The company was incorporated in Camden, New Jersey in October of 1901 by Eldridge R. Johnson. It 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 & Berliner over Zonophone and others, related to their rights to patents on and distribution of their products.
Victor had the rights in the United States and Latin America to use the famous trademark of the dog Nipper listening to an early disc phonograph (see: His Master's Voice)
In 1901 the phonograph cylinder still dominated the market for recorded sound. Disc records and phonographs were widely considered to be little more than toys, for they were cheaper, less reliable, and usually of lower audio fidelity than the cylinder records. Johnson embarked on efforts to change these perceptions. He built more reliable spring-wound phonographs out of durable materials, and hired engineers to research improved sound for the recordings. Within a few years, Victor was producing records with some of the finest audio fidelity of the era.
After increasing the quality of disc records and phonographs, Johnson began an ambitious project to have the most prestigious singers and musicians of the day record Victor Records, and when possible sign exclusive agreements to record only for Victor. Often these artists had to be paid fees which the company could not hope to make up from sale of their records. Johnson shrewdly knew that he would get his money's worth in the long run, in promotion of the Victor brand name. Many advertisements were printed mentioning by name the greatest names of music in the era, with the statement that they recorded only for Victor Records. As Johnson intended, much of the public assumed from this that Victor Records must be superior to cylinder records.
The Victor recordings by Enrico Caruso were particularly successful. They were often used by retailers to demonstrate Victor phonographs; Caruso's rich powerful low tenor voice highlighted the best range of audio fidelity of the early audio technology while being minimally affected by its defects. Even people who otherwise never listened to Opera often owned a record or two of the great voice of Caruso; Caruso and Victor Records did much to boost the commercial popularity of each other.
In 1906 Johnson and his engineers designed a new line of phonographs with the turntable and amplifying horn tucked away inside a wooden cabinet. This was not done for reasons of audio fidelity, but rather for visual esthetics. The intention was to produce a phonograph that looked less like a piece of machinery and more like a piece of furniture. These internal horn machines, trademarked with the name Victrola, were first marketed to the public in August of that year and were an immediate hit. Soon an extensive line of Victrolas were marketed, ranging from small tabletop models selling for $15, through many sizes and designs of cabinets intended to go with the decor of middle class homes in the $100 to $250 range, up to $600 Chippendale and Queen Anne style cabinets of fine wood with gold trim designed to look at home in elegant mansions. Victrolas became by far the most popular brand of home phonograph, and sold in great numbers until the end of the 1920s.
In 1925 Victor switched from the old acoustical or mechanical method of recording sound to the new microphone based electrical system developed by Western Electric. Victor called their version of the improved fidelity recording process "Orthophonic", and sold a line of new designs of phonographs to play these improved records, called "Orthophonic Victrolas". The large top-of- the-line "Credenza" models of Orthophonic Victrolas had a 6 foot long horn coiled inside the cabinet, and are often considered the high point of the development of the commercial wind-up phonograph, offering audio fidelity seldom matched by most home electric phonographs until some 30 years later.
In 1928 Johnson sold his controlling interest in Victor to the banking firm of Siegelman & Spyer, who in 1929 sold to the Radio Corporation of America, which then became known as the Radio-Victor Division of the Radio Corporation of America later RCA Victor. (See RCA for later history of the Victor brand name.)
The Japanese Victor Company severed its ties to RCA Victor at the start of World War II and is still in business under the acronym JVC.
See also: List of record labelsThe Victrola
Victrola Model XVI, 1910s