Eldridge R. Johnson

Eldridge Reeves Johnson (February 6, 1867 in Wilmington, Delaware [ [http://www.thetalkingmachine.com/extraordinary_3.htm Extraordinary Times: The Origin of the Sound Recording Industry: Eldridge R. Johnson's Innovations] ] – November 15, 1945 in Moorestown, New Jersey [ [http://www.nipper2005.org/History.aspx#Johnson Nipper 2005: Eldridge Johnson] ] [ [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/manuscripts/HITS0001.ASP?VPath=c!/inetpub/wwwroot/mss/data/msscat/html/1470.htm&Search=Add.+46700&Highlight=F British Library Manuscripts Catalogue: 46700] ] ) co-created the Victor Talking Machine Company alongside Emile Berliner, a United States corporation, and built it into the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time.

The company was incorporated in Camden, New Jersey in October 1901 by Johnson. The Victor Talking Machine Company was created by merger and reorganization of two existing companies: Emile Berliner's "Berliner Gramophone Company", which produced disc records, and Johnson's "Consolidated Talking Machine Company", which produced machines for playing disc records. The company was named "The Victor" in honor of legal victories by Johnson and Berliner over Zonophone and others concerning their rights to patents on and distribution of their products.

On February 26, 1985, Johnson posthumously received the 1984 Grammy Trustee Award, given to persons who made a significant contribution in the field of recording. [cite web |url= http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1984/1984grammy.htm |title= Winners of 1984 27th Grammy Awards | publisher = The Los Angeles Times | date = 1985-02-26] This award is on display at the Johnson Victrola Museum located in Dover, Delaware. [cite web |url= http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070108/LIVING/701080310 |title= Behind the music: Johnson Victrola Museum |publisher= Courier-Post |date= 2007-01-08 ] Johnson is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

References

External links

* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,711531,00.html Time magazine article from December 20, 1926]
* [http://www.thetalkingmachine.com/index.htm The Marvelous Talking machine - Eldridge R. Johnson]
* [http://history.delaware.gov/museums/jvm/jvm_main.shtml Johnson Victrola Museum, http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/biocbiop/jf/jf.html]
* [http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/biocbiop/jf/jf.html Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation, University of Pennsylvanis]
* [http://www.webcemeteries.com/westlaurelhill/LHO.Asp Biography-West Laurel Hill Cemetery web site]