Radio age (Jan-Dec 1925)

Radio Age for December, 1925 What the Broadcasters are Doing 33 Pictures and the Human Voice selves on two different screens. The Loew's State orchestra played the thematic score they had prepared. Then came that part of the experiment where Miss Shearer and Cody arrived at the KFI studio and actually talked "over the air" — and another surprise for the audience. Just as Mr. Cody stepped before the microphone on the stage, the picture on the miniature screen disappeared and a rolling title appeared in its stead. Lew was actually reading his lines from one screen, while the screen above showed the movement of his lips in perfect synchronization. Telling 'Em the How GLENN RICE, program manager at KFI explained in terms that both radio fans and the public could easily understand how the Radio-Cinema had been made an actuality. More than 200 seats had been reserved for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer officials and various film celebrities. Among the distinguished guests in the audience, were: Sol Lesser, A. Gore, M. Gore, Fanchon and Marco, Hobart Henley, director of "Slaves of Fashion," A. M. Bowles, general manager of West Coast Theatres; Louis B. Mayer, Harry Rapf, E. J. Mannix, Irving Thalberg. John McCormick, general manager of First National production units; Colleen Moore, Dorothy MacMail, Constance Talmadge, Anita Stewart, Bert Lytell, Milton Sills, Claire Windsor, Lon Chaney, J. H. Goldberg, M. R. Rosenberg, Fred Niblo, Victor Seastrom, Tod Browning, Robert Leonard, Aileen Pringle and many others. Old timers in the experimental world will remember the efforts of Edison, DeForest and a host of others who have tried to competely synchronize the voice and the picture; the amount of brain work expended in the years past on this topic would seem sufficient to operate goodness knows how many windmills and other mechanical devices if such energy were translated into terms of mechanical or electrical energy. Unquestionably the end is near; the contributions of Edison, DeForest, Jenkins and many others, are piling up. Each independent investigator unearths something of value which is bound to be of benefit to the project as a whole. A resum^ of the radio-cinema in its entirety would involve too much space at this Linking the silent drama with the voice of the air was successfully accomplished in Los Angeles recently. Norma Shearer and Lew Cody are "doing their stuff" on the screen for the fans the theater, while the loud speakers on the stage bring in the "voices" from KFI, in perfect synchronization with the screen action. The film was shown in fifteen different theaters simultaneously. time, but needless to say there are indefatigable workers probing the problem and they believe success can be assured very shortly. What the public's reaction will be, is a question subject to the most violent debate. We can all remember the early movies and their effect on the public. They were laughed at, condemned, finally reluctantly accepted as one of the evils of modern days. Today they occupy a prominent niche in our social life. Perhaps the period of newness and strangeness of the radio cinema will not be as long as that attendant upon the ushering in of the first movies. Today we are accustomed to thinking in terms of electricity and radio; everything is done to speed up our work and our pleasures to crowd more into each hour. Under these conditions, with a public already partly prepared through the wonders of radio, the radio-cinema may not encounter such obstacles as its fosterparents did. We have come to accept our film favorites in their appearance on thesilver screen, but will we care for them so much when their voice issues from a loud speaker? This is a point which time alone will settle.