Emile Berliner was born in Hannover, Germany in 1851 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1870. He sold his improvements to the microphone in 1878. From the proceeds this generated, he set up a laboratory in Washington, D.C. and developed the disc phonograph, which he call the gramophone. Berliner introduced the gramophone in 1888, but it wasn't until 1894-1895 that he was able to develop this into a commercial enterprise and begin selling machines and recordings. The earliest known list of Berliner gramophone "plates" dates from January 1895 (see LOC link).

Berliner's gramophone story is well documented in a terrific Berliner website hosted by the U.S. Library of Congress. His Canadian adventures are also well documented (see Canadian Historical Sound Recordings website), and should be referenced along with several of the books listed below.

Frederick William Gaisberg was born January 1, 1873 and died September 2, 1951. Fred's earliest association with the phonograph was as piano accompanist to Columbia Phonograph Company cylinder record artists such as John York Atlee in 1889 ("The Mocking Bird, by John York Atlee, artistic whistler, accompanied by Professor Gaisberg" goes the introduction - Jerrold Moore, pg. 5).

Gaisberg was hired by Emile Berliner to arrange for recording sessions, and he went on to spent his entire career in this roll, based out of London. Fred's fascinating story is best told by Jerrold Moore in "Sound Revolutions" (see details below) and Fred's autobiography was published in 1942. Fred is also featured extensively in the EMI Records history (also below).

Deutsche Grammophone was founded in 1898 when Emile Berliner sent his nephew Joseph Sanders to Hannover to assist Emile's brother Joseph Berliner in establishing the first disc pressing plant in Europe. Jerrold Moore ("Sound Revolutions" - see below) tells the story best: "[Sanders] was to have the task of setting up a factory to press all the discs taht were to be recorded in Euope, as supply lines from America would have been impossibly long. The Berliners' fear of British trade unionism had discouraged the idea of building the facoty in England. Then Emile Berliner's brother Joseph, in Hannover, offered to finance the pressing plant if it could be situated there." (Moore, Sound Revolutions, pg. 37). The reader is strongly encouraged to read all of Moore's fine book for the complete story.

In the U.S., the earliest Deutsche Grammophone pressings were on the Opera Disc label. American Record Labels and Companies (Sutton & Nauck; see below) describes the situation thusly: "[Opera Disc Company records were] manufactured in Germany by Polyphonwerke Aktiengesellschaft, a division of Deutsche Grammophone Gesellschaft, for sale in the U.S. ... Before the outbreak of World War I, Victor Talking Machine Co. and Gramophone Co. (HMV) masters were pressed and distributed in Germany by the Gramophone Co.'s affiliate, Deutschen Grammophon Aktiengesellschaft (DGA). DGA maintained studios in Berlin and a large pressing plant in Hannover. However, with the outbreak of European hostilities in 1914, Alexander Lucas seized the Victor and HMV masters in DGA's possession as spoils of war. Having severed relations with Victor and the Gramophone Co., DGA was reorganized as Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (DGG), an independent corporation. In March 1917, Lucas transferred ownership of the Victor and Gramophone Co. masters to Polyphonweke, a DGG subsidiary that produced records for export." Please refer to American Record Labels and Companies for more of this and many other fascinating stories.

Deutsche Grammophon: http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/home.htms

(more to come!)

Recommended Reading

	Since Records Began - EMI, The First 100 Years (1997 - Peter Martland) This is the book that got me started! Profusely illustrated, it traces the phonograph industry from its very beginnings with Edison and Berliner, through the CD era. The first 3 chapters are especially helpful for the detailed histories of Columbia, Berliner, Victor, and of course EMI (a British marriage of Columbia and Victor affiliates brought about in 1931 by the depression). Lots of references to Fred Gaisberg, my hero!
	The Fabulous Phonograph 1877-1977 (1954, revised 1977 - Roland Gelatt) A fun read, taking us through the phonograph era in terms of the music which was recorded at various stages. Helps to recreate the excitement as each greater recording achievement was accomplished, from the earliest 7" disc recording days to the introduction of electrical recording ca. 1925, the LP ca. 1948, and stereo ca. 1956.
	Sound Revolutions - a Biography of Fred Gaisberg, Founding Father of Commercial Sound Recording (1999 - Jerrold Northrop Moore) Moore does a fantastic job of covering Fred Gaisberg's life and career with the gramophone and EMI. This is a must-read, and in many ways is more informative than Gaisberg's autobiography itself (see below).
	The Music Goes Round (1942 - Fred Gaisberg) Gaisberg played piano accompaniment on cylinder records, and turned pages for John Phillip Sousa as a child! Emile Berliner hired Gaisberg to arrange for recording sessions as Berliner's gramophone began to gain momentum. Gaisberg was later hired to move to London, creating Berliner's first recording studio there in 1898. The rest is history, and you will have the privalege of reading it here first-hand. NOTE: this book is long out of print, but I was able to locate a copy for $20 online. Be patient, they're out there. Gaisberg also published this book in England after WWII under another title.
	The Talking Machine - the advertising history of the Berliner Gramophone and Victor Talking Machine (1997 - James N. Weber) 147 pages of vintage ads reproduced, plus (alas only) 8 pages reproduced in full color. Weber has done a great job of uncovering a bounty of material here. This is apparently a private publication, as it is not available on Amazon.com. However it is readily available on eBay. ISBN: 0968215106
	American Record Labels and Companies - an Encyclopedia (1891-1943) (2000 - Allan Sutton & Kurt Nauck) Invaluable book with useful histories of many American companies, this also mentions Deutsche Grammophon, Polyphon and other related labels. Comes with a CD-ROM with over 1000 full-color reproductions of record labels. This book is available from the author's website

cylinder record links:
http://tinfoil.com Glenn Sage's excellent cylinder record site (includes archive of cylinder recordings)
http://www.worldofgramophones.com/bettini.html Bettini Reproducers (lots of nice pics)

78rmp record links:
http://78rpm.com Kurt Nauck's auction site (lots of interesting items & research info.)

hi-fi links:
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~losinp/audio.html audio & hi fi links
http://hhscott.com/cc/cctop.htm
http://community-1.webtv.net/KerrB/VINTAGETUBEAMPHORN/page6.html vintage speakers & cabinets - a real labor of love!!
http://www.vacuumtube.com/
vintage audio gear: http://community-2.webtv.net/hornvox/VINTAGEAUDIOTRADERS/index.html

Record label links:
http://www.bsnpubs.com/discog.html LP discography index page (awesome! mostly non-jazz; nice compliment to...)
http://www.eclipse.net/~fitzgera/ jazz record label discographies (wonderful stuff!)

Atlantic Records: http://www.history-of-rock.com/atlantic_records.htm an early history of Atlantic Records
(see also Jerry Wexler's autobiography and "Making Tracks - The History of Atlantic Records" by Charlie Gillett)

Blue Note Labelography:
http://ronpenndorf.com/labelography.html
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/iviews/vangelder.htm Rudy Van Gelder Interview (Blue Note's recording engineer)

Chess records (and Aristocrat):
http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/aristocrat.html (Aristocrat!!)
http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/rsrf.html (beautiful project to document post-war Chicago music!!)
http://www.jazzinstituteofchicago.org/
http://bluestogold.com/index2.html
Columbia Masterworks LP's
http://ronpenndorf.com/labelography2.html

Deutsche Grammophon
insert link here!

Fantasy Records Homepage: http://www.fantasyjazz.com/ includes Prestige, Riverside, Milestone, Contemporary, and Good Time Jazz labels (!); plus Stax, Specialty, Takoma, and Kicking Mule
Impulse! Records Homepage: http://www.impulserecords.com/

London FFRR LPs
http://community-2.webtv.net/londonLP/VINTAGEAUDIOTRADERS/index.html
http://ronpenndorf.com/labelography5.html

Mercury Living Presence LPs
http://www.xs4all.nl/~rabruil/mercury.html
http://community-2.webtv.net/mercuryLP/Vinaudtraders/index.html
http://edessa.topo.auth.gr/pub/mp3/Mercury_Living_Presence/ (MP3's!)
http://ronpenndorf.com/labelography3.html

RCA Living Stereo tapes & LP's:
http://community-2.webtv.net/rcaLP/VINTAGEAUDIOTRADERS/index.html
http://ronpenndorf.com/labelography5.html

Verve Records Homepage: http://www.ververecords.com/ see Verve history page at http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/verve/history.asp?lid=1

Interesting thoughts on audio recording, mono LP's (and food!):
http://ronpenndorf.com/journalofrecordedmusic.html