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Hollywood Has Advent of Sound
By Dorothy Calhoun
PSA
In the oval at the fop: John (;ilb.Tt an. I Greta (iarbo; next helow is Lupc \elez: thi-n Culleri Landis and Helene Costeilo, in thf first all-talking movie; and. at the bottom. Emil Jannings
Seventeen people stood in Ime at the box-office window of the new Warner Brothers Theater on Hollywood Boulevard the evening after the premiere of ■"Glorious Betsy." A Hollywood producer passed in his limousine. His eyes bulged as he counted the waiting line, he wrung his hands and lifted up his voice in lainentation. "Qvick! Qvick!" he wailed, "the silent drammer which speaks should be a success, God forbid ! Already every minute I lose money ! A waiting line yet, oy, oy ! Drive by the studio. Tomorrow I should start a talkie."
For a year Warner Brothers had been telling the world that they were making talking motion pictures that would revolutionize the industry. They waylaid press agents, players, writers, seized them by their respective Ijuttonholes and begged them to listen — make a million dollars. They cajoled everyone who came to the lot out onto the silent stage and pointed proudly to the camera hidden in a noiseproof booth. They said, "Don't you realise what is happening? Don't you understand what we're doing? This is the biggest thing that ever hit Hollywood!" And everyone yawned and said, "Talkies! Pooh, pooh! Nonsense. People don't want talking pictures."
Then seventeen people stood in line for tickets to "Glorious Betsy" wherein Conrad Nagel booms, and De Segurola sings the Marseillaise and Dolores Costello lisps, "Jerome, my tomorrow hath come." And Hollywood proceeded to have hysterics !
Within a week, new million-dollar soundproof stages were rising on every lot. The Famous Players convention meeting staidly in San Francisco to discuss next year's programme— which did not include a single talkie — was stampeded into a frenzy by the ( rumor that Warner's was making a fortune out of the despi.sed innovation. It changed its plans overnight. Elocution teachers who have tnade a lean living since The Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight packed their bags and took the next train for California to teach the stars how to talk.
Speaking of Speakies
Ceven schools of voice culture *^ are already established in Hollywood and reaping fortunes from panic-stricken players whose voices might suffice for
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