Phonographs and records
When the major phonograph patents started expiring on the disc phonographs in the mid-1910s, American businesses saw this as an opportunity to invest in a rapidly growing market. Joining with other piano makers making phonographs like Kimball and Aeolian, Starr introduced their own line of phonographs in late 1915. The Starr phonograph had a slight success at first for a minor brand, due in part to winning an award at the 1915 Panama–California Exposition.[9] The Gennett brothers toyed with the idea of getting into the record industry, purchasing the masters to the defunct Phono-Cut Record Company.[10] In late 1914 or early 1915, Starr began issuing records pressed from Phono-Cut masters, under a label named Remington. Although the records failed to sell well commercially, it justified Starr to beef up its record production and build their own recording studio.[11] In 1916 Starr began selling vertical cut records alongside their phonographs called Starr Records. (Due to the Victor and Columbia patents still in effect on the lateral recording method, other companies were forced to make vertical cut records, including Paramount, Okeh, and Vocalion.) Wanting to sell their records outside Starr piano dealers, the Gennetts felt the label was too closely tied to the Starr name. Beginning in late 1917, into early 1918, the label's name was changed to Gennett to allow non-Starr piano dealers to sell their records.[12]By 1919, the Victor patents on lateral recording were starting to expire, with the remaining patent held in question. Starr, alongside the General Phonograph Corporation, challenged Victor's patent in court. The judge agreed that Victor was using the patent before Eldridge Johnson filed it, and had the patent invalidated. With the patent invalidation going into full effect in 1921, nearly all record makers abandoned vertical cut records, with the exception of Edison and Pathé. Through the early 1920s, Gennett's new lateral cut records became a popular jazz label, recording artists such as Jelly Roll Morton, Bix Beiderbecke, New Orleans Rhythm Kings, and King Oliver's band, including some of Louis Armstrong earliest commercial recordings.[13] At the height of the Starr's manufacturing, they made 25,000 pianos, 15,000 phonographs, and over 4 million records annually. Through the mid-1920s, Starr introduced their own line of electrical recorded records and Isosonic phonographs to compete against Victor's line of Orthophonic Victrolas. However, their early electrically recorded records were plagued with problems, hurting sales. Though they were able to improve the processes quickly, the damage was done, and sales dropped through the late 1920s.
By 1929 the Great Depression impacted the record industry greatly. Starr canceled their phonograph line that year and the Gennett label the following but kept some of the budget labels through the early 1930s. The remaining Starr record pressing building was leased to Decca Records and later Mercury Records (along with some smaller labels) before being auctioned off in the 1970s.[14]
