Look Who's Talking Trivia Quiz

Thomas Edison tried to couple his early films, called kinetoscope films, with sound as early as 1893. This was quite early, even in the scheme of silent films; after all, "The Horse in Motion", which is considered to have probably been the first true movie ever made, only dates to fifteen years previously, in 1878. Edison purportedly collaborated on the idea of a film with sound with photographer Eadweard Muybridge as far back as 1888.

This film was called "The Dickson Experimental Sound Film", and was made in either 1894 or 1895. Made by Walter Dickson, the film implemented his and Edison's new invention, the Kinetophone - an elaboration on Edison's earlier invention of the Kinetoscope. The film was transferred to safety film in 1944. The wax cylinder used for the sound portion of the film was believed to have been lost for many years. However, in 1964, a broken cylinder at the Edison National Historic Site, tagged "Violin by WKL Dickson with Kineto", was found. In 1998, restoration returned the cylinder to a repaired state.

The film is about 17 seconds long, and shows a man playing a violin while two others dance. Despite the ground-breaking nature of this feat, the film was never publicly displayed. A man can be heard talking prior to the beginning of the film, but because the film wasn't rolling while he was speaking, this doesn't count as the first live dialogue on film.

Yes, it occurred as far back as 1900, at the Paris Exhibition! The film showed clips of performances from operas, ballets, etc., with accompanying sound. This was only the first known showing, however, so there might possibly have been sound films shown publicly prior to this. As were most films from that time, this film was projected from a camera onto a screen. Sound pictures did not rapidly become popular, however; it wasn't feasible at first to change the industry so drastically or quickly.

This was only a year after the exhibition in Paris of an invention called Phonorama, which presented images with sound, but which required the use of a headset for each viewer.

"Sound-on-film" was where sound was recorded onto film and displayed along with the movie. Eugene Lauste was the lucky man to be awarded this patent. He had collaborated with Enrst Rhumer, who had discovered how to play back recorded sound by shining a light through the film in 1900. Lauste had worked in Thomas Edison's lab, and after corresponding with Rhumer in the 1890s, was awarded the patent for "sound-on-film" in 1907.

Although Lauste attempted to make his invention commercially available, he never succeeded.

"Sound-on-disc" was the term given for pre-recorded sound to be used as playback on a phonograph, played to synchronize with a film. These were also known as gramophone records. Although used as early as 1902, as with the Chromophone and the phonoscènes of France, they did not become popular for industrial, public viewings of films until 1910.

The United States and the United Kingdom also developed their own versions of "sound-on-disc" technology, beginning in the 1920s.

The Vitaphone was made by Western Electric, and was a sophisticated version of the "sound-on-disc" technology. Western Electric attempted to sell it to film companies in Hollywood, but was met with rebuffs until Warner Brothers became interested. They used the Vitaphone for several of their films in the 1920s.

Although "sound-on-film" eventually became more popular, "sound-on-disc" held the advantage at first because it was less expensive and gave a better quality recording than did "sound-on-film".

The film was "Don Juan", and it was the first result of Warner Brothers' investment in the Vitaphone. Starring John Barrymore, the film was given $3 million to promote its new sound technology, and the result was a hit. There was no synchronized dialogue, however; the sound was not recorded live with the film.

It had, in fact, been filmed just as a silent movie was, with accompanying music and sound effects played alongside in theaters. Still, it was highly popular, and Warner Brothers followed it with several more films using Vitaphone technology.

And history was made. This was, of course, "The Jazz Singer", starring Al Jolson. It, too, was recorded using the Vitaphone system. Although live sound was only occasional in the film and a large portion was a pre-recorded soundtrack, this was still the first time that humans had talked on the big screen, and the result was a huge hit.

It might also be considered to be the first filmed musical, since it features several songs!

"All-talking" meant that there were no more caption cards; all of the dialogue was spoken and recorded live. The first all-talking film was actually what is known as a "B movie"--one made under a certain budget and not intended to be a large production.

It was "Lights of New York", a gangster film starring Helene Costello and Cullen Landis. The film wasn't originally intended to be the first all-talking film; "The Jazz Singer", with its isolated moments of dialogue, was already a hit, and the first all-talking film was supposed to be a big production. "Lights of New York" still grossed over $1,000,000, and was an instant hit.

It, too, used the Vitaphone sound recording system.

By the end of 1929, what many had thought was a passing fad had become the only type of film made in Hollywood. Silent shorts still continued to be produced, and silent films were made outside of Hollywood, but the industry had changed forever. Many actors and actresses who had been stars of the silent screen were found to have voices that didn't match their image, and many didn't have careers surviving the silent era. Stage stars were hired to star in new musicals, and many silent stars simply vanished from the public eye.