A pictorial history of the movies (1943)

Record Details:

Title:
A pictorial history of the movies
Date:
1943
Publisher:
New York : Simon and Schuster
Volume:
A pictorial history of the movies
Leaf #:
000215
Language:
English
Collection:
Books
Format:
Books
Contributor:
Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Date Added:
March 28, 2024
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4. Comes the Revolution It was in the late summer that the blow fell. A new contraption had been peddled around the studios, a device for producing pictures that talked, by means of a wax recording of the actors' voices, synchronized with the film projector. But the well-established producers did not fall for any such newfangled nonsense; besides, the cost of wiring all the theaters for sound would be prohibitive. It remained for the comparatively obscure and financially worried Warner Brothers to take a chance on the new process, which they named the Vitaphone. They hired Al Jolson, one of the most popular musical stars of the day, selected a maudlin play entitled The Jazz Singer, and went to work. However, this was not the first time that Warner Brothers had experimented with this process, for as early as 1926 they had produced a silent film— Don Juan (see page 193)— with a synchronized musical score. And in May, 1927, Fox launched the Movietone Newsreel, using sound. 201