Of the three countries that dominated the world’s conversion to sound—the United States, Germany, and the USSR—the U. S. film industry was the first to move successfully into sound production. Film executives had long anticipated the introduction of sound. The only question was Which system would be technically viable and profitable? Several alternatives were put on the market.
Lee DeForest first demonstrated his Phonofilm in 1923. This sound-an-film process converted sound into light waves reproduced on a photographic strip running alongside the images on a regular 35mm film strip (see the left edge of 9.9). This system offered synchronization advantages. If the film broke and had to be'repaired, the same number of frames of image and sound would be eliminated. Since DeForest was determined to be independent, his company remained small, though the sale of Phonofilm patent rights abroad promoted the spread of sound in some countries.
During the 1910s and early 1920s, Western Electric, a subsidiary of one of the world’s largest companies, American Telephone & Telegraph, was developing recording systems, amplifiers, and loudspeakers. Heavily funded researchers combined these components so that sound on phonograph records could be kept in satisfactory synchronization with the images. In 1925, Western Electric marketed its sound-an-disc system, but most Hollywood studios were too cautious to adopt it.
The Western Electric system was offered at a time when the small firm of Warner Bros. was expanding. Using Wall Street financing, Warner Bros. was investing in distribution facilities and theaters, trying to become vertically integrated. It also created a radio station in Los Angeles to promote its films. The radio equipment came from Western Electric, which also managed to interest Sam Warner in its film recording system.
Initially the Warner brothers considered sound a cost-cutting substitute for live entertainment on film programs. By recording vaudeville acts and using orchestral accompaniment for features, they could save on labor in their own theaters and offer similar savings to other exhibitors. They signed major singers, comics, and other performers to exclusive contracts. Warner Bros. tested the Vitaphone process in a series of short films. The first public screening, on August 6, 1926, began with eight shorts, including a speech by Will Hays and an aria from I Pagliacci by Giovanni Mar-tinelli. The feature, Don Juan (Alan Crosland), starring John Barrymore, had recorded music but no dialogue. The showing was successful, and Warners made more shorts and features with music.
On October 6,1927, The Jazz Singer (Alan Crosland) premiered. Most sequences had only orchestral accompaniment, but in four scenes the vaudeville star Al Jolson sang and even spoke briefly (“You ain’t heard nothin’ yet”). The film’s phenomenal success suggested that sound might provide more than a cheap way of reproducing stage acts and music. Warners made more “part-talkies” and in 1928 the first “all-talkie,” The Lights of New York (Bryan Foy), became another hit.
Warner Bros. was first into the field of sound, but another firm was a close second. As Western Electric was developing its sound-on-disc system, two engineers, Theodore Case and Earl Sponable, created a sound-on-film system, partly based on DeForest’s Phonofilm. Fox Film Corporation invested in the Case-Sponable system. Like Warners, Fox was a small but expanding company that hoped sound would give it a competitive advantage. Fox renamed the Case-Sponable system Movietone and demonstrated it in 1927 with short films of vaudeville acts and musical numbers. The showing was a success, but Fox soon found that most big-name theatrical talent had signed contracts with Warner Bros. Fox then concentrated on sound newsreels, including highly popular coverage of Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight to Paris. Other uses of Movietone included a musical score for R W. Murnau’s 1927 feature Sunrise (pp. 160-161) and some part-talkies in 1928.
The fourth major system was another sound-on-film technology developed by RCA (Radio Corporation of America), a subsidiary of General Electric and West-inghouse). Dubbed Photophone, it was demonstrated in early 1927 and for a short time promised to rival the most successful system to date, Warner’s Vita phone, in becoming the industry standard.
The five largest producing companies in Hollywood at this point—MGM, Universal, First National, Paramount, and Producers Distributing Corporation— proceeded cautiously in relation to sound. If firms acted individually, they might choose incompatible equipment. Since each firm’s theaters had to show other companies’ films, the lack of a common standard would hurt business. In February 1927, they signed the Big Five Agreement, pledging to act together in adopting whichever sound system proved most advantageous. The two leading choices were the Western Electric sound-on-disc and the RCA sound-on-film systems. By 1928, Western Electric also had a sound-on-film technology available—and it offered more favorable contracts. The Big Five opted for Western Electric’s system.
Because many theaters had already installed phonograph-style projectors, the Hollywood firms continued for a few years to release two different kinds of prints of most films: some with phonograph discs, some with sound-on-film (9.1). Only Warners continued to use discs during production. In 1931, however, it joined the rest of the industry by switching to sound-on-film.
The rejected RCA system, Photophone, did not disappear. David Sarnoff, RCA’s general manager, created a new vertically integrated motion-picture company. He bought the Film Booking Office, thus acquiring a distribution outlet and a studio, and he purchased the Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit of vaudeville houses to provide a theater chain. In October 1928, Sarnoff formed Radio-Keith-Orpheum, known as RKO. Since Photophone was compatible with the Western Electric system, many theaters in the United States bought Photophone equipment, and the system enjoyed considerable success abroad.
Once the Hollywood studios decided what systems to adopt, they quickly began installing equipment in theaters. Independent theaters often used one of the cheaper sound systems. Many smaller theaters could not afford to buy any sound equipment at all, especially since the spread of sound coincided with the onset of the Depression. As a result, many American films were released in both sound and silent versions. Still, by about mid-1932, the conversion to sound was virtually complete in the United States.
Filmmakers and technology workers struggled to cope with the unfamiliar, often clumsy, new technology. Microphones were insensitive and hard to move; it was difficult to mix sound tracks; and scenes frequently had to be shot by multiple cameras in soundproof booths (see box).
While many early sound films were static and full of dialogue, some filmmakers responded to the new technology limitations imaginatively. The musical, a genre made possible by the new invention, offered opportunities for resourceful uses of sound. Even a pedestrian backstage musical like the immensely successful The Broadway Melody (1929, Harry Beaumont) had clever moments. The opening, set in a block of music
9.1 In the early years of sound, many theaters had projectors, like this Western Electric model, that could play both sound-on-disc and sound-on-film.
Rehearsal rooms, creates a cacophony of different pieces being played simultaneously, as well as abrupt cuts from one sound to another as the editing moves in and out of the soundproof rooms. Another show-business musical, Rouben Mamoulian’s first feature, Applause (1929), helped restore extensive camera movements to the sound film.
Ernst Lubitsch brought the wit of his silent films to The Love Parade (1929), a costume musical set in a mythical eastern European country. In a comedy of gender role reversals, Count Albert marries Queen Louise, only to discover that he has no authority, either in his marriage or in state affairs. Although the film was shot primarily in the studio, Lubitsch avoided multiple-camera shooting in most scenes. He simply had the character complete a line a few seconds before the cut and resume speaking a few seconds into the next shot. With no dialogue carrying over the cut, sound was more easily edited. During some of the musical numbers,
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