Eldridge R. Johnson
Eldridge Reeves Johnson (February 6, 1867 in Wilmington, Delaware[1] – November 15, 1945 in Moorestown Township, New Jersey[2][3]) 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.
In the 1890s, Johnson owned a small machine shop in Camden, New Jersey, when a customer brought in a Berliner phonograph, which used lateral-cut disk records, but the sound quality was inferior to the phonograph cylinder. Johnson was fascinated by the machine and worked over a period of six years to improve the sound and volume capacity.[4] In October 1901, he incorporated his company, the Consolidated Talking Machine Company. Later, Johnson and Berliner's Berliner Gramophone Company, which produced disc records merged to form the Victor Talking Machine Company.
He established the Johnson Foundation for Research in Medical Physics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1929.[5] The foundation, now called the Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation, is associated with the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.[6]
Johnson died at the age of 78 on November 14, 1945, at his home in Moorestown Township, New Jersey after suffering a stroke days earlier.[7]
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.[8] This award is on display at the Johnson Victrola Museum located in Dover, Delaware.[9] Johnson is buried in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
[edit] References
- ^ Extraordinary Times: The Origin of the Sound Recording Industry: Eldridge R. Johnson's Innovations
- ^ Nipper 2005: Eldridge Johnson
- ^ British Library Manuscripts Catalogue: 46700
- ^ Wallace, Robert (November 17, 1952). "First It Said 'Mary'"LIFE: 87–102. http://books.google.com/books?id=sFIEAAAAMBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
- ^ "PhonoJack:Eldrige R Johnson". http://phonojack.com/Johnson.htm.
- ^ "THE ELDRIDGE REEVES JOHNSON FOUNDATION". http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/biocbiop/jf/jf.html.
- ^ Staff. "E.R. JOHNSON DIES; FOUNDED VICTOR CO.; President of Talking Machine Firm Until 1927 Was 78-- Sold Out for $40,000,000 HUNTED LOST CIVILIZATION Led Scientific Groups to Easter Island, Yucatan--Gave Million to U. of P. for Research", The New York Times, November 15, 1945. Accessed March 1, 2011. "MOORESTOWN, N.J., Nov. 14-- Eldridge Reeves Johnson, founder and until 1927 president of the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, died today in his home here. He suffered a stroke on Saturday."
- ^ "Winners of 1984 27th Grammy Awards". The Los Angeles Times. 1985-02-26. http://theenvelope.latimes.com/extras/lostmind/year/1984/1984grammy.htm.[dead link]
- ^ "Behind the music: Johnson Victrola Museum". Courier-Post. 2007-01-08. http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070108/LIVING/701080310.
[edit] External links
- Time magazine article from December 20, 1926
- The Marvelous Talking machine - Eldridge R. Johnson
- Johnson Victrola Museum, http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/biocbiop/jf/jf.html
- Eldridge Reeves Johnson Foundation, University of Pennsylvania
- Biography-West Laurel Hill Cemetery web site
- "HOW A MAN WITH AN IDEA MADE MILLIONS IN TWELVE YEARS", New York Times Magazine, August 28, 1910, p9
