Leeds Talk-O-Phone
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Leeds Talk-O-Phone was a record label, producing single-sided lateral-cut disc gramophone records in the United States of America from about 1902 to 1909.
Leeds Records were produced by the Talk-O-Phone Company of Toledo, Ohio, owned by Wynant van Zant Pierce Bradley and Albert Irish. Talk-O-Phone produced disc phonographs (gramophones in British English) very similar to the earliest "Victor" machines of the Victor Talking Machine Company.
Some Leeds Records were unauthorized dubs of recordings made in other countries, a practice that slipped through a legal loophole at the time when international copyrights on recorded sound was poorly regulated. Some printed speculation about this obscure early record label has alleged that all Leeds material was either leased or pirated from other companies, but this was not the case. Some Leeds records were recorded specifically for Leeds, as can be confirmed by the spoken announcements at the beginning of the records. A few Vaudeville stars of some note recorded for Leeds, including Byron G. Harlin. The audio fidelity of original Leeds recordings is about comparable to Victor or Columbia Records discs of some 5 years earlier.
The most notable feature of Leeds records are the labels at the center of the discs, some of the most elaborate and beautiful ever to grace phonograph records. The labels are coated in embossed gold foil in high relief, with a trio of angels flying in clouds beside "LEEDS TALK-O-PHONE RECORDS" in elaborate flowing lettering. The lower portion of the label shows the record number, song title, and artist, in much more plain type. The whole is surrounded by a floral border.
In April of 1909 Victor triumphed in a lawsuit for patent infringement, and Leeds Records and Talk-O-Phone went out of business.