Non-existent Berliner record from 1900 (#0228)

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AllenKoe
Victor II
Posts: 204
Joined: Sat Apr 17, 2010 1:08 pm

Non-existent Berliner record from 1900 (#0228)

Post by AllenKoe »

Well, does this unusual-looking 7" disc ring any bells with anyone? And who exactly pressed it?

As the presses are running with the next (hard-copy) issue of the Antique Phonograph (June 2022), we thought that this was a good time to show a record that played a role in the development of the first 'Nipper-illustrated' paper labels. But this disc doesn't have a dog, just a lot of type. And it is certainly an unusual catalog # for an Eldridge Johnson (pre-Victor) selection. Who was really using such numbers which began with a "leading-zero"?

That would be one Emile Berliner who started using such "zero-prefix" indicators for his inventory in April of 1899 - and would finally reach a maximum of #01304 by May of 1900. Or so it says in his last known catalog - 'June 1900.'

One of the problems in doing this research is that there is only ONE existing Berliner Catalog of that date, and it is in the Library of Congress, Recorded Sound Division. They have been taking good care of it since 1963, but even by then, the front and back covers were entirely missing. We were quite fortunate, in a recent trance, to see what was on the FRONT of the missing cover. It was the original Berliner version (electrotype) of 0228 - The Stars and Stripes Forever March by John Philip Sousa. It must have been born under a dark star, in Philadelphia, on June 9, 1899, but by April 11, 1900, Emile Berliner must have fallen in love with it (in New York City), because not only did he arrange to record it again, but also prominently displayed it on the front cover of what turned out to be his LAST US catalog - not as the commercial work of the National Gramophone Co/Corp., but under the brief aegis of his own Berliner Gramophone Co.

But not only is the physical cover of this 16-page catalog entirely gone (for 122 years), but the record itself, twice mastered and recorded, has disappeared as well. Or at least no one has ever found it!

Arm yourself with the facts in case it comes your way - i. e. read the full article on how Nipper came to America and leapt from the trademark application of an immigrant apprentice-tailor to its status as the world's most recognizable artwork - a real mongrel fox terrier who somehow got portrayed "listening" to the (imagined) voice of his departed "Master" (Mark Henry) who also died before his time.

If you haven't already renewed your subscription to the pages of the most recent research on such matters, now is the time. How else will you know where and when to announce your discovery of this lost (or seriously misplaced) Sousa record? And how else could you see the very first publication of the original Cable in which Emile Berliner asked his own Gramophone Co for permission to use the original design? Hint: The answer was 'yes' and the rest is history.

Allen
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