ABSTRACT
Emile Berliner used his own name for disc labels, beginning in 1889 with the five-inch, lateral-cut “plates” for the so-called toy gramophones made and sold in Germany and Britain. Contents included monologs in English or German, some of which were delivered by Berliner himself. One disc, apparently recorded in 1890, features a fourtrumpet rendition of a “Marsch No. 1.” There were also songs, bugle calls, piano solos, and farmyard imitations. The first Berliners not sold as toys were marketed in Washington, D.C., in late 1894 by the United States Gramophone Co. Actual recording dates were as early as June 1892, made in the Berliner laboratory housed with his first U.S. firm, the American Gramophone Co. The first list of discs for sale was issued 1 Nov 1894; it contained 52 titles, including band music, cornet solos, a drum and fife number, a trombone solo, a piano solo, an instrumental quartet, a clarinet solo, a vocal quartet, children’s songs, Native American Indian songs, baritone solos, soprano solos, and a recitation. These were seven-inch discs. A January 1895 “List of Plates” had 85 items.
