Orlando R. Marsh

Orlando R. Marsh (August 6, 1881 – September 7, 1938) was an electrical engineer raised in Wilmette, Illinois. In early 1920s Chicago, Illinois he pioneered electrical recording of phonograph discs with microphones when acoustic recording with horns was commonplace. His firm Marsh Laboratories, Inc., founded in 1922,

Marsh's best known recordings were duets by King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton on the Autograph Records 78 rpm phonograph disc label. His best selling Autograph records were those of Jesse Crawford in 1924 playing the Wurlitzer pipe organ in the Chicago Theatre using his then-new electrical disc recording system. This was before Victor Talking Machine Company and Columbia Records started to use the Western Electric licensed method of electrically recording records using microphones in 1925.

Orlando Marsh also participated in the first radio program syndication employing disc records. Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll electrically recorded their WMAQ (AM) Amos 'n' Andy radio program at Marsh Laboratories prior to live airing during the 1928 - 1929 period.(3)

Occasionally, specialty recordings by Marsh Laboratories from the late 1920s to the early 1940s are found.