U-S Banner



This article is part of the ANTIQUE PHONOGRAPH, GRAMOPHONE AND TALKING MACHINE IDENTIFICATION GUIDES.
SEE ALSO: Our listings of outside horn talking machines for sale.


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.


U-S Banner
This black horn is the proper horn. The small end terminates in an opening quite a bit larger than standard Victor or Columbia, and clips into a heavy elbow.
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U-S Banner upperworks
The oval box that is part of the carriage assembly houses two separate reproducers.
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U-Banner top, detail
Details of the upperworks.
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U-S Banner flex arm
This alien looking contraption is the flex arm.
(Images courtesy Kevin Boerma)

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Lynn Bilton
Box 435
Randolph,OH 44265
330 325-7866

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