The U-S Phonograph Company (the dash is supposed to be between the letters, the company didn't spell it US) was an independent company based in Cleveland, Ohio. U-S is best known as a manufacturer of celluloid records, but it did sell internal and outside horn phonographs of its own design.
Of the outside horn series, the U-S Banner was the lowest in price, followed by the U-S Royal and then the U-S Opera.
The U-S machines employed a design unlike any other, including a "flex arm" in lieu of a typical tone arm, parallel two and four minute feed screws, and shifting parallel two and four minute reproducers.
The U-S Banner machine depicted below dates to around 1909. Examples have appeared with a Lakeside decal rather than the U-S shield, illustrating the relationship between U-S and Montgomery Ward.
All U-S machines are fairly scarce, and very few are found in working condition. The reproducer assembly, a pot metal casting, swells and cracks with age. For further history of U-S see our article The U-S Everlasting Story.
Lynn Bilton
Box 435
Randolph,OH 44265
330 325-7866
We buy, sell, and repair antique phonographs and music boxes.
Pick-up and delivery possible in many parts of the midwest, south, and northeast.
Mechanical music
for sale