Casa Edison, Rio De Janeiro

The Casa Edison was the first record & phonograph store in Brazil that sold imported Edison Phonographs and his record cylinders, established in 1900 by the brothers Fred & Gustav (later Gustavo) Figner. In 1902 it received a recording tour from International Zonophone Company which recorded a large number of local artists.These records were sold between 1904, released through Disco Zon-O-Phone and pressed in Germany. In 1906 Casa Edison enters a deal, or franchises, with International Talking Machine Co. m.b.H. for the pressing of Brazilian recordings, becoming the first Latin American country with dedicated recording studios. Such records are pressed in the Odeon factories of Germany and Barcelona. Casa Edison expands into São Paulo, franchise managed by Gustavo Figner. The brothers have a falling out and Casa Edison, São Paulo becomes independent in 1914. In 1913 Figner, representing Odeon, builds the first Latin American record factory in Vila Isabel, Rio de Janeiro, creating Brazilian the record company International Talking Machine Co.Ltd.. Their factory became known as Fábrica Odeon. In 1914, it enters a deal with Casa Hartfield of Porto Alegre upon learning of the construction of Casa A Electrica's Fábrica De Discos Saverio Leonetti. Casa Hartfield is equipped with acoustic recorders before A Electrica is able to produce it's first records. These records enter the market promoted as Discos Rio-Grandeses, under the label Odeon. Hartfield continues recording for Casa Edison. Somewhere in that year, he also initiates a lawsuit with Casa Faulhaber & Co. over patent rights. The result of the action is unknown, but the outcome is Faulhaber's retirement from the music industry. In 1915 Fred Figner initiates a lawsuit with Saverio Leonetti over the publication of a song recorded in Rio de Janeiro in 1912 and separately recorded and published by Leonetti in 1914. The lawsuit lasts from 1915 to 1920 and ends in settlement, but the legal pressure prompted Leonetti to withdraw from the Brazilian record market.