Eldridge R. Johnson

American businessman

• Born: February 18, 1867
• Birthplace: Wilmington, Delaware
• Died: November 14, 1945
• Place of death: Moorestown, New Jersey

Johnson was the technological and industrial forefather of the modern recording industry.

Primary fields: Manufacturing; music

Primary inventions: Victrola phonographs; spring-driven motor for phonographs

Early Life

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1867, Eldridge Reeves Johnson was the son of Asa S. Johnson, a home builder, and Caroline Reeves Johnson. When Eldridge was two years old, Caroline died. He was raised by his great-aunt Elizabeth and uncle Dan on a farm in Bethel Church until age eleven, when he returned to live with his father. Johnson then attended Wesley Conference Academy(now Wesley College), graduating in 1882, at age sixteen. A teacher at the academy strongly discouraged him from continuing in higher education because of his poor scholastic record. He found work as an apprentice with Jacob Lodge and Son, which manufactured press equipment. From 1882 to 1886, in Philadelphia, Johnson attended night classes at the Spring Garden Institute that were actually machine shops operating in an eight-hour workday. The apprenticeship proved to be arduous, difficult work and reinforced his desire to start his own business.

Johnson finished his apprenticeship and found employment at the Standard Machine Shop in Camden, New Jersey, in 1886. His partner, John Scull, died suddenly in 1888. Johnson constructed an automatic bookbinder from Scull’s records and experiments, his first invention. He formed the New Jersey Wire Stitching Machine Company to promote sales of the bookbinder, which was initially unsuccessful until years later when the demand for stitchers increased.

With eight years of salary savings, Johnson purchased the business from John Scull’s father, Captain Andrew Scull, who was the original owner, and renamed it the Eldridge R. Johnson Manufacturing Co. Bookbinding was already a well-established industry, so Johnson’s overwhelming curiosity and interest in the talking machine took center stage.

Life’s Work

Emile Berliner had invented the disc phonograph as an alternative to Thomas Alva Edison’s cylinder phonograph. To play a recording on a gramophone, it was necessary to constantly hand-crank the machine, attempting to maintain 150 revolutions per minute. This proved to be a nearly impossible task, and it caused the needle to skip. In 1895, Berliner approached Johnson about manufacturing a device that could engage the gramophone turntable at a steady speed. Although Johnson was intrigued by the potential of this new music machine, he regarded it as poorly designed, with a scratchy, ill-defined sound. Johnson developed a spring-driven motor that produced a consistent turntable speed. As a result, his company became the gramophone’s primary manufacturer. The spring motor proved to be the improvement needed to make the machine more commercially viable.

In 1900, Johnson owned the Consolidated Talking Machine Company. He purchased a painting titled His Master’s Voice, depicting a white fox terrier listening intently to a phonograph’s horn. The painting originally showed an Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph, but the dog’s owner painted over it to display a Victor machine. The next year, Johnson trademarked the slogan and used it on his machines, recordings, and advertisements. Nipper the dog became famous worldwide. Johnson changed the name of his company to the Victor Talking Machine Company. He was now a millionaire and president of a company encompassing twelve city blocks. At this time, Johnson, wife Elsie, and their only child, Fenimore, were living in Merion, Pennsylvania.

Johnson continued to perfect his machines. Fidelity improved, and records now could be played 125 times rather than only a few. He developed a process to create multiple copies from an original. In 1906, he introduced the Victrola phonograph, with beautifully designed wooden cabinets that owners could proudly display in their homes. The horn was placed inside a large floor cabinet and could be folded downward. Two doors in front covered the horn. Owners could control the volume with the doors by opening or closing them, or leaving them partially open. The patented name Victrola applied to only machines with internal horns, but eventually Victrola was synonymous with any phonograph. In 1913, the first electric motor was introduced; this eliminated all hand-cranking. Although installed on the Victrolas, they were referred to as Electrolas.

Johnson understood that his customers cared what they listened to on recordings. Johnson and partner Leon Douglass signed famed virtuoso and metropolitan opera star Enrico Caruso to a recording contract. The company sold millions of his recordings. More artists recorded, and Johnson and Douglass implemented a royalty system whereby the artists were compensated for each record sold. The company doubled profits between 1901 and 1903. Profits doubled again in 1905, and again in 1907. The emerging recording industry, under Johnson and Douglass’s guidance, flourished because of careful attention to manufacturing and marketing. Sales of the Victor Talking Machine Company, particularly the Victrolas, skyrocketed and Johnson and Douglass became enormously wealthy. The company also went global, with operations in Canada, Japan, South America, and England, further extending the influence of the two men.

Johnson realized the impact the newly introduced radio would have before it happened. In 1927, he and Douglass sold the company to investment bankers, the J. and W. Seligman and Company. The firm then sold the company to the new Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which eventually became the RCA Victor Company. Now comfortably retired with about $25 million, Johnson purchased Caroline, a plush yacht that launched in Maine in 1931. He also indulged in an expensive art collection.

One of Johnson’s most interesting hobbies was collecting memorabilia of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Johnson acquired several first editions, and he was even photographed with Alice Liddell Hargreaves, who was the author’s inspiration for the book. Johnson purchased the original manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (1864), which he proudly displayed in the White House at the invitation of President Calvin Coolidge.

As a wealthy retiree, Johnson continued his philanthropic ways, establishing an $800,000 endowment at Pennsylvania University, the E. R. Johnson Foundation for Medical Physics (now the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics). Johnson was a benefactor to the Free Library and Deaconess Home in Camden, the Community Church in Dover, Delaware, the Merion War Tribute House, and the Moorestown Community House in New Jersey. In 1932, he donated his yacht to the Smithsonian Institution to conduct marine exploration of the Caribbean region of the West Atlantic Ocean. His crew of forty-two men and an additional$50,000 funding allocation were included. As part of the agreement, Johnson housed his family and friends and their families in the first-class cabins. Former colleague Leon Douglass and his family joined him on the expedition.

Despite his many professional successes, philanthropic contributions, and vast wealth, Johnson suffered from depression. In poor health for many years, he died of a heart attack at his home on November 14, 1945, in Moorestown.

Impact

Johnson epitomized the self-made man. A product of trade schools and apprentice training, he endured great hardships in his quest to fulfill his life’s ambitions. His invention of the spring-driven motor for gramophones provided the link needed to give birth to the recording industry. His steadfast commitment to product excellence and shrewd business dealings provided the impetus to generate an entire new industry—the recording industry. In a twelve-year period, his small shop encompassing seventeen square feet expanded to a complex of fifteen acres, and the company’s income increased from $10 a week to $30 million a year. Perhaps more than any other single individual, Johnson was responsible for establishing and advancing the mass production of entertainment in its early stages, beginning with a limited number of consumers until it transformed into today’s multimedia empire. The enormous success of RCA Victor can be attributed to the efforts of Johnson.

Once his fortune was made and his ambitions were satisfied, Johnson used his prosperity to benefit society. He generously donated large sums of money and volunteer time to organizations and his communities. His philanthropic commitments culminated with his gift of the Eldridge R. Johnson Park, a prestigious, cultural state and federal historic landmark in the city of Camden. The park serves as a fine arts center for Rutgers University and the surrounding community and represents the cultural and industrial history of Camden.

Bibliography

Baumbach, Robert W. Look for the Dog: An Illustrated Guide to Victor Talking Machines. Woodland Hills, Calif.: Stationary X-Press, 1981. Compendium of all Victor machines produced between 1901 and 1929, with illustrations, original catalog pictures, and technical details.

Johnson, E. R. Fenimore. Eldridge Reeves Johnson (1867-1945), Industrial Pioneer: Founder and President of the Victor Talking Machine Company, Camden, New Jersey. Camden, N.J.: n.p., 1951. Descriptive notes of Johnson on phonograph technology written by his wife. A list of patents awarded to Johnson and his company are included.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. His Master’s Voice Was Eldridge R. Johnson: A Biography. Milford, Del.: State Media, 1975. Biography of Johnson written by his wife.

Marco, Guy A. Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound in the United States. New York: Garland, 1993. Comprehensive treatise of recorded sound and the recording industry before World War II.

Reiss, Eric L. The Compleat Talking Machine. Vestal, N.Y.: Vestal Press, 1986. Definitive resource on antique phonograph repair and restoration. Models for phonograph enthusiasts and collectors.