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The Development Of Movies- From Silence To Sound by Fred Page

In the earliest days of movies attempts were made to add sound to films. In 1896, the year films were first
screened in uAustralia, Pathe introduced what they called the Berliner phonograph system of synchronised
sound on disc. Relying entirely on acoustic amplification, the arrangement was a failure.

The fundamentals of what was to become sound on film - the glow tube, galvanometer, light valve etc. was
patented in Britain in 1906 by Eugene Lauste and by 1912 an experimental sound on film system had been
developed. It was called Gaumont Chronophone.

Further similar experiments were underway in Germany and America in 1918-19. The German system was
known as Tri-Ergen and the American, developed by Lee De Forrest was called Phonofilm. Phonofilm was
demonstrated to Hollywood interests and in theatres in 1923, but as the studios were "doing nicely" as silent
film producers they showed no enthusiasm for it and the public treated it as a passing novelty.

Early in 1925, Warner Bros. became involved in a Los Angeles radio station (KFWB). Their film studio was
facing hard times and they thought sound could revive interest in movie going after Sam Warner gave a
flowing account of a demonstration he witnessed at the Bell Laboratories in New York. The Brothers then
entered into a contract with Western Electric to research and experiment with sound films at their New York
Vitagraph studios. A year later ( 1926) Warner Bros. established the Vitaphone Corporation and had a contrac-
tual agreement with Western Electric to use the sound-on-disc Vita phone system and to jointly hold the licens-
ing rights for contract to other studios.

In the same year the Case-Sponable sound-on-film system, a variant of the Lee De Forrest Phonofilm was
demonstrated to William Fox and he very quickly purchased the patent and renamed the process Movietone.
By August 1926 Warners were receiving public acclaim for screening their first program of Vitaphone (sound)
shorts featuring operatic, concert and vaudeville artists together with their first sound feature "Don Juan". "Don
Juan" was a silent film with a sound synchronised musical accompaniment. In October they released a second
program of Vitaphone shorts and another synchronised sound film "The Better Ole".

Early the following year (1927) William Fox presented his first sound shorts to accompany the release of his
studios "What Price Glory", a silent feature. In May of the same year he presented a similar program of shorts
with the release of "Yankee Clipper", likewise a silent film. 1927 also saw the first demonstration of the RCA
Photophone sound-on-film system and the release in October of the first major sound (on disc) film "The Jazz
Singer'' featuring singing and snippets of dialogue.

In 1928 the Keith Orpheum cinemas were acquired by RCA to form RKO (Radio Keith Orpheum) thereby
enabling the practical application of their Photophone system of sound movie production to go ahead with
guaranteed release outlets. Their first film, like Warners, was a silent film "The Fortune Hunter" with synchro-
nised music track.

The proposition that sound was a passing phase was squashed by the end of 1928 following the Warner
Vitaphone releases "Glorious Betsy" and "The Lion and the Mouse". The popularity of these films with the
public resulted in First National, Paramount, United Artists and MGM (the last major studio) signing up with
Western Electric to use their sound system (disc). This was done without the consent of Warner Bros.

In July of 1928, "The Lights of New York" was released by Warners. This film had dialogue in 22 of its 24
scenes and was thus the first "talkie" (not to be confused with first sound film). That terminology -scenes -
seems strange today, but in order to minimise camera noise, the camera and it's operator were imprisoned in
a sound proof box, this preventing fluid camera shots and in effect filmed a stage play.

At the same time (July '28) MGM released their first sound effort - "White Shadows in the South". Like the
other studios first "talkies" this was a silent film with synchronised musical and sound effects. The first MGM
dialogue film was "Alias Jimmy Valentine" and their first musical "Broadway Melody" in 1929 won the first
sound Oscar. All used sound-on-disc.

Paramount converted to sound in 1928 with "Interference" which was largely ignored; their first successful
effort was "The Love Parade" in 1929. By that year (1929) Western Electric had developed their variable
density sound-on-film system and the following year the sound-on-disc system was abandoned for film produc-
tion but sound-on-disc release prints and records continued to be made for about another four or five years.
This was because of the expense involved for theatres that had invested in sound-on-disc having to partially

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