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Vol. XL
NEW YORK aXY, AUGUST 10, 1929
No. 6
The Reward of Courage
Some Thoughts On The Third Anniversary Of Vitaphone
By William A. Johnston
WRITING on this page three years ago, we said: "The Vitaphone is a new kind of public entertainment with seemingly vast potentialities. We take off our hats — and the whole industry may well do likewise — to those who were wise and fearless enough to take so great a stride.
"If there is one thing that counts in the show world it is courage. Only courage — and of course, with a few, has put this industry where it is today. For every courageous man there will be a thousand to gainsay his efforts. There always have been.
"The courageous job is tough but the rewards are great — and for the many."
We were speaking of the tremendous sensation created by the first public showing of Vitaphone on August 6, 1926.
The men of courage to whom we referred were, of course, the Warners. Though it was not until fourteen months later — on October 6, 1927, the premiere of "The Jazz Singer" — that the revolution got fully under way, the earlier occasion put the handwriting on the wal].
And this week marked the third anniversary of Vitaphone — three years which have completely remade the industry, turned it upside down, and then, slowly but decisively, headed it toward stability again on the new basis of sound.
It is not often the lot of pioneers to reap the deserved rewards of their trail-blazing. Generally, the opposite has been true. But, in this instance, the rewards have been great, as indeed they should have been — and for the many, as well as the pioneers.
Vitaphone started in one house on Broadway three years ago. Now, sound is heard on the screens of America and twenty-seven foreign countries.
This happened because the Warners had the courage to take the daring step and the vision to see the possibilities that lay beyond the silent picture.
* * *
On the pioneering effort of the Warners the industry is building the structure of the future. The imagination, given free rein, foresees greater and greater possibilities, and all because the necessary priceless ingredient — sound — was added to the motion picture.
Before the Warners took it, the Vitaphone was just an invention. The labors of the engineers and scientists in the field of sound mechanism nobody would for a moment discount. But to the skill of the engineers it was vitally necessary that the vision of showmen be added before the public could be given greater entertainment and the industry new vigor and life.
The Warners had the vision and the courage.
* * *
On this anniversary, and the recurring anniversaries of the future, the industry will do well to honor the pioneers who initiated the movement to put new lifeblood into the industry, and rekindle public interest when it had definitely begun to wane.
It's a great achievement. The prophecy rings true: "The courageous job is tough, but the rewards are great — and for the many."