“Why is that dog listening at that ear trumpet thing?” David asked when passing HMV the other day.
“He is listening to His Master’s Voice on a gramophone”.
“Why would someone be talking to a dog via a record?”
And so it goes…
I first looked into the story of Nipper from a chance conversation with the Manager of Coventry HMV record store. Above the store was the ABC Cinema, whilst in the basement was a failed former Bierkeller which was re-opened as a music Pub called The Dog and Trumpet (still going, I believe). On the wall next to the rather unassuming entrance was the dog listening to the trumpet, a familiar logo from His Master’s Voice 78rpm records and it all belonged to EMI at the time.
I won’t retell the background here as it is documented online but it is interesting that a corporate logo should have survived more-or-less unscathed with a circa 1900 vintage anachronistic mechanical sound reproducer.
[...] Go to the author’s original blog: The dog and trumpet [...]
Pingback by The dog and trumpet — October 15, 2008 @ 8:43 pm
The article linked to doesn’t mention that Nipper is still part of the trademark of JVC in Japan. JVC can’t use it outside Japan, and HMV can’t use it inside Japan.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JVC#Brand_name
Comment by Techno Mystic — October 19, 2008 @ 7:12 am
Techno Mystic- Interesting!
Comment by Shades — October 19, 2008 @ 9:01 am