Has Anybody Seen Our Cat 1897 By Mr Harry Taylor Played Garrard 301 Turntable

Has Anybody Seen Our Cat
By Mr Harry Taylor
Improved Berliner Gram-O-Phone
Record Montreal Canada 1897
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emile Berliner started marketing his disc records in 1889. These records were five inches in diameter, and offered only in Europe. At first, the use of his disc records was leased to various toy companies, which made toy phonographs or gramophones to play them on. The audio fidelity of these earliest discs was well below that of contemporary phonograph cylinder records.

In 1892 he incorporated the United States Gramophone Company in Washington D.C.. This company offered the first disc records (now seven inches in diameter and no longer intended as a toy) in November 1894 on the Berliner Gramophone label. After various mergers, divisions, lawsuits, and injunctions, this company was to give rise to the Victor Talking Machine Company in the United States in late 1900. In 1929, Victor was purchased by RCA.

E. Berliner Gramophone of Canada was established in 1899 in Montreal [in the Aqueduct Street building of Northern Electric] and first marketed records and gramophones the following year. In 1904, the company received its charter as the Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada. Early recordings were imported from masters recorded in the United States until a recording studio in Montreal was established in 1906. The Berliner name as a record label lasted longest in Canada, until 1924 when it was bought out by USA's Victor, becoming RCA Victor in 1929. Berliner Gram-o-phone's facilities in Montreal, a complex of buildings at 1001 rue Lenoir and 1050 rue LaCasse in the St-Henri district, became home to RCA Victor Canada over the next several decades,[1] developing and producing such high-tech products as microwave radio relay systems, communication satellites, television broadcast equipment, etc. Since the dissolution of RCA in 1986, the Lenoir building has been turned into a multi-use office/commercial building, but the Lacasse facility is now The Emile Berliner Museum,[2] documenting the history of the man, his company and the building complex. The historic Studio Victor located there is still an active recording studio.

Your question:
To Recorded Sound Reference Center: I have a Record made in Montreal Canada Patented Feb 24th 1897..Made by E.Berliner of the Improved Berliner Gram-O-Phone..Has Anybody Seen Our Cat By Mr Harry Taylor..You have the 10' mp3 on your website..I am confused as to the date of the recording.. I received some good information from victrolaman that seems to clear things up somewhat.. However I still do not understand how you can get a patent dated 1897 when the E. Berliner Gramophone of Canada was established in 1899.. Also Shepard was known to have recorded as early as 1898 as per your Library of Congress.. Anyway this is the information victrolaman gave me.. Harry Taylor is actually Burt Shepherd. He recorded this record for Eldridge Johnson at the Victor Studios in July of 1901, both a 7" and 10". You obviously have the 7" version. Johnson shared masters with his former boss, Emile Berliner who went to Canada during the big lawsuit involving patent disputes, and Johnson bought the Company to protect his investments, and later formed the Victor talking machine Company of Camden, New Jersey. From your Library of Congress..Also my recording is not exactly the same as the mp3 on your web page.. Burt Shepard (?--1913) began his career as a female impersonator before joining a minstrel troupe in 1874. On records, Shepard, a baritone, specialized in comic monologues and songs, projected with a wry sense of humor. On stage he frequently accompanied himself on the piano. Shepard made recordings as early as 1898 for the Berliner Gramophone Company. In 1900 he began a six-year association with E. R. Johnson and Victor Records. Shepard was extremely popular in England and enjoyed long stays in that country until his death there in 1913. Can you please