Pathe was the dominant force in the French Phonograph market. The story of the Pathe brothers, Charles & Emile's rise from rags to riches is a story of purest entrepreneurship. In 1894 Charles had watched an Edison exhibitor at a fair, and had noticed that with an Edison phonograph with 20 listening tubes, an exhibitor was bringing in good money at every 2 minute cylinder he played.

In 1904 Emile Pathé 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.

In France, vertically-cut discs were produced into the 1930s, several years after the assets of the Pathé phonograph company had been sold to the British Columbia Gramophone Company in December 1928*. Even today, Pathé discs are the most likely pre-electric records to be discovered in French brocantes.

It was the brainchild of Charles Pathé (1863–1957), a dynamic entrepreneur who in 1896 founded the Société Pathé Frères, a company specializing in phonographs and cinema equipment. His business expanded quickly, and by 1910 he was not only selling projectors, but also producing films, opening theaters around the world, and even supplying film stock to amateur operators.

Pathé quickly recognized the phonograph's potential. After borrowing 700 francs, Pathé bought his own phonograph and began traveling the market circuit. Pathé's traveling days were brief, however. In 1895 Pathé opened his own phonograph shop, not only selling the machines but also establishing studios for recording and selling rolls of music.

07/02/2006 · Pathé Frères was founded in France by two brothers, Charles and Émile Pathé. The phonograph portion of the company was established in 1894 and the cinema division was created in 1896. The Pathé brothers, former restaurateurs, used a distinctive rooster as their trademark for their "talking machine" and 'Le Coq' served as a reference to their culinary origins.

In June 1923 the newly organized Pathe Phonograph & Radio Corp. of Brooklyn brought out its first portable. It was available in mahogany, golden oak, fumed oak and "fabrickoid leather." Two manufacturers that did not introduce a portable in the early 1920s were Thomas A. Edison, Inc., and the Aeolian Company.