Erastus Benson - Investments

Investments

In the late 1890s, Benson was a central figure in the founding the first of the regional companies associated with the North American Phonograph Company called the Chicago Central Phonograph Company, along with Alfred O. Tate and Thomas Lombard. He later began the Nebraska Phonograph Company, and was president of that company. As president of the company Benson had an exclusive deal with Edison, leading the company to dominate phonograph sales throughout the Midwest for several years. In that capacity he also discovered the young Leon Douglas, who was a self-educated boy telephone operator who at the age of 21 invented one of the first workable patents for a coin-operated phonograph. Douglas sold the patent to Benson.

After Thomas Edison finished his Kinetoscope, he marketed the device and his films through the independently-owned Kinetoscope Company. Erastus Benson, along with Alfred O. Tate, Thomas Lombard, Norman C. Raff, Frank R. Gammon, and Andrew Holland.