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A
HISTORY OF EMERSON
RECORDS By Allan Sutton After two decades as recording manager for the Columbia Graphophone Company, Victor Emerson in May 1915 announced formation of the Emerson Phonograph Company, Inc. As a co-developer of Columbia’s wildly popular 10¢ Little Wonder disc, Emerson had witnessed firsthand the strong demand for a cheap but reasonably well-made record, and when he left Columbia he resolved to cater exclusively to the low-priced market. His business strategy—borrow heavily and contract out as much work as possible—worked well for several years.
(Left)
Vertical-cut dubbing of a Caruso cylinder, licensed by Pathé (John
Bolig)
Emerson’s initial production consisted of inexpensive six-inch sapphire-ball vertical-cut and six- and seven-inch universal-cut discs. Emerson’s six-inch vertically cut discs, priced at 25¢ each and intended for play on Pathé and other sapphire-ball machines, were dubbed from European Pathé cylinder masters under license from the Paris-based Pathé Frères Phonograph Company, which was attempting to gain a foothold in the American market with its own label as well as client brands. Among the featured artists were Enrico Caruso (in a dubbing from a 1903 Anglo-Italian Commerce Company cylinder to which Pathé owned rights), Florencio Constantino, Harry Lauder, and other stars of Pathé’s European catalog, many of whom held exclusive contracts with competing companies in the United States. Emerson’s vertically cut series was withdrawn after several months, probably under pressure from Victor. “We have discontinued the manufacture of this type of record and are now concentrating on the Emerson universal-cut discs,” Emerson announced in August 1916. “We will dispose of any or part of this lot, minimum quantity of 1000, at 4¢ each.”
With the Pathé connection severed, Victor Emerson concentrated on his own recordings utilizing the universal cut. Although Emerson sometimes tried to claim credit for inventing the universal cut, the process was actually invented in 1899 by George T. Smallwood, who assigned his patent (#639,452) to Emerson in 1915. The universal groove was modulated on a 45-degree bias and could be played, usually with mediocre results, with a lateral or vertical reproducer. Its most important asset, however, lay in its apparent skirting of the basic patents on lateral recording, which Victor and Columbia continued to defend well beyond their expiration. Emerson
initially offered six-inch single-sided and seven-inch double-sided universal-cut
discs (the latter priced at 25¢ each, or 30¢ each on the West
Coast), but discontinued the six-inch series after approximately 200 issues.
The company also took the unprecedented step of adding promotional blurbs
to many of its labels, a practice it later discontinued.
Emerson
introduced nine-inch (75¢) discs in January 1918, followed by ten-inch
(85¢) discs in June 1919. The larger size was initially reserved
for dance selections, standard instrumental music, and religious material,
with current vocal hits and some ethnic material still issued on the cheaper
nine-inch series during the first half of 1919. The policy changed in
September 1919, when the nine-inch series was discontinued entirely in
favor of standard ten-inch pressings for all categories. Twelve-inch discs
were introduced in November 1919, although relatively few were produced.
At about the same time, Emerson quietly abandoned the universal cut in
favor of the standard lateral cut.
(Left)
Late version of the seven-inch label, a September 1918 issue Emerson’s familiar shield label design and treble clef trademark first appeared in June 1918 on nine-inch and ten-inch discs, which were inexplicably marketed as Gold Seal records, although the label color was actually blue (nine-inch) or black (ten-inch). The company discontinued seven-inch and nine-inch Emerson discs at the end of 1919 but quietly continued to issue new seven-inch discs under the inexpensive Melodisc label. Although the company name did not appear on the label, Emerson filed a trademark application for Melodisc on May 12, 1920, claiming use of the brand since February of that year. Melodisc continued to use Emerson’s 21000 master numbering series, and titles on late Melodisc releases confirm that Emerson was recording new seven-inch masters as late as 1921.
By
1919, Emerson was a well-established company with an experienced staff
that included H.T. Leeming (vice president and general manager), Harry
Marker (chief recording engineer), and Hugo Riesenfeld and Arthur Bergh
(musical directors). Pressing was contracted to the Scranton Button Company,
an independent pressing plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania; labels were printed
by the Keystone Printed Specialties Company, also in Scranton; and phonograph
cabinets were built by the Udell Works, an Indianapolis furniture manufacturer.
Outside of the New York metropolitan area, sales and distribution were
handled by a network of regional jobbers.
"Gentlemen,
you are playing to America!" A rare view inside the Emerson studio,
Emerson’s
classical and operatic series featured Eva Leoni, Max Bloch, Carlo Ferretti,
Menotti Frascona, and Mana Zucca, but Emerson made it clear—in the
trade papers, at least—that it preferred to focus on the popular
market. “Mr. Average Man knows what he likes, and so do we,”
claimed a 1920 Talking Machine World ad. “You know...how
fast the ‘hit’ records waltz off your shelves. They’re
always waving goodbye to the more dignified records.” In early 1921
the company reduced the pricing of its classical series to the 85¢
pop level. Eventually much of Emerson’s “dignified”
material was reissued under an exotic array of artist pseudonyms on National
Music Lovers, Grey Gull, Oriole, and other cut-rate brands.
(Left)
Emerson continued to produce seven-inch discs under the Melodisc label.
The
Royal Serbian Orchestra was the star of Emerson's ethnic series. Emerson entered the custom label market in 1919, undertaking production of Medallion for the Baldwin Piano Company of Cincinnati and Symphonola for the Larkin Company of Buffalo, New York. Both labels, which drew on Emerson masters, vanished during the economic slump of 1921–1922. The Emerson Phonograph Company was expanding at a dizzying pace, and the trade press for 1919–1920 was full of reports of new Emerson jobbers and artist signings. In June 1919 the company launched its own a trade magazine, The Emersonian, and in February 1920 it opened new studios and offices at 206 Fifth Avenue and announced plans—probably never realized—to open a studio and factory in Los Angeles. In the following September Emerson unveiled a lavishly furnished showroom and auditorium at its Fifth Avenue headquarters. “A decidedly Parisian atmosphere is evident,” TMW noted. A new line of Emerson phonographs incorporating the all-spruce Music Master internal horn—an apparent bow to the Starr Piano Company’s all-spruce “singing throat”—was introduced with more fanfare than it probably deserved in August 1920. In the same year, Emerson established a branch pressing plant in Atlanta. The Southern States Phonograph Company, founded by A.H. Carlisle (who, not coincidentally, also served as president of Emerson’s Talking Book Corporation) pressed Emerson and Talking Book discs for a short time before it was sold. Emerson in Receivership Its apparent success notwithstanding, the Emerson Phonograph Company’s bubble was about to burst in late 1920. Overexpansion, competition from well-financed start-ups like Brunswick, and an unhealthy level of debt forced the Emerson organization—actually two closely related entities incorporated in New York and Delaware, respectively—into receivership on December 10, 1920, at a time when many record companies were enjoying an unprecedented level of sales. Emerson’s troubles surfaced publicly when one Mary S. Johnson filed a $16,686 claim against the company for unpaid printing and advertising bills. That such a small claim could start a major corporation on the path to receivership exposed the basic weakness underlying Emerson’s operation: “The company,” the Talking Machine World reported, “is alleged to be unable to meet maturing obligations.” Other problems loomed as well. In June 1921 the Talking Machine World announced that the entire contents of the Southern States Phonograph Company plant, Emerson’s short-lived southern pressing and distribution facility, were to be offered for sale by the Dixie Paper & Box Company of Atlanta, which offered to “ship anywhere.” PART 2 (1921-1924) | PART THREE (1924-1929)
“Atlanta
Soon to Have $1,000,000 Record Plant.” Talking Machine World
(6/15/1920). Portions
of this article originally appeared in Victrola & 78 Journal
(#12, Winter 1997–1998, pp. 39–45). |
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