We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
RKO PRODUCTIONS, INCORPORATED 155
film reproducing systems. Nonsynchronous devices had been installed only in the smaller theaters as a substitute for musical equipment. Records were obtained from phonograph distributors and played during a picture more or less in synchronism with the action. This practice was particularly effective and economical where theme songs were featured in pictures. It was not the intention of RKO Productions, Incorporated, to cater to this market in any way other than the supplying of silent picture prints.
The survey of RKO Productions, Incorporated, indicated that theaters were being wired with dual systems at the rate of approximately 250 per month. It was predicted that 5,000 theaters would be wired in 1929. Of the estimated 20,000 theaters in the United States and Canada, it was the opinion of the executives of RCA Photophone, Incorporated, that approximately 12,000 constituted the market for electrical reproducing equipment. The smaller theaters were believed to be incapable of bearing the additional expense of sound reproducing equipment.
A primary consideration in the problem faced by the executives of RKO Productions, Incorporated, was the attitude of other companies in the industry on the question. If a number of the larger distributors were to hold to their original decisions to book pictures for sound-on-film reproduction only, RKO Productions, Incorporated, would be in a better position to adhere to its existing policy. On the other hand, if a majority of companies decided to supply discs, the sales resistance of exhibitors with only disc installations towards the booking of silent versions would be too great for the RKO Distributing Corporation to meet effectively. As the company was endeavoring to place its new pictures in some theaters for the first time, this factor was of more than ordinary importance to the company. While not all the companies had reached a decision, it was apparent that the trend was toward supplying both film and disc reproduction. Some distributors were influenced by their desire to secure bookings, not only for current and future releases, but for past releases as well.
Several producers announced publicly their policies relative to synchronization systems. The Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, in the Film Daily of February 1, 1929, made the following announcement: