Opera Disc Company

US bootleg label, founded by New York securities broker Max Hesslein and active from April 1921 to March 1923. Opera Disc Company records were manufactured in Hannover, Germany, by Deutsche Grammophon GmbH (DGG), using The Gramophone Co. Ltd. and Victor masters. These masters had originally been given to DGG's predecessor Deutsche Grammophon-Aktiengesellschaft, then a subsidiary of the British The Gramophone Co. Ltd., for distribution in Germany and had been confiscated as enemy alien property during World War I so that DGG considered itself their rightful owner. On March 31, 1923, however, Victor won an injunction against Opera Disc Company that forced the company to turn all its records, catalogs, and advertising material over to Victor so they could be destroyed. The label also shows the trademark Musica G.D.. Originally registered by Frenchman Georges Dutreih (G. D.) in 1904, this trademark was registered in the U.S. in 1921 by Polyphonwerke A.-G., the same company who had acquired Deutsche Grammophon-Aktiengesellschaft in 1917 and released the same Gramophone Co. masters as the Opera Disc Company in Germany under the Grammophon label.