The Epic History of Synchronized Sound — Part 2
As mentioned in the previous article, The Epic History of Synchronized Sound — Part 1, in 1919 three German inventors, Josef Engl, Joseph Massole, and Hans Vogt, patented the tri-ergon process. A process capable of transforming audio waves into electricity which drove a light. This light would then be photographed on the film strip negative. When played back, a light would shine through the audio strip, converting the light back into electricity and then into sound.
The real issue, however, was the amplification of these sounds, which would be tackled by a giant in the development of radio broadcast, Dr. Lee de Forest. In 1906, de Forest patented the audion tube, — the first electronic device that could take a small signal and amplify it. A key piece of technology for radio broadcast and long-distance telephone.
In 1919, de Forest’s attention turned into motion pictures, as he realized his audion tube could provide much better amplification for these sounds on film systems. Three years later, specifically in 1922, de Forest had designed his own system and opened up the ‘De Forest Phonofilm Company’ to produce a series of short sound films in New York City. By the middle of 1924, 34 theaters in the American East Coast had been wired for de Forest’s sound. Over 1,000 films were produced and made in a span of four years.
De Forest success in the East Coast didn’t pick the interest of Hollywood. He had offered the technology to moguls like Carl Laemmle of Universal Pictures and Adolf Zukor of Paramount PIctures; however, they saw no reason to simply disrupt the solid and profitable movie business by paying special attention to something as frivolous as sound. But one studio took a gamble. Going back to a sound on disk technology.
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound-on-disk process created by Western Electric and Bell Telephone Labs. They used a series of 33 and ⅓ RPM disks. When representatives tried to sell the technology to Hollywood in 1925, they faced the same disinterest that de Forest had, except for one relatively minor studio: Warner Brothers Pictures.
In April of 1926, Warner Brothers with the financial systems of Goldman Sachs established the Vitaphone Corporation, leasing the sound technology from Western Electric for the sum of US $800,000, with the intent of sub-leasing it to other studios.
Warner Brothers never conceived nor intended this technology to create talking pictures. Instead, they saw as a mean to provide synchronized musical arrangements for Warner Brothers Films. In order to demonstrate their new acquisition, Warner Brothers launched a massive US $3,000,000 premiere in the Warner’s Theatre in New York City on August 6, 1926.
The feature film of the premiere was ‘Don Juan’, with an amazing score performed by the New York Philharmonic. The premiere was a tremendous and resounding success, and critics even praised it as the eighth wonder of the world. Warner Brothers decided to hit the road and presented the movie in some American major cities: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, St. Louis. They even toured across Europe.
But despite the success, industry insiders weren’t too sure about sound’s future. The entire economic structure of the film industry would necessarily have to change to adopt sound. New sound studios would have to be built, new expensive recording equipment would have to be installed, theatres would have to be wired for sound, and a standard sound system process would have to be defined.
Foreign sales would plummet. Silent films could easily be sold overseas, but no dialogues. And dubbing a foreign language was still conceived as the technology of the upcoming future. Even the musicians who found employment in the movie theatres and movie palaces would have to be laid off. For all these reasons Hollywood hoped that sound would be a simple passing novelty. But the moguls started to protect themselves anyways.
Loew, which would become MGM; Famous Players Lasky, part of Paramount; First National, Universal, and Producers Distributing Corporation signed an agreement called The Big Five Agreement, where all these studios agreed to adopt a single sound system should one come to fruition. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers didn’t halt on their Vitaphone investments.
They announced that all of their 1927 pictures would be recorded and produced with synchronized musical arrangements. And in April that same year, they built the first sound studio in the world. In May production would begin on a film that would cement sound’s place in cinema: The Jazz Singer.
Originally ‘The Jazz Singer’ was supposed to be a silent film with synchronized Vitaphone musical arrangements, but Al Jolson improvised those famous words, and Warner Brothers let them in. Later Jolson adds more dialogue halfway into the movie, but at some point, the movie returns to the traditional silent film title cards. The impact of having spoken lines, however, was enormous.
