A PHOTO HISTORY OF RCA'S GOLDEN YEARS IN CAMDEN Pioneering The Technology of Music and TV

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1 Name: Eldridge Johnson and RCA Victor Talking Machine Study Guide Directions: Read the text and answer the questions below. Part 1: A PHOTO HISTORY OF RCA'S GOLDEN YEARS IN CAMDEN Pioneering The Technology of Music and TV By Hoag Levins March, CAMDEN, N.J. -- Standing as the central landmark of this city since the early years of the twentieth century, the "Nipper Building" is also a monument to Camden's crucial role in the development of the modern music, radio and television business. The structure's tower is emblazoned on all four sides with gigantic stained glass windows showing the brand icon of the RCA Victor Company. Also known as RCA Building 17, it was once the center of an industrial complex as large as a small city. And what went on there for nearly a century dramatically changed our world in several ways.

2 In this ramshackle workshop at 108 N. Front Street, Camden, in 1896, 29-year-old machinist Eldridge Johnson invented the spring mechanism that made recorded music a commercially viable possibility. By 1900 he was manufacturing recorded music on the flat disks we would come to know as "records." And by the next year, after prevailing in a series of grueling legal battles over the product, he started the Victor Talking Machine Company here. Its first hand-cranked music machine, bearing the "His Master's Voice" Nipper logo, is pictured above, right. With its business exploding, Victor Talking Machine quickly moved into this factory building (above, left) on Front Street just off Cooper. By 1910 the company was an industrial colossus sprawling across Camden's downtown. The "Nipper" tower was built to instantly become an icon of the company as well as the city. As shown in this 1917 magazine cover painting (above, right), it was the most visually striking landmark along a waterfront that was then the gateway to the city in an era before river bridges existed.

3 The early years of recorded music used recording and playback devices powered by springs rather than electricity. There was no such thing as a microphone. Instead, musicians played up close to a large sound horn that was connected to a needle that converted vibrations into grooved patterns on a master disk. The disk was then used to stamp out records played on hand-cranked home Victorolas that converted the groove patterns back into audible sound. Above, right, is the Victor Talking Machine orchestra recording a song in Camden in In 1929 the Victor Talking Machine Company was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America, a New York firm that had, in the previous ten years, done for the development of commercially viable radio what Victor had done for recorded music. The merger quickly made Camden a leading center in the new broadcast medium. Along with record players, the waterfront RCA-Victor complex became the world's largest manufacturers of radio sets.

4 RCA's Camden facilities played a major role in the development of the technology that would eclipse radio as the most revolutionary medium: television. In 1933 an experimental TV station in Camden broadcast a moving picture image to a prototype TV set in Collingswood. After World War II, Camden became a major world center for the manufacture of both consumer TV sets and the equipment needed to operate TV broadcast studios. And in 1969 RCA literally took Camden to the moon. When Neil Armstrong and Edward "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., became the first human beings to set foot on the moon, they communicated with each other as well as the rest of the world through backpack radio systems built at RCA's Camden facility. 1. In a workshop in Camden in 1896, 29-year-old machinist invented the that made recorded music a commercially viable possibility. 2. By 1900, he was manufacturing recorded music on the flat disks we would come to know as. 3. By the company was an industrial colossus, sprawling across the Camden waterfront. 4. The tower instantly became an icon of the company as well as the city. 5. The early years of recorded music used recording and playback devices powered by rather than electricity.

5 6. They didn t use a microphone. Instead, musicians played up close to a that was connected to a needle that etched grooved patterns on a. 7. In 1929, the Victor Talking Machine Company was purchased by. 8. Along with record players, the Camden waterfront s RCA-Victor complex became the world s largest manufacturers of. 9. RCA s Camden developed a new medium that would change the world:. Part 2: Remembering Camden at 78 rpm Stefan Arnarson, music instructor and a co-curator of the "Sounds of Camden" exhibit at the Stedman Gallery at Rutgers- Camden, puts a record of his grandmother's onto a Victrola record player. CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer

6 KEVIN RIORDAN, INQUIRER COLUMNIST POSTED: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2014, 11:59 PM Stefan Orn Arnarson gently places his grandmother's Victor Red Label 78 on the turntable and under the stylus of the Victrola. The bittersweetness of Fritz Kreisler's violin pours from the machine, which - like the original recording itself - was made in Camden nearly a century ago. "Goose bumps," says Arnarson, a sound designer who first heard Kreisler's haunting rendition of "Deep in My Heart, Dear" at his grandmother's home in Reykjavik, Iceland. "The technology for recording, and playback, that was developed here was revolutionary," adds Arnarson, 45, a Collingswood father of three who joined the Rutgers-Camden faculty in "Camden was the Silicon Valley of its time." The ingenuity, artistry, and manual labor that made possible millions of records and players - and helped develop radio, TV, and film audio technology as well - are the heart of "The Sounds of Camden" exhibit at the Stedman Gallery. Sponsored by the Rutgers- Camden Center for the Arts, the show includes spoken-word recordings of work by Camden poets such as Nick Virgilio; listening stations for samples of vintage musical recordings; and a mini-studio where city students and other visitors can digitally record a brief message. It's as if "they're inserting themselves into the history of the city," says Cyril Reade, director of the Center for the Arts. Adds museum educator Miranda Powell: "Some students have read prepared statements and poems.... Others have rap and freestyle a bit." The exhibit also features "Camden Rounds," a new electronic piece by Rutgers associate professor of music Mark Zaki that includes PATCO trains and other ambient sounds of the city. An original musical-theater production titled Hand Me Down the Silver Trumpet, with live interpretations of classic Victor recordings, was produced at the Gordon Theater on campus in October; the Stedman exhibit continues through Dec. 18. "This exhibit is just a little taste. It should be 10 times as big," says Arnarson, a selfdescribed "geek" who is also a classically trained cellist.

7 "Microphones like the 'crooner mike' were developed here," he adds. "The quality of the technology developed here was better. The first television test signals in the world were sent between Camden and Collingswood. This story needs to be told." For much of the 20th century, the sprawling downtown complex of the Victor Talking Machine Co., later RCA-Victor and finally GE, was a hub of innovation. At its World War II peak, the operation included 31 buildings on 56 acres and employed 20,000. World-class recording studios, including one in a former Cooper Street church, attracted luminaries such as Enrico Caruso and Duke Ellington. "Some of these records and record players are 100 years old, and they still work perfectly," Arnarson says, showing me the vintage Victrolas, radios, and TVs in the exhibit. "The craftsmanship is gorgeous." At one point, he notes, 400 cabinetmakers worked for the company in Camden. "I seriously doubt," he wryly adds, "whatever technology we're using to listen to music 10 years from now will be around in 100 years." Although a proposal to build a "Museum of Recorded Sound" on the Camden waterfront went nowhere a decade ago, Arnarson believes it ought to be revived. I agree. Sound - not just musical, but of all sorts - is "such a part of American culture," he adds. "It deserves a permanent museum. In Camden." 1. According to Stefan Orn Arnarson, Camden was the of its time. 2. According to the article, The first test signals in the world were sent between Camden and Collingswood. This story needs to be told. 3. At its World War II peak, the company had buildings on acres, and it employed people. 4. Some of these records and record players are years old, and they still work perfectly, Arnarson said. Watch: RCA Video