By Doug Boilesen 2023

In the May 15, 1914 issue and again in July and September 1914 issues of the trade magazine The Talking Machine World the Silas E. Pearsall Company's ad stated they "were first in the field as Jobbers of Victor Products to believe in the Supremacy of the Victor.

The Pearsall Company's belief in Victor Supremacy was based on Victor's "two facts" in a 1907 Victor ad which were stated as the backbone of Victor's supremacy and Victor's success:

The Victor is a perfect musical instrument.

Only on the Victor can the world's greatest artists and the most popular entertainers be heard.

 

Victor's Supremacy would be seen again in a 1910 Victor ad, this time with "Quality" as the backbone:

"Quality is the backbone of Victor success and Victor supremacy."

And like the 1907 ad defining Victor's supremacy, the 1910 again stated those same two important facts which elevated Victor above all competitors: It's the "perfect musical instrument" and its Victor Records are "works of art -- musical masterpieces."

 

 

The Pearsall Company ad of May 1914 may be the first jobbers saying in an ad that they believed in the advertising concept of the "Supremacy of the Victor" in a Victor ad.

 

The Talking Machine World, May 15, 1914.

 

Victor Supremacy

On December 4 and 5, 1914 Victor Talking Machine Co. took out full-page ads in every New York evening and morning newspaper, each headed with "Victor Supremacy."

 

 

The Talking Machine World, December 15, 1914 wrote the following in their article "How the Dealer is Helped:"

"The heading "Victor Supremacy" was followed by two short and pithy paragraphs calling attention to the fact that the world's greatest artists make records for the Victor Co., and emphasizing that the scope of the Victrola is unlimited."

The numerical strength of Victor representation in local territory may be gathered from the fact that 241 names were listed in the advertisement...this list being the first one of its kind ever published."

These ads of December 4 and 5, 1914 can be called the beginning of the "Victor Supremacy" advertising campaign for the Victor Talking Machine Co. in the popular press.

They echo the 1907 phonograph trade magazine ad which emphasized the two messages that would commonly be associated with "Victor Supremacy" -- that the Victrola was the greatest musical "instrument" of its kind and that Victor's recording artists were the "World's Greatest Artists." The New York newspaper ads of December 1914, however, now highlighted in bold and in the phrase "Victor Supremacy." It was an advertising phrase designed not be be ignored - two words, dominant and definitive.

Victor's supremacy was also associated with the number of dealers they had, the number of machines and records they sold, the size of their advertising budget, and even Victor's Supremacy over mortality.  A 1918 ad stated "Practically every great singer and instrumentalist recording for Victor of this generation will have their art perpetuated "for all time." "The voice of Melba can never die."

Below are some examples of Victor Supremacy advertisements which were seen from 1915 into the early 1920s.

 

Victor ad in The Talking Machine World, August 15, 1915

Victor Supremacy, The Detroit News, December 8, 1915

The popularity of the Victor is "Victor Supremacy" -- "The enormous public demand for the Victrola is an endorsement of its supremacy." The Talking Machine World, February 15, 1919. p. 5Victor ad in The Talking Machine World, January 15, 1916

 

 

Victor ad in The Ladies' Home Journal, June 1917

 

Victor Supremacy, 1917

 

Enrico Caruso, Victor Supremacy, 1917

 

John McCormack, Victor Supremacy, The Country Life, 1917

 

The Victor is "in the best homes the country over." Victor Supremacy, The Talking Machine World, July 15, 1917

 

"The instrument that is always ready to oblige with the best dance music..." Victor 1917

 

The Saturday Evening Post, July 7, 1917

 

Victor Supremacy - The embodiment of all that is best in music, Harper's Magazine, 1917

 

 

Victor ad in Life Magazine, March 28, 1918 (PM-2008)

Victor Supremacy

Voices that "can never die."

Voices that will live "for all time."

Voices that "will be heard in centuries to come."

Voices that "will flow forever in undiminished beauty."

Practically every great singer and instrumentalist recording for Victor of this generation will have their art perpetuated "for all time."

 

Victor Supremacy, 1918

 

"The Records of Supremacy," Punch, November 13, 1918

 

Victor's Supremacy is evidenced by its record catalog, a book everyone will want and "a tribute to Victor ingenuity and thoroughness. "The World's Greatest Catalog of Music - Victor Supremacy." The Ladies' Home Journal, February, 1919.

 

The popularity of the Victor is "Victor Supremacy" -- "The enormous public demand for the Victrola is an endorsement of its supremacy." The Talking Machine World, February 15, 1919. p. 5

 

Geraldine Farrar, Victor Supremacy, 1919

 

Alma Gluck, Victor Supremacy, 1919

 

"Victor Supremacy - all the time and everywhere. The Talking Machine World, August 15, 1920.

 

The words Supreme and Supremacy, of course, weren't owned by Victor so Pathé, Brunswick, Aeolian-Vocalion, Decca, Keen-O-Phone and many other phonograph companies used these words to describe their own "supremacy" or superiority in their own terms..

Pathé had a model named the "Supreme" and used the slogan "Pathé is Supreme" in early 1920's ads, also saying their Pathé trade-mark was a "symbol of supremacy in every corner of the world."

See Pathé is Supreme for some respective Pathé advertising examples from 1920.

 

Keen-O-Phone - The Superiority of the "most perfect talking machine in the talking machine world...Its simplicity of operation; its unlimited scope of repertoire led reasons for its supremacy."

Aeolian-Vocalion - "The Superior Tone of the Aeolian-Vocalion"

The Talking Machine World, January 15, 1916

 

Brunswick - The "one super phonograph" which had achieved "the Ultimate in Phonograph Music" with its "Ultona," said to be "a product of creative genius."

 

The Brunswick's Ultona, Red Cross Magazine, November 1919

 

Decca - "The Decca owes its supremacy to its ingenious and fully patented construction."

The Decca - The Portable Phonograph, The Talking Machine World, February 15, 1922

 

Widdicomb - "The Aristocrat of Phonographs" with its Widdicomb Amplifying Tone Chamber. This is an exclusive feature which gives a supremacy of tone to be found on no other phonograph."

 

Phonographia