Before There Was Sound Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Trip to the Moon

"A Trip to the Moon" is an early film by the pioneering French director Georges Méliès. It contains many innovative features that one would not expect from such an early movie, including special effects, elaborate costumes and scenery, and some of the prints of the movie were even colored by hand.

The film, which ran about 18 minutes, was so popular that pirated versions of it began appearing abroad, and Méliès had to go to a lot of trouble to protect his interests. "A Trip to the Moon" was the first movie to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Film.

Answer: The Great Train Robbery

Although set in the American West, the film was actually shot in New Jersey, on a budget of only $150. It garnered rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. One of the actors who appeared in the film was Maxwell Henry Aronson, who would later become famous under the stage name of "Broncho Billy Anderson (yes, his name was spelled "Broncho," not "Bronco").

It was one of the first movies to tell a complete story, but it still ran for only about 12 minutes.

Answer: The Story of the Kelly Gang

"The Story of the Kelly Gang" is about Australia's famous bushranger, Ned Kelly. It is often considered to be the first full-length motion picture ever made. Its original running time was just over an hour, and it cost the huge sum of £1,000 to produce.

It proved so popular, however, that it continued to be shown for the next 20 years, and is estimated to have earned over £25,000 at the box office. Unfortunately for modern moviegoers, most of the film has been lost; only 17 minutes of the original 60 minutes have been preserved.

Answer: The Birth of a Nation

"The Birth of a Nation" was based on a novel called "The Clansman" by Thomas Dixon, Jr. It deals with the efforts of the Ku Klux Klan to protect the interests white Southerners from scalawags and carpetbaggers during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War. Its innovative camera techniques and realistic battle scenes transformed the motion picture experience. The full-length film ran for three hours and ten minutes. The price of admission to view the film was $2 - a day's pay for many people in 1915. Despite this, the movie broke all existing box office records, with some sources claiming it grossed an incredible $60 million.

The film's treatment of African-Americans, and the use of white actors in black-face to portray them, caused widespread protests in many cities. The film was banned in Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and many other urban areas. But it was shown at the White House, in a private screening for President Woodrow Wilson. The lack of political correctness notwithstanding, "The Birth of a Nation" remains an incredibly entertaining movie. The American Film Institute ranks it as #44 on the list of the Top 100 American Films.

Answer: Theda Bara

All of these ladies were popular stars of the silent era, but it was Theda Bara who was noted for her racy pictures. Known as "The Vamp", or "The Girl With the Hungry Eyes", she was actually a rather plain and slightly chubby Jewish girl from Cincinnati named Theodosia Burr Goodman.

But she still managed to drive the boys wild during World War I. Much of her popularity can be attributed to her studio's publicity department. First they claimed she was the daughter of an Arab sheikh and a French woman, later that she was the offspring of an Italian sculptor and a French actress, "raised in the shadow of the Sphinx".

She was also willing to wear very scanty costumes in her films. Her stage name was an anagram of "Arab death". She starred in more than 40 motion pictures between 1914 and 1926, but, sadly, only a handful survive today.

In contrast to her film persona, her private life was rather tame. She married director Charles Brabin in 1921, and the two remained happily together until her death in 1955.

Answer: It

Clara Bow was already a well-known actress when "It" was released in 1927, but this film propelled her to major stardom. Afterwards, she was always referred to as "The It Girl". The word "It" was a euphemism for sex appeal, and Clara Bow had that in spades.

The appeal of many of the stars of the silent era is something of a mystery today, but Clara Bow was cute as a button, and as sexy as any of today's starlets. She was usually cast as a flapper, something of a wild girl, but one with a good heart.

In "It", she is a shopgirl who falls in love with her wealthy boss; after rejecting an offer to become his mistress, she eventually gets him to choose her over his lovely but snobbish fiancee. Bow made a few "talkies" late in her career, but she is better remembered for her silents.

In 1931, Bow married Rex Bell, a fellow actor who starred mostly in westerns, and who would later become Lieutenant Governor of Nevada. She died in 1965, at the age of 60. Sadly, like many other stars of the silent era, many of Clara Bow's films have been lost.

Answer: Harold Lloyd

Harold Lloyd appeared in over 200 shorts and feature films. He was one of the lucky Hollywood stars whose appeal carried over into the sound era. Lloyd was known for doing many of his own dangerous stunts despite missing the thumb and forefinger on his right hand. "Safety Last!" is a really funny movie that still makes me laugh.

It's about a country boy who moves to the city, and climbs the facade of a 12-story building to win a prize so he and his girlfriend can afford to get married. Although many of his earlier short subjects have been lost, all of Lloyd's feature films survive, and many are available on DVD.

Answer: The Sheik

By the time "The Sheik" (1921) was released, Valentino was already an established star, but it was this film that cemented his reputation as one of the great lovers of the silent screen. His costar, Agnes Ayres, actually received top billing in the picture.

The film was quite daring for its time. Of course, a romance between an aristocratic English woman and an Arab would not have been acceptable, so just before the end of the movie, it is revealed that Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan (Valentino) is actually an orphan of European parents who had been found in the desert and adopted by his tribe.

The movie was so successful at the box office that a sequel, "The Son of the Sheik", was made in 1926.

Answer: Wings

"Wings" had a huge budget of $2 million, and took nine months to shoot. Jack Powell and David Armstrong (played by Rogers and Arlen) are two small town boys who are both in love with the same girl (played by Jobyna Ralston, who would later marry Arlen in real life). Unknown to them, their tomboy friend, Mary Preston (played by Clara Bow), is secretly in love with Jack. Mary is sent home when the Military Police find her helping a drunken Jack back to his Paris hotel room; later Jack accidentally kills David. Eventually Jack returns home a war hero, and Mary gets her man in the end.

Today "Wings" is remembered for two things: the spectacular aerial battle scenes, and a very brief glimpse of Clara Bow topless! This was one of the first commercially successful films to feature nudity. Surprisingly, it did not cause a lot of controversy.

Answer: The Jazz Singer

"The Jazz Singer" is a fairly simple story: a young Jewish boy in New York wants to become an entertainer, while his father wants him to follow in his footsteps and become a cantor in the synagogue. "The Jazz Singer" wasn't the first motion picture with sound; short films with sound had been around for nearly a decade.

They were something of a novelty, however, and many theatres were not equipped to show them. "The Jazz Singer" was, however, the first feature film with dialogue ("You ain't seen nothin' yet!") and extensive musical numbers.

It might be best described as a silent movie with songs; there are less than two minutes of straight dialogue in the entire film, and it makes extensive use of title cards. It was made using the Vitaphone process, which used a record played in sync with the film. Within two years, every major studio in Hollywood was making "talkies." It took a while for many small theatres to be wired for sound, however, and up until the mid-1930s many motion pictures were made in both sound and silent versions.