Sound motion pictures : from the laboratory to their presentation (1929)

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THE SHORT SUBJECT 297 of the devices, but very few of them were given public demonstration. The name "Vitaphone," to give another instance, was introduced to the public through the disk recording method of the Western Electric System in August, 1926, when Warner Brothers gave their first demonstration, which, again, included a programme of short subjects, described in an earlier chapter. After this early effort Warner Brothers produced many like it, in which sound effects, singing, and dialogue were used, and which were accepted by the public with much interest. In 1927, through the Fox-Case Movietone, which name identified the photographic recording-producing system now used by Western Electric, the Fox Film Corporation presented a series of short sound subjects featuring Raquel Meller, the famous Spanish artiste. Already the talking short subject has attracted such well-known concert performers as John McCormack, Anna Case, Giovanni Martinelli, Mischa Elman, Harold Bauer, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Mary Lewis, Beniamino Gigli, Albert Spaulding, Isa Kramer, John Charles Thomas, and Marion Talley. Artists such as Fritz Kreisler, who are now limited to comparatively small audiences, may eventually be induced to make recordings of their art which will be heard simultaneously in cities all over the world. Thus it can readily be seen that many of the prominent artists of the Metropolitan Opera Company and the Chicago Opera Company, as well as the concert stage, have already been made available for motion picture audiences everywhere. Stars of the legitimate and vaudeville stage who have appeared in short sound motion pictures include Elsie Janis, Chic Sale, Eddie Cantor, Ben Bernie, Beatrice Lillie, Joe Cook, Clark and McCullough, Will Mahoney, Van and Schenck, Vincent Lopez, Willie and Eugene