A strange record "Manufactured for VICTOR TALKING MACHINE CO., CAMDEN, N.J."

[melvind]

I've had this record for a few years and have never been able to find out the story of the record and if it is a one off or not. Does anyone out there recognize this? It has a "Special Record" label pasted over the top half of the standard "Gramophone Co., LTD" label and a little sticker pasted on top of that. Would it have been intended for Victor in Camden? Would it have been for a Jobber or a Dealer?

 

It's got me stumped. I would love to hear from anyone that might know something.

 

[Roaring20s]

I posed questions to google and it cited the following links for the unconfirmed information below.

 

https://openurl.ebsco.com/EPDB%3Agcd%3A4%3A12693524/detailv2?sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Ascholar&id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A159126776&crl=f&link_origin=www.google.com

 

https://ethw.org/Victor_Talking_Machine_Company

 

https://soundofthehound.com/2011/07/13/the-four-major-record-companies-in-the-uk-in-1924-1/

 

The central reason for altering the look of the label was trademark law. 

Although the Victor Talking Machine Company in the US and The Gramophone Company in the UK were closely allied sister companies that shared master recordings, they did not have equal rights to the famous "His Master's Voice" (Nipper the dog) logo worldwide.

• In the UK: The Gramophone Co. owned the full copyright to the painting of Nipper looking into the brass horn.
• In the Americas: Victor owned the exclusive rights to the Nipper trademark.

I'll let you take a deeper dive. 🙂

 

James.

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Roaring20s

[melvind]

Thanks for your thoughts on this, James. I suppose it could be related to copyrights. But many British recordings were released in the USA with Victor labels on them and Victor catalog numbers. I'm not sure why this record wouldn't have been done the same way if it were in general release in the USA. As far as I can tell, it never was except in this form.