Attempts to add sound to the flickering
images of the cinema go back as far as Edison. The Kinetoscope was in
fact originally conceived as an extension of the phonograph. Early
attempts by Edison to marry sight and sound were hampered by problems
with amplification and synchronisation.
The Paris Exhibition of 1900 included sound films haphazardly synchronised on a cylinder. Edison made another attempt at sound films in 1913. The problem was projectionists had to continually change the speed of the film to keep the sound in synchronisation.
The Europeans made better progress. The Germans developed the excellent Tri-Ergon system which was later used by Fox in collaboration with an American company Case. Lee DeForest's silenium tube offered one solution to the problem of amplification and his phonofilm of 1923 showed how light waves could synchronize sound and image. DeForest went as far as opening a studio to make sound films but encountered opposition from everyone.
The public had little interest in sound in novelty musical shorts. They were more interested in the latest films of great silent stars like Chaplin, Fairbanks, Pickford, Swanson and Valentino.
Warner Brothers who owned a Los Angeles radio station collaborated with Bell Telephone in creating the sound-on-disc system Vitaphone. In 1926 at a gala premiere for Vitaphone they presented a series of musical shorts showcasing the major operatic and vaudeville stars of the time and a silent feature film with a syncronised musical score : Don Juan starring John Barrymore and Mary Astor. In April 1927 Fox Movietone News,a sound news weekly began. None of this really excited the public because sound was still perceived as a novelty.
That perception was changed forever on the night of October 6th 1927 and the premiere of The Jazz Singer. Al Jolson's inspired ad-libbing changed sound from a mere novelty into a permanent part of cinema. He talked like a real human being and addressed the audience directly.
The Paris Exhibition of 1900 included sound films haphazardly synchronised on a cylinder. Edison made another attempt at sound films in 1913. The problem was projectionists had to continually change the speed of the film to keep the sound in synchronisation.
The Europeans made better progress. The Germans developed the excellent Tri-Ergon system which was later used by Fox in collaboration with an American company Case. Lee DeForest's silenium tube offered one solution to the problem of amplification and his phonofilm of 1923 showed how light waves could synchronize sound and image. DeForest went as far as opening a studio to make sound films but encountered opposition from everyone.
The public had little interest in sound in novelty musical shorts. They were more interested in the latest films of great silent stars like Chaplin, Fairbanks, Pickford, Swanson and Valentino.
Warner Brothers who owned a Los Angeles radio station collaborated with Bell Telephone in creating the sound-on-disc system Vitaphone. In 1926 at a gala premiere for Vitaphone they presented a series of musical shorts showcasing the major operatic and vaudeville stars of the time and a silent feature film with a syncronised musical score : Don Juan starring John Barrymore and Mary Astor. In April 1927 Fox Movietone News,a sound news weekly began. None of this really excited the public because sound was still perceived as a novelty.
That perception was changed forever on the night of October 6th 1927 and the premiere of The Jazz Singer. Al Jolson's inspired ad-libbing changed sound from a mere novelty into a permanent part of cinema. He talked like a real human being and addressed the audience directly.
Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles
The Jazz Singer image from
http://www.musicals101.com/
