internal horn phonographs made by the Victor Talking Machine Company, and is not a term applied to every antique phonograph. This is a common belief, as I personally have heard many people label just any old phonograph the "victrola". The very first internal horn phonograph, called the Victor-Victrola was marketed in 1906.

The Victor-Victrola phonographs were made into elegant pieces of furniture, so that the machine would not only be pleasing to the ear, but to the eye as well. Thus the invention of the victrola was more of an aesthetic decision more than any other reason. The original flat-top victrola design was problematic, as the user would have to reach deep down inside the cabinet to lift the needle or change the record. This flaw was resolved through the use of the "domed lid, which allowed the turntable and tone arm to sit nearly flush on the top of the cabinet."

As approximately 15,000 victrolas were sold by the middle of 1909, the tabletop Victrola XXI was introduced into the market, and so on. Many more models with slight alterations were subsequently  manufactured, with Victor introducing smaller low-priced models, floor models, and eventually in 1931, the first electric motor option became available on the Victrola XVI, doing away with the old-school method of cranking after every few records were played. The vast expansion of the radio market also called for other alterations, such as the horn being replaced by a small paper-cone speaker, as well as some models even having sophisticated record changers. By the late 20s, Johnson retired, and in 1929, RCA purchased The Victor Talking Machine Company, becoming what was to be known as "RCA Victor".