Talking motion pictures
Talking motion pictures, commonly known as "talkies," emerged in the 1920s and revolutionized the film industry by integrating sound with visual storytelling. This innovation marked the transition from silent films to a new medium that included actors' voices and musical elements, significantly influencing film genres, particularly musicals. The groundwork for sound films began in the late 19th century, with inventors like Thomas A. Edison and Eugène Lauste experimenting with sound synchronization technology, although early efforts were limited to short films.
By the mid-1920s, advancements in synchronized sound systems, such as Warner Bros.' Vitaphone and Fox's Movietone, facilitated the production of feature-length films with recorded sound. The release of "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, featuring a combination of silent film and live sound elements, marked a significant milestone. This success prompted other studios to invest in sound films, leading to the production of iconic titles like "The Broadway Melody," which became the first talking motion picture to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
While talking motion pictures brought new opportunities for filmmakers and performers, they also resulted in the decline of silent films and the careers of many silent-era stars who struggled to adapt to this new format. Overall, the advent of talking motion pictures not only transformed the cinematic landscape but also laid the foundation for modern filmmaking practices.
Subject Terms
Talking motion pictures
The advent of talking motion pictures in the 1920s transformed the film industry, effectively creating a new medium. Using a variety of sound-on-film and sound-on-disk systems, studios introduced actors’ voices to audiences and popularized the musical as a film genre. This technological advance led to the abrupt decline of the silent film, ending the careers of many actors of the silent era.
Efforts to produce talking motion pictures, also known as “talkies” or sound films, began late in the nineteenth century. In the mid-1890s, inventor Thomas A. Edison and his colleagues experimented with the linking of film and the phonograph through the Kinetophone system, which displayed short films with minimally synchronized musical accompaniment. In 1913, Edison introduced a new Kinetophone that played film and sound that had been recorded simultaneously. Others also attempted to make sound films during the first two decades of the twentieth century, including French inventor Eugène Lauste. Lauste recorded brief films using the sound-on-film recording method, in which the accompanying sound was written directly onto the film.
Synchronized Sound Technology
In the 1920s, a number of individuals and companies worked to develop practical systems for recording talking motion pictures. Lee de Forest, the inventor of the sound-amplifying audion tube, built upon the work of earlier inventors to develop the Phonofilm system, which used the sound-on-film recording method. This technology was used to produce numerous short films, mostly of musical performances by opera singers, Broadway and vaudeville stars, and other performers. De Forest was also responsible for the first recording of a president to feature sound, filming four minutes of a 1924 speech by Calvin Coolidge. Despite these innovations, the film industry remained largely uninterested in sound films.
Major companies involved in the development of talking motion pictures included Bell Laboratories, a research and development facility owned by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) and Western Electric. Bell Laboratories introduced a new recording system based on the sound-on-disc recording method, in which sound was recorded onto a separate disk similar to a phonograph record. In 1926, Warner Bros. purchased the rights to use the Vitaphone sound-on-disk technology developed at Bell Laboratories. While the majority of film studios did not follow suit until later in the decade, the Fox Film Corporation licensed equipment and began producing sound films with a sound-on-film system known as Movietone.
The move toward talking motion pictures not only necessitated the use of synchronized sound systems such as Vitaphone and Movietone but also the development of practical recording equipment. Cameras were particularly problematic, as they often made a great deal of noise. While this noise had little effect on the recording of silent films, it interfered with the production of sound films. Cameras were therefore placed within soundproof booths, limiting their mobility. By the end of the decade, film crews began to muffle the noise using camera covers known as “blimps.”
First Sound Films
In August of 1926, Warner Bros. began releasing feature-length films with synchronized recorded music and no dialogue. The first of these was Don Juan, starring John Barrymore. Such features were typically accompanied by a series of short sound films, some of which featured opera singers and other musical talent. A few contained straight dialogue, such as the spoken introduction to Don Juan given by William Hays, head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. In October of 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer, a sentimental tale starring popular vaudeville and Broadway star Al Jolson. Essentially a silent film with some interpolated songs and a few lines of ad-libbed dialogue by Jolson, The Jazz Singer became incredibly popular.
Following the success of The Jazz Singer, Warner Bros. and other studios created additional partial sound films, and in 1928, Warner Bros. produced Lights of New York, the first feature-length film to include synchronized dialogue throughout. Fox produced a variety of talking motion pictures, including the Academy Award–winning In Old Arizona (1928), in addition to numerous newsreels with synchronized sound. Despite their initial misgivings, major studios such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) eventually began to produce sound films, particularly musicals. The MGM musical The Broadway Melody (1929) became the first talking motion picture to win the Academy Award for Outstanding Picture, later known as Best Picture.
Impact
While the development and popularization of talking motion pictures in the 1920s ushered in a new era of films, stars, and studios, it led to an abrupt decline in the popularity of silent films, which would effectively cease production in the following decade. Numerous stars of the silent era were unable to make the transition into sound films due to their unsuitable voices or acting styles, and many directors of silent films failed to flourish as well. In later decades, the sound-on-film system triumphed over sound-on-disk system, leading to further innovations in synchronized sound.
Bibliography
Eyman, Scott. The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926–1930. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. Chronicles the transition from silent films to talking motion pictures and its effects on the film industry.
Geduld, Harry M. The Birth of the Talkies: From Edison to Jolson. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 1975. Provides a history of the development of the sound film.
Gomery, Douglas. The Coming of Sound: A History. New York: Routledge, 2005. Explores the role of talking motion pictures as tools of economic and social change.
Liebman, Roy. Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2009. Collects information on the various Vitaphone films produced in the 1920s and after.
Walker, Alexander. The Shattered Silents: How the Talkies Came to Stay. Reprint. London: Harrap, 1986. Describes the transition from silent films to talking motion pictures and its results.