I had always though of the Orpheum name as being the same as Recording King - guitars made by a number of builders and distributed by the major music companies like C. Bruno.
The history of Orpheum instruments is hard to get a handle on. While I have read somewhere that Orpheum was a trademark of the Epiphone company, the Orpehum moniker apparently pre-dates the arrival of Anastasios Stahpopoulo in NY. At one point the owner of Orpehum banjoes sued Epiphone alleging they had stolen one of his patents. I always figured the Orpheum name came from Martin Beck's large Orpheum show circuit which sprang up in the 1890s.
As best I can determine everyone from Kay to D'Agelico produced archtops and mandolins under the Orpheum name.
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"You start off playing guitars to get girls & end up talking with middle-aged men about your fingernails" - Ed Gerhard
Last edited by zombywoof; 11-03-2013 at 10:48 AM.
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