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198 SOUND MOTION PICTURES
ture, would be a man lost, indeed. I refrain from stressing the fact here because it will become self-evident as we go along. I rest on the simple assertion that one who knows the subject solely from the theatre angle knows practically nothing about it. The basis, the true comprehension, lies in an acquaintance with the sources of the machinery of manufacture, its housing, and its manipulation.
With the coming of sound the motion picture industry has begun its second chapter of development. On May 14, 1928, American fllmdom officially accepted the new form, when the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation, and the United Artists Corporation signed contracts with the Western Electric Company to install the Western Electric system of sound recording and synchronization in their studios. Fox Film Corporation and Warner Brothers, as well as First National Pictures, already had aligned themselves with the system. Soon afterward most of the important producers of motion pictures followed their lead.
About this time the Radio Corporation of America officially announced the perfection of its sound and synchronizing equipment, under the trade name of "R. C. A.Photophone." The Pathe Exchange, R. K. O. (a subsidiary of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Company), Educational Film Exchange, and certain others became its affiliated producers.
Huge amounts of money have been invested in soundproof studios, laboratories, and units auxiliary to existing studios. It is estimated that the investment in the construction and equipment of soundproof stages in California alone has reached a sum in excess of #20,000,000. This would indicate that California will be the centre of sound picture production, just as it has become the world's motion picture centre.
The Western Electric Company, through the Electrical