Berliner Gramophone - Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada

Berliner Gram-o-phone Company of Canada

E. Berliner Gramophone of Canada was established in 1899 in Montreal 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, 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, documenting the history of the man, his company and the building complex. The historic Studio Victor located there is still an active recording studio.

Emile Berliner's son Herbert founded the Compo Company and left Berliner Gram-O-Phone. Herbert's younger brother, Edgar, continued as chief executive of Berliner Gram-o-phone (later renamed Victor Talking Machine Company of Canada). Ironically, Emile Berliner died in 1929, the same year RCA bought out Victor, and Edgar Berliner resigned the following year.