On Wed, 16 Feb 2000 09:31:00 -0800 (PST) [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Rodney
Peterson) wrote:
> I was under the impression JVC (Japanese Victor Corporation) was more
> closely affiliated with RCA (Royal? Victor Corporation). I think the guy
> at Radio Shack is in error.
I have a book on the development of home video that deals extensively with
the corporate cultures of Sony, JVC and Matsushita. According to that book:
"JVC -- the Victor Company of Japan -- was established in 1927 as a
subsidiary of the Victor Talking Machine Company of the United States (which
later merged with the Radio Corporation of America to become RCA Victor,
which later dropped the "Victor" and became plain RCA.)
"JVC began making phonographs and phonograph records in 1929 at a large
plant in the port city of Yokohama, where the comany still has its
headquarters. In the late thirties, as Japanese-American relations
deteriorated, ownership passed from foreign to domestic hands, although JVC
never wavered in its loyalty to the Victor trademark, the dog Nipper with
its ears perked to 'His Master's Voice.'
"In 1945, American bombs nearly destroyed JVC's factory. Eight years later,
JVC was at bankruptcy's door and would have gone right through except for
Konosuke Matsushita, who bought a majority of the stock and placed the
company under the Matsushita umbrella. Characteristacally, though, he agreed
to let the company maintain a high degree of autonomy, and that became a
point of almost obsessive pride with the company. Matsushita people would
routinely refer to JVC as a subsidiary, but anyone who used that term with a
JVC person was asking for trouble. 'The only relationship we maintain with
Matsushita is capital involvement -- that's it,' JVC executives would say."
That relationship continues today.
>From "Fast Forward: Hollywood, The Japanese and the Onslaught of the VCR" by
James Lardner (1987, W.W. Norton & Co.)
--Dale Greer
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