The predecessors of "Jennings Musical Industries Limited"

This page is simply a note, for the time being, on the companies that existed before "Jennings Musical Industries Limited" came into being in the summer of 1956. The first advert to bear the new name - "Jennings Musical Industries Limited" - appeared in "Melody Maker" magazine on the 23rd June (pictured below). It replaced, for the public and press at least, Tom's first company - "Jennings Musical Instruments Limited". "J.M.I." is signalled in 1956 as being a Trade Mark. His two other companies - "The Jennings Accordion Company Limited" and "The Jennings Organ Company Limited" - businesses within a business really, continued in adverts through to the late 1950s and later 1960s, respectively.

It is reported that one of the main reasons for the creation of "Jennings Musical Industries Ltd" was the desire for a change of company image (as a prelude to the release of new ranges of equipment). Tom, in mind of the broad appeal that EMI ("Electric and Musical Industries") enjoyed, began referring to the business as JMI. Whether the change of "Instruments" to "Industries" on its own would have suggested much to the public at large is difficult to answer. But why mid 1956? In late 1955 Jennings had acquired 117 Dartford Road (formerly a Fish and Chip shop), creating a sort of unit of numbers 115-119 - a new and much improved footing for business. See the notes on the Vox AC100 website.

In late 1957, the early "Jennings Musical Industries Ltd" roundels pictured below gave way to the now-familiar logo - the letters of JMI separately on black parallelograms. The introduction of this new design coincided (more or less) with the decision to produce new amplifiers - for which Dick Denney had been employed. First to appear were the and the AC1/15.

"Melody Maker" magazine, 30th June (not the 23rd, as previously stated), 1956, along with the accordion version, "Accordion Times", July 1956. Note in both instances the signalling of "Trade Mark".

"Melody Maker" magazine, 1st September, 1956. The new Electro-Bass. "JMI" a simplified roundel, the dots between the letters dispensed with.

"Melody Maker" magazine, 10th August, 1957. An early instance of the staggered letters "JMI".

Below, the record of the creation of "Jenning Musical Industries (Sales) Limited" in June 1960. Doreen Crossley and Anne McFarlan were employees of JMI. The naming of subsiduaries rather than main shareholders was common practice in the 1960s,

Jennings (1946-1949)

Tom's earliest adverts in the music press simply give "Jennings". This was the business he set up initially in 1946. "Jennings Limited" was the name on the shop-front at Dartford Road. Below, an early full page magazine ad:

Summer 1948.

A detail from a Jennings advert in "Squeeze Box" magazine, May 1949. Jennings went on to take the magazine over, incorporating it in his own magazine "The Accordionist and Harmonica Player", based at 119 Dartford Road.

Jennings Musical Instruments Limited (1949-1968)

"Jennings Musical Instruments Limited" was officially registered as a company on the 23rd May 1949, the public notice published four days later on the 27th. Normally when a company was re-named or re-cast the record noted the intention "To carry on the business of....". Tom's new company was formed however without any reference to a predecessor.

The text reads: "Registered May 23 1949. 119, Dartford Road, Dartford, Kent. Nominal capital: £3,000 in £1 shares. Directors: T.W.Jennings (permanent) and Joan M. Jennings, 119, Dartford Road, Dartford, Kent."

Advert published in Spring 1949.

In some instances, the new trading name took a little while to work through though. Below, two ads from a music trade journal: August 1949, plain old "Jennings". From September, the new name, used thereafter principally for things other than organs through to 1956.

August 1949.

September 1949.

Though "Jennings Musical Instruments Limited" was little used after 1956, the company remained on the books through to 1968, being cited by the liquidators of JMI assets at the Vox Works in Erith in September of that year.

"Melody Maker" magazine, 26th January, 1952. An early Jennings amplifier, for accordion, guitar or string bass amplification. The "Univox" name was transferred in short order however to the new keyboard, inspired by Selmer's Clavioline. On early Jennings amplifiers, .

The British International Accordion Company (1950-1951?)

Its name first appeared in an advert of August 1950 - perhaps used thereafter for transactions "behind the scenes", exports and imports, and so on. No further mention has come to light in British sources so far (but that may of course change).

Accordion journal, June and August, 1950.

Jennings Organ Company Limited (c. 1952 - 1966)

The Organ company seems to have been created at much the same time as the "Univox" keyboard - mid 1952. It is first mentioned explicitly in adverts in November 1952.

By the late 1950s Jennings had around ten models catering for home and club use, auditoria, churches, church halls, and so on. A set of pages on Jennings Organs . Derek Underdown and Les Hills held a number of patents for electronic organ circuits and mechanisms on behalf of JMI. The "Jennings Organ Company" was still cited on Vox organ serial number plates in the mid 1960s.

"Melody Maker" magazine, 6th November, 1954. A great drawing (with plenty of artistic license) of 115 Dartford Road.

"Accordion Times" magazine, April 1955 - advert for the company's presence at the "British Industries Fair" (which it had also attended in 1954). Musical instruments were displayed at London's Olympia.

Jennings Accordion Company Limited (c. 1955 - 1962?)

Accordions were Jennings's first line of business in early days. The shop at 100 Charing Cross Road, set up in 1950, did great trade - for an overview. Notes on Alan Billington, the shop's first manager, .

Early Jennings adverts for accordions, 1947-1955, invariably give the company's name either as "Jennings" alone, or as "Jennings Musical Instruments Limited". But following the announcement, in late 1955, that an "Accordion Centre" was to be created at 100 Charing Cross Road, "The Jennings Accordion Company" appears.

"Accordion Times" magazine, January 1956. The "London Accordion Centre" was opened in the basement of 100 Charing Cross Road in the Spring of '56.

Vox Sound Equipment Limited (August 1964 - 1969)

Not really a predecessor, but an adjunct. A few days after the trade fair at the Russell Hotel in late August 1964, Tom Jennings and Eric Summer, chairman of Royston Industries, the company that owned a controlling share in JMI, applied to Companies House to form "Vox Sound Equipment Limited". VSEL was duly incorporated on 11th September (entry below from the digest Companies House register).

The principal reason for the creation of the new company: to provide a new vehicle for Jennings/Vox sales that was unconnected with the deal that JMI had just finalised with Thomas Organ in the USA.

Below, shots from Google Street of Tom Jennings's house in Bexleyheath (half obscured by the tree); and Eric Summer's place in Belgravia (no. 54, end of terrace).

Following JMI's formal cessation of trading in late April 1968, Reg Clark and Cyril Windiate used "Vox Sound Equipment Limited" as the basis for a new company to take the VOX name forward. Unfortunately this new VSEL lasted little more than a year, collapsing in late 1969, to be succeeded in turn by "Vox Sound Limited" (from early 1970).

.