Zon-O-Phone - Biography

Biography - Zon-O-Phone

USA

The first Zon-o-phone records and machines were produced in the USA in 1899. They came from Frank Seaman's Universal Talking Machine Company of Albany, New York. Seaman had originally been responsible for sales and marketing for the Berliner organization's discs and machines (most machines were produced by Eldridge Johnson), but had become estranged from Berliner and started in business on his own account. Seaman's export agents were the Prescott brothers, and exports were made to Europe.

Seaman was involved in claims and counter-claims with other companies over patent infringement, and the company eventually went bankrupt. In 1901, one of the Prescott brothers, Frederick Prescott, formed The International Zonophone Company, which was incorporated in New Jersey. This company used established pressing plants for its American material, and a factory to produce records was established in Germany that produced its first records in September 1901. Over the next two years, agencies were established throughout Europe and in Asia Minor, Egypt, Brazil, and Argentina; all these also produced recordings of material from their area of location.

In the last half of 1903, The International Zonophone Company was taken over and reformed as a German company, a subsidiary of the UK-based Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd. (G&T, later known as HMV), with Deutsche Grammophon AG as a sister company.

The American arm of Zonophone was sold to a company in which Eldrige Johnson had a major share holding; this company released many of them using the original Zon-o-phone label name.

See Also
1. Zon-o-phone - The Discs That Defeated Berliner

2. The American Zonophone Discography II: The Roots and Early History of American Zonophone Records 1898–1905

3. The American Zonophone Discography: A History of American Zonophone, 1900–1912

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