Pathe Freres Company

Once upon a time in days gone by, there were two brothers who ran a little cafe; a chance idea, some initiative, and within five years their name was (and still is) famous all over the world.

The date was 1894, the city was Paris, and their names were Emile and Charles Pathe. Their little cafe/bistro was in Rue Fontaine near the lively Place Pigalle. Only in their twenties, the enterprising brothers always had a eye for business. One day they chanced to visit the annual Vincennes fair. A travelling showman was arousing great interest as he had a new fangled Edison phonograph from America. People were actually paying to hear the device play speech and music from the wax cylinders. Emile and Charles decided that this latest craze might also be useful to attract customers to their cafe. Unable to persuade the showman to part with his phonograph, the brothers imported a similar one from England. Sure enough people did come to their cafe and no doubt partook of refreshments whilst enjoying the phonograph demonstrations.

However a problem arose: cafe customers not only listened and admired the device, they asked if they could buy one! Being entrepreneurs, the brothers Pathe decided to fill this market demand. Unable to obtain a licence and supplies of the official Edison machine, a similar model was designed (copied?) by a local engineering company in Belleville. Soon they found sufficient demand to also record their own cylinders. In fact at the end of that same year, 1894, the Pathe brothers built a small factory in the Parisian suburb of Chatou to produce recording cylinder blanks. Business was brisk and the company Pathe Freres was born.

A distinctive logo was almost immediately adopted, the famous Pathe cockerel. This 'Le Coq' trademark was used extensively on their phonographs and cylinders.

By the end of the century their Belleville factory employed over two hundred workers to meet the demand for their cheap phonograph (a copy it appears, of the Columbia 'Eagle Gramophone').

Naturally as the sales of instruments mounted, demand for cylinders rocketed. The Chatou factory employed over one hundred and fifty staff to produce wax blanks. The Pathe headquarters at Rue de Richelieu doubled as a recording studio. Here many famous French stars from the nearby Opera and music halls were persuaded to record their repertoires. Originally wax cylinders were recorded individually with up to ten instruments running, so as to produce ten cylinders from the one recording session, soon Path� arranged a duplicating process by means of a mechanical pantograph process from large diameter masters. (Later shellac discs were more suited to bulk hydraulic press production methods although Pathe continued the pantograph copying even for discs into the 1920's). By 1899 the Pathe catalogue listed 1500 titles! The Pathe cylinders were produced as 2 minute (standard) and 4 minute Celeste (extra large). Pathe appear to have been the first to record the famous Enrico Caruso via an associated Italian company.

Another money-spinner for the Pathe company was the Salon du Phonographe in the Boulevard des Italiens. In this plush, up-market set-up, one could sample any of the current audio delights - for a fee of course! Rows of comfy easy chairs faced polished wood cabinets each fitted with hearing tubes, a dialling device and coin slot. A coin was inserted, the desired choice dialled and within ten seconds the tune was heard. The first juke-box? Not exactly, for underneath this opulent room was a cellar stacked with cylinders and dozens of fleet footed staff to locate and play the required tunes! The daily take was in the order of 1000 francs!

Because of Pathe, the cylinder's popularity reigned supreme in Europe, especially France, even though the gramophone was gaining ground elsewhere. In 1904 Emile Pathe employed 3,200 workers, produced 1,000 phonographs and 50,000 cylinders a day, and had offices and studios in London, Milan and Moscow. Factories had been opened in London, Milan, Brussels, Amsterdam and Moscow. By now the catalogue contained 12,000 titles.