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RCA was instrumental in the creation of EMI in 1931, which continued to control the His Master's Voice name and image in the UK. In 1929, the Radio Corporation of America purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company and with it a major shareholding in the Gramophone Company, of which Victor had owned 51% since 1920.
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In 1921, the Gramophone Company opened the first HMV shop in London. In British Commonwealth countries (excluding Canada, where Victor held the rights) it was used by various subsidiaries of the Gramophone Company, which ultimately became part of EMI. The image continued to be used as a trademark by Victor in the US, Canada, and Latin America. Records issued by the company before February 1908 were generally referred to by record collectors as "G&Ts", while those after that date are usually called "HMV" records.ĭuring World War I, the Gramophone Company's German branch, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, severed ties with the British parent company and operated independently DG retained the Nipper trademark for use in Germany until 1949, when the rights were sold to Electrola, which replaced DG as the EMI affiliate in Germany. The company was not formally called HMV or His Master's Voice, but rapidly became identified by that phrase due to its prominence on the record labels. The following year the Gramophone Company replaced the Recording Angel trademark in the upper half of the record labels with the Nipper logo. In British Commonwealth countries, the Gramophone Company did not use the dog on its record labels until 1909.
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In 1915, Victor installed stained glass windows depicting the logo in the tower of Building 17 of its manufacturing complex and headquarters in Camden, New Jersey the building and windows remain today, and have long been an iconic symbol of both RCA Victor and of Camden's industrial heritage. Newspaper and magazine advertisements urged buyers to "look for the dog." Victor erected a fifty feet square illuminated advertising sign of Nipper at Broadway and 37th street, near the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The Victor Company used the trademark far more ubiquitously than its UK affiliate, placing it on virtually all Victor products. Beginning in February 1902, most Victor records had a simplified drawing of the image on their labels. Johnson first used the dog-and-gramophone image in print advertisements for Consolidated in the autumn of 1900. Johnson of the recently formed Consolidated Talking Machine Company, which was reorganized as the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901. The painting was adopted as a trademark by Berliner's business partner, Eldridge R. Emile Berliner, the inventor of the Gramophone, had seen the picture in London and took out a United States copyright on it in July 1900. As the trademark gained in popularity, several additional copies were subsequently commissioned from the artist for various corporate purposes. Barraud complied and the image was first used on the company's catalogue from December 1899. He was unable to sell the work to any cylinder phonograph company, but William Barry Owen, the American founder of the Gramophone Company in England, offered to purchase the painting under the condition that Barraud modify it to show one of their disc machines. In early 1899, Francis Barraud applied for copyright of the original painting using the descriptive working title Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph.
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Victor Talking Machine Company advertisement with "His Master's Voice" trademark While the story of Nipper being curious about sounds emanating from the then-new invention is true, it has been debunked that he was listening to his dead master's voice on a gramophone (a cylinder phonograph in the original painting). The incident took place at 92 Bold Street, Liverpool. Francis noted the peculiar interest that the dog took in the recorded voice of his late master emanating from the horn, and conceived the idea of committing the scene to canvas. When Mark Barraud died, Francis inherited Nipper, along with a cylinder phonograph and recordings of Mark's voice. According to contemporary Gramophone Company publicity material, the dog, a terrier named Nipper, had originally belonged to Barraud's brother, Mark. It was acquired from the artist in 1899 by the newly formed Gramophone Company and adopted as a trademark by the Gramophone Company's United States affiliate, the Victor Talking Machine Company. The trademark image comes from a painting by English artist Francis Barraud titled His Master's Voice.