Talking motion pictures

The invention:



The first practical system for linking sound with

moving pictures.



The people behind the invention:



Harry Warner (1881-1958), the brother who used sound to

fashion a major filmmaking company

Albert Warner (1884-1967), the brother who persuaded theater

owners to show Warner films

Samuel Warner (1887-1927), the brother who adapted soundrecording

technology to filmmaking

Jack Warner (1892-1978), the brother who supervised the

making of Warner films











Taking the Lead



The silent films of the early twentieth century had live sound accompaniment

featuring music and sound effects. Neighborhood

theaters made do with a piano and violin; larger “picture palaces”

in major cities maintained resident orchestras of more than seventy

members. During the late 1920’s, Warner Bros. led the American

film industry in producing motion pictures with their own soundtracks,

which were first recorded on synchronized records and later

added on to the film beside the images.

The ideas that led to the addition of sound to film came from corporate-

sponsored research by American Telephone and Telegraph

Company (AT&T) and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA).

Both companies worked to improve sound recording and playback,

AT&T to help in the design of long-distance telephone equipment

and RCAas part of the creation of better radio sets. Yet neither company

could, or would, enter filmmaking. AT&T was willing to contract

its equipment out to Paramount or one of the other major Hollywood

studios of the day; such studios, however, did not want to

risk their sizable profit positions by junking silent films. The giants

of the film industry were doing fine with what they had and did not

want to switch to something that had not been proved.

In 1924,Warner Bros. was a prosperous, though small, corporation

that produced films with the help of outside financial backing. That

year, HarryWarner approached the importantWall Street investment

banking house of Goldman, Sachs and secured the help he needed.

As part of this initial wave of expansion,Warner Bros. acquired a

Los Angeles radio station in order to publicize its films. Through

this deal, the four Warner brothers learned of the new technology

that the radio and telephone industries had developed to record

sound, and they succeeded in securing the necessary equipment

from AT&T. During the spring of 1925, the brothers devised a plan

by which they could record the most popular musical artists on film

and then offer these “shorts” as added attractions to theaters that

booked its features. As a bonus, Warner Bros. could add recorded

orchestral music to its feature films and offer this music to theaters

that relied on small musical ensembles.





“Vitaphone”



On August 6, 1926,Warner Bros. premiered its new “Vitaphone”

technology. The first package consisted of a traditional silent film

(Don Juan) with a recorded musical accompaniment, plus six recordings

of musical talent highlighted by a performance from Giovanni

Martineli, the most famous opera tenor of the day.

The first Vitaphone feature was The Jazz Singer, which premiered

in October, 1927. The film was silent during much of the movie, but

as soon as Al Jolson, the star, broke into song, the new technology

would be implemented. The film was an immediate hit. The Jazz

Singer package, which included accompanying shorts with sound,

forced theaters in cities that rarely held films over for more than a

single week to ask to have the package stay for two, three, and

sometimes four straight weeks.

The Jazz Singer did well at the box office, but skeptics questioned

the staying power of talkies. If sound was so important, they wondered,

why hadn’t The Jazz Singer moved to the top of the all-time

box-office list? Such success, though, would come a year later with

The Singing Fool, also starring Jolson. From its opening day (September

20, 1928), it was the financial success of its time; produced for an

estimated $200,000, it took in $5 million. In New York City, The

Singing Fool registered the heaviest business in Broadway history,

with an advance sale that exceeded more than $100,000 (equivalent

to more than half a million dollars in 1990’s currency).





Impact



The coming of sound transformed filmmaking, ushering in what

became known as the golden age of Hollywood. By 1930, there were

more reporters stationed in the filmmaking capital of the world

than in any capital of Europe or Asia.

As a result of its foresight,Warner Bros. was the sole small competitor

of the early 1920’s to succeed in the Hollywood elite, producing

successful films for consumption throughout the world.

After Warner Bros.’ innovation, the soundtrack became one of

the features that filmmakers controlled when making a film. Indeed,

sound became a vital part of the filmmaker’s art; music, in

particular, could make or break a film.

Finally, the coming of sound helped make films a dominant medium

of mass culture, both in the United States and throughout the

world. Innumerable fashions, expressions, and designs were soon created

or popularized by filmmakers. Many observers had not viewed

the silent cinema as especially significant; with the coming of the talkies,

however, there was no longer any question about the social and

cultural importance of films. As one clear consequence of the new

power of the movie industry, within a few years of the coming of

sound, the notorious Hays Code mandating prior restraint of film content

went into effect. The pairing of images and sound caused talking

films to be deemed simply too powerful for uncensored presentation

to audiences; although the Hays Code was gradually weakened and

eventually abandoned, less onerous “rating systems” would continue

to be imposed on filmmakers by various regulatory bodies.





The Warner Brothers


Businessmen rather than inventors, the four Warner brothers
were hustlers who knew a good thing when they saw it.
They started out running theaters in 1903, evolved into film distributors,
and began making their own films in 1909, in defiance
of the Patents Company, a trust established by Thomas A. Edison
to eliminate competition from independent filmmakers.
HarryWarner was the president of the company, Sam and Jack
were vice presidents in charge of production, and Abe (or Albert)
was the treasurer.
Theirs was a small concern. Their silent films and serials attracted
few audiences, and during World War I they made
training films for the government. In fact, their film about syphilis,
Open Your Eyes, was their first real success. In 1918, however,
they released My Four Years in Germany, a dramatized
documentary, and it was their first blockbuster. Although considered
gauche upstarts, they were suddenly taken seriously by
the movie industry.
When Sam first heard an actor talk on screen in an experimental
film at the Bell lab in New York in 1925, he recognized a
revolutionary opportunity. He soon convinced Jack that talking
movies would be a gold mine. However, Harry and Abe were
against the idea because of its costs—and because earlier attempts
at “talkies” had been dismal failures. Sam and Jack
tricked Harry into a seeing a experimental film of an orchestra,
however, and he grew enthusiastic despite his misgivings.Within
a year, the brothers released the all-music Don Juan. The rave
notices from critics astounded Harry and Abe.
Still, they thought sound in movies was simply a novelty.
When Sam pointed out that they could make movies in which
the actors talked, as on stage, Harry, who detested actors, snorted,
“Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” Sam and Jack pressed
for dramatic talkies, nonetheless, and prevailed upon Harry to
finance them. The silver screen has seldom been silent since.





See also :



Autochrome plate; Dolby noise reduction; Electronicsynthesizer;



Further Reading :