BUSH

Shepherds Bush in London, suggested the name for a new radio company founded there in 1932. The company was formed as a subsidiary to the Gaumont British Picture Corporation after the ex-MD of the recently defunct Graham Amplion loudspeaker company had explained to the former's bosses that the Cinema industry was going to be associated with Television in a big way sooner rather than later. The way into TV, he explained, was through Radio and the first step was to set up a small radio design and manufacturing business so work started with a small band of men and women upstairs in one of Gaumont's factories

Bush rose from the ashes of Amplion who made speakers for British Gaumont cinemas and thus had links with the film industry.The radios were advertised in Gaumont cinema foyers as "A Gaumont British Product". Murphy experienced problems keeping at the forefront of technology and lost creditability with their dealers, many of which changed over to Bush. At some point Murphy became part of Bush and the company traded as Bush - Murphy in Chiswick, London. In 1945 because of their links to the film industry, Bush Murphy became part of the Rank empire and changed the name to Rank Bush Murphy (RBM). A new satellite factory was opened in Plymouth in 1949. During the mid 70's they moved the entire operation to Plymouth. In 1972 the name was changed again to Rank Radio International (RRI). Following several years of mounting losses they tied up with the Japanese to become Rank Toshiba in 1978. This lasted just 3 years, and in 1981 finally folded. Toshiba became sole owner of the Plymouth factory. The Bush name now belongs (along with Alba) to an importers in Barking, E London.

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