Examples of Early Sound Film

Here are a number of examples of early sound films.

The Dickson Experimental Sound Film (c. 1894)



Nursery Favorites (Edison, 1914)

A Few Moments with Eddie Cantor (de Forest Phonofilm, 1923):



Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake Sing Snappy Songs (de Forest Phonofilm, 1923)



President Coolidge, Taken on the White House Grounds (de Forest Phonofilm, 1924)



Gus Visser and his Singing Duck (Theodore Case, 1925)



Anna Case in La Fiesta (Vitaphone, 1926). (Although the YouTube video lists this as 1928, I believe it is actually 1926.)


George Bernard Shaw (Fox Movietone, 1928)



Finding His Voice (Western Electric, 1929)

Speech By Kinetophone

Picking up from yesterday's post, this is longer item from later in the month when another Kinetophone film had evidently been made featuring the Street Cleaning commissioner. This film was shown at the New York Hippodrome, which is remarkable for its size—the theater holds more than 5,000.

“Big Bill” Edwards Host To 5,000 Men

Commissioner Gives an Entertainment at Hippodrome
for Street Cleaning Employes.
Speech By Kinetophone
Department Workers Congratulated on Their Splendid
Work in the City Clean-Up.

Nearly 5,000 men of the Department of Street Cleaning attended a special performance arranged for them yesterday at the Hippodrome. The entertainment opened with a concert by the Department of Street Cleaning Band, and then Commissioner “Big Bill” Edwards stepped forward on the stage. When the cheering had died away Mr. Edwards welcomed the workers of his department, and congratulated them on the splendid manner in which there had gone about the recent Spring clean-up of the city.

The special performance was arranged for the Commissioner, as a mark of appreciations of the work of the men of the Department of Street Cleaning throughout the last year generally, and in particular during the recent Spring clean-up campaign.

Mr. Edwards, wearing a silk hat and frock coat, was t the main entrance of the big playhouse when the first of the guests began to arrive for the performance. He stayed there until the house was filled to its capacity, acting as a special escort to many of the veterans of his department, whom he led by the hand to their boxes and seats. When Mr. Edwards appeared on the stage, following the band concert, he said:

“I have seen most of you men before, and I am glad to welcome you here this afternoon. I am not going to make you a speech, because later you will hear me give to the men of the Department of Street Cleaning a new kind of talk on the kinetophone, recently perfected by Thomas A. Edison. I hope you will all have a profitable and pleasant afternoon.”

The kinetophone was then put in operation while Commissioner Edwards retired from the stage to his box. In the prelude was shown a crowd of college boys, who started to sing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” until they were drowned out by the audience applauding. When the college boys finished their song one of them stepped to the front in the picture and made the presentation of the Commissioner.

For a few moments it was simply a motion picture performance by Mr. Edwards, for his words were lost in the uproar created by his 5,000 loyal men as he came forward in the picture to address them. When the audience was quieted his speech could be plainly heard until interrupted again by the enthusiastic street cleaners.

“I am allowed through the courtesy of Mr. Edison to make an address to the 6,500 men of the Department of Street Cleaning,” said he, “and I am very glad to thank you for the good work you are giving to the City of New York.

“Few people realize that every morning 6,500 men start out to clean the streets of this city, and I am glad to speak to the men of this department who earn their money by the sweat of their brows. Their work is the hardest of any city department, and there is not the slightest question that your salaries should be increased. I am confident that this will come sooner or later. The people of this city ought to arise and call you most efficient. I believe that a large majority of them do.

“The cleaner the streets are the fewer will be the beds in the city’s hospitals, because clean streets largely do away with unsanitary conditions.

“Nothing tends toward good street cleaning conditions so much as the cooperation of the people themselves. This city must realize that it can do just as much as the Department of Street Cleaning. The street cleaners leave their jobs at 4 o’clock in the morning, and after that it is up to the citizens of the city to decide whether the streets shall be kept clean. They should consider how much paper and rubbish they throw on the streets. It is estimated that it costs the city $50,000 additional each year for the time used by the department in picking up paper and other rubbish thrown in the streets.

“Those who criticise must criticise intelligently. Those who want clean streets must help. Every one is responsible for the condition of the streets of New York City. My whole idea of co-operation is contained in the following verse:

Why don’t they keep the streets a little cleaner?
You ask with keen amazement, not undue.
Why don’t they keep the parks a little cleaner?
Did you ever stop to think that this means you?

“Yes this means you and every other citizen in this city. You have a responsibility to bear. See that you bear that responsibility, and see that your neighbor do something to keep the streets clean. It is hardest to help those who will not help themselves. In some localities the streets are littered ten minutes after the street cleaners have left them clean.”

Source: “‘Big Bill’ Edwards Host To 5,000 Men,” New York Times 26 May 1913, 16.

Mayor Gaynor on the Kinetograph

In April 1913, Mayer Gaynor of New York and a number of his commissioners were the subject of Kinetophone film. Whether this was for publicity, goodwill or an attempt to find a new market for the sound film is unclear, but it received quite a lot more press attention than any previous Kinetophone subject. This first item reports on the "posing" of the film.

Mayor In Talking Pictures

With Waldo and Other Commissioners, He Talks and Poses.

Patrons of the talking picture houses will have an opportunity soon to see and hear Mayor Gaynor, Police Commissioner Waldo, Fire Commissioner Johnson, Street Cleaning Commissioner Edwards, and Robert Adamson, the Mayor’s secretary, explain the workings of the city government. Yesterday the Mayor and his Commissioners went up to the Edison studios, at Valentine and Decatur Avenues, the Bronx, and posed for a series of moving picture films. At the same time they talked into a phonograph, and every word and gesture were duly recorded. The Mayor explained that he had promised representatives of the Edison Company long ago that he would talk and “act” for them, and that he found his first opportunity yesterday.

Source: “Mayor In Talking Pictures,” New York Times 18 April 1913, 1.

This next notice is more a publicity item, which suggests that the Kinetophone might have an important role in preserving the historical record.

Films for Posterity

Edison to Present Gaynor and Others in Records for Centuries.

Thomas A. Edison, who recently perfected the kinetophone, will formally present to the Modern Historic Records Association at the City Hall this afternoon at 1 o’clock the talking-motion-picture records that were lately made of Mayor Gaynor and other department heads of the city Government. The records, including both the motion picture films and the phonographic cylinders, will be received by William George Jordan, Managing Director of the Modern Historic Records Association, in the presence of Mayor Gaynor and others of whom records were made.

Mr. Edison will also present a piece of parchment on which there will be an inscription explaining that the records are intended to be preserved for centuries, and below the inscription will be the signatures of those whose records were made, certifying their genuineness. Until the Modern Historic Records Association builds its own home the records will be deposited in the New York Public Library. At a demonstration a few days ago in the Union Square Theatre the records were approved by the Mayor and his associates. In addition to Mayor Gaynor, there are records of his secretary Waldo, Fire Commissioner Johnson, and street Cleaning Commissioner Edwards.

Source: “Films for Posterity,” New York Times 1 May 1913, 6.

This is the report of the premiere of the film. Note that as of May the Kinetophone is still installed at four Keith and Proctor vaudeville theaters.

The Mayor In the "Movies"

Mayor Gaynor, Secretary Adamson, and Commissioners Waldo, Johnson, and Edwards made their vaudeville debuts yesterday afternoon at three of the Keith theatres, the Colonial, the Union Square, and the Alhambra, and Proctor’s Fifth Avenue, the simultaneous appearance being accounted for by the fact that they were seen as stars of an Edison talking moving-picture record. The Mayor’s secretary and the three Commissioners each spoke a few sentences for the recording machine, and then Mayor Gaynor gave a three-minute talk. The scene was set to represent the Mayor’s office, and the five speakers were seated around a large table when the picture was flashed on the screen.

The Mayor began by saying that he wished it were possible to have all the heads of city departments on the screen to tell the people about their activities, but he had to content himself with having three of them there. Some of the “corrupt newspapers,” said the mayor, had been endeavoring to raise a public clamor to have some of his Commissioners dismissed, but he had stood by them. He said that he believed the public was beginning to realize he as right in standing by them. He closed with an argument in favor of the Workmen’s Compensation bills, which he said he hoped to see enacted into law.

Source: “The Mayor In the ‘Movies,” New York Times 6 May 1913, 20.

This is an excerpt from "Observations By Our Man About Town," a regular column that appeared in Moving Picture World. From this column it seems likely that Edison was exploring the possibility of increasing the market for the Kinetophone by using it to record lectures and other educational events.

Mayor Gaynor, Police Commissioner Waldo, Fire Commissioner Johnson and Street Commissioner Edwards made their debut in motion picture studio work one day last week. They figured in talking moving pictures and, while some people look upon it as a joke, the event will do much towards demonstrating the value of the pictures in the exemplification of the work attached to the various civic departments. Communities finding it impossible to secure the personal attendance for lectures of men who become prominently identified with municipal, state and national departments will find a valuable acquisition in such pictures. Chatauqua circuits and lecture platforms will be particularly interested in the development of this branch of the industry. It is to become one of the most important factors in the educational line. Each day brings forth some new development or undertaking, showing clearly that the day is not far distant when the motion picture will become as indispensable in educational circles as it has become popular in the world of entertainment. It is no longer a question as to how long the pictures will survive. Truly they are in their infancy.

“Observations By Our Man About Town,” Moving Picture World 3 May 1913, 476.

Talking Pictures Popular

Two publicity items for Edison's Kinetophone appeared in the 26 April 1913 of Moving Picture World: a full page ad and a short article. Clearly, the strategy for exploiting the Kinetophone had moved its primary target from vaudeville to the regular moving picture theaters. This change in strategy is perhaps one reason William E. Waddell, General Manager of the American Talking Picture Company, the firm responsible for marketing the device, states near the end that he believes the Kinetophone "belongs to the motion picture theater," even though it had to this point been marketed exclusively to vaudeville theaters.

Talking Pictures Popular
"The Edison Kinetophone was installed in six theaters in New York and Chicago on February 17th, and since that date installation has been made in practically every city of size in the United States. It must be admitted that greater headway has already been made for the Kinetophone during this brief time than was ever accomplished by the numerous previous attempts at talking pictures," said General Manager Waddell of the American Talking Picture Company, the other day. "Of course the name of Edison has much to do with this ready acceptance by the various theaters, as they were confident Edison would not market an article that was not practical. That this judgment was good is evidenced by the record-breaking attendance and the enthusiastic comments of the press. Marked improvement is noted week by week in subject and production. A practical knowledge of the requirements of the theaters could be gained only by experience, and the studio staff have learned more in the past few weeks than could have been learned in another year's work in the laboratory.

"The talking pictures may never take the place of the pantomime pictures, but will undoubtedly prove an admirable adjunct. It belongs to the motion picture theater, where it will serve to enliven that otherwise quiet entertainment. It is only a matter of time—and a very short time at that—before we will have colored talking, and perhaps stereoscopic motion pictures."

Source: “Talking Pictures Popular,” Moving Picture World 26 April 1913, 361.
Image Source: Moving Picture World 26 April 1913, 419.

Kinetophone in Louisville

This little item carried in the correspondence section of the Moving Picture World indicates that the Kinetophone was less than successful in its Louisville debut—so much so that it seems that the local Keith vaudeville house was relinquishing its rights to the device and allowing another theater in town to install it.

The Edison kinetophone has made its appearance in Louisville, B. F. Keith’s vaudeville house presenting the latest device of the inventor to the public. Largely speaking, it may be said that the Lousiville patrons of the theater enjoyed the talking pictures, even though some expressions of disappointment were heard. Devotees of the animated pictures, perhaps, had been led to expect too much, and the performance therefore fell a bit beneath anticipations. One of Louisville’s amusement companies is now negotiating for the local rights of the kinetophone, and one of its houses will shortly be devoted to the talking pictures.

Source: G. D. Crain, Jr., “Correspondence: Louisville,” Moving Picture World 12 April 1913, 181.

Talking Picture Devices

This item is a brief run-down of the most prominent devices for synchronizing film and phonograph as of 1913.

Talking Picture Devices

Several Concerns Claim Priority, But Edison’s Kinetophone Seems to Have Created Greatest Interest.

In answer to many inquiries regarding the so-called “talking pictures” and to note the several claims of priority in that particular field, the Moving Picture World offers the following information:

Cameraphone.—This was the first device offered to picture theaters in America, for which it was claimed that the picture and the voice could be reproduced simultaneously. J. H. Whitman was the promoter and owner of the patents covering the synchronizing mechanism. The Cameraphone Company operated a large studio and factory at Eleventh Avenue and 43rd Street, New York, for some time, but eventually failed for lack of interest on the part of the public.

Gaumont Chronophone.—This device for the production of “talking pictures” was perfected by the Gaumont Company, of Paris, and was first shown at the St. Louis World’s Fair. It was not until 1908 that the device was offered for sale in America, during which year Mr. Herbert Blache opened offices on East 25th Street, New York. The Chronophone was, to all appearances, successful in meeting all claims of the inventors, but it did not meet with favor here, so its promotion was discontinued for the time. We are informed that it is in successful operation in Paris and that the Gaumont Company is preparing again to urge its use in America.

Cort-Kitsee Device.—This is a synchronizing device invented by Dr. Kitsee, of Philadelphia, Pa., and is being promoted by Mr. John Cort, a New York theatrical man. Up to the present writing no attempt has been made to offer the device to the public, but private demonstrations have been given that are said to have proved the practicability of the mechanism.

Synchrophone and Cinematophone.—A new deice being promoted by the Synchrophone Motion Picture Company of New York. This device may be seen at Sherwood’s picture theater on Fulton Street, New York, between Broadway and Nassau Street. Many advantages are claimed for this mechanism, but there has been no effort made to place it generally.

Kinetophone.—This is the Edison device now being operated in a number of the larger cities in connection with vaudeville theaters. It is being handled by the American Talking Picture Company. Whatever may be said by rivals regarding the merit of the Kinetophone and the work of Mr. Thomas A. Edison in bringing it up to its present state of perfection, it must be admitted that it has been instrumental in gaining recognition for the “talking picture.” If not the first in the field, it is the first to gain any considerable recognition in America.

Source: “Talking Picture Devices,” Moving Picture World 29 March 1913, 1318.

The Edison Talking Machine

Louis Reeves Harrison, one of the contributing editors of The Moving Picture World, visited the Edison sound stage where the Kinetophone films were shot and recorded. He seemed particularly struck by the constraints the talking picture placed on the director. Harrison remains fairly optimistic about the Kinetophone even as he implicitly recognized that its pictures were not yet close to the level of quality available for the silent screen.

The Edison Talking Machine

Before this innovation was shown in public I visited the Edison studio and saw the action of a little farce photographed by Lewis Physioc while he controlled the mechanism of a phonograph so that the latter instrument registered in delicate and exact concurrence with the camera. During the time he was engaged in the simultaneous reproduction and recording of images and sounds so that the vocalization characters in the photoplay could be made to nicely correspond to the labial movement and facial expression of a screen presentation, Allan Ramsay was under high tension as a mute director.

Imagine a voiceless director indicating by signs—if he said anything it would be faithfully reproduced by the phonograph—not only what was to be done but what was to be said or sung! Ramsay has invented a sign language that is all his own, and it is quite as effective as the conversational or megaphonic employed by directors in conducting a performance for the pictural part alone. I stood amazed, not only at the ingenious combination of camera and phonograph, but at the intelligent operations of Physioc, Ramsay and the company of talking, singing and acting performers, because the strain of the situation required mental concentration on the part of every participant. The chances of failure from accident are more than doubled—they are in some swifter progression—because of a multiplied concurrence in all the factors of action and reproduction.

I could not help thinking as I watched this marvelous unity of movement among mechanisms and men that the science of material forces and that of the mind were approaching a new and intimate relation, that physics and psychics were getting closer together than ever before. I am not referring to the invention nor to the theatrical presentation, but to the complicated act of production as it impressed me in the studio. It was profoundly interesting to me as a man who admires the act of another in breaking the way of human progress.

I shall suspend critical judgment on the presentations until they have been under way long enough to be ripened and refined in quality—their first attraction will be that of novelty—but I must instantly accord the inventor and the producers as well great credit. All difficulties seem to have been foreseen and provided for in one device which I did not study, and possibly could not understand, the sensitive instrument which adjusts the movement of swiftly flying films to the rolling cylinder in the phonograph. One thing was made certain—they work in harmony so far as the production is concerned. The presentation is another matter.

Who shall foretell results at this stage of the game, when the full meaning of moving pictures is so imperfectly understood that nearly all engaged in making them have gone only far enough to congratulate themselves on the profitable returns from present development, not grasping the idea that they promise to be one of the factors destined to dispose of our slow evolution by making wondrous transformations in human character as well as in our present political and social forms. The result may be as favorable to the silent drama as the latter has been to the regular stage. The talking picture may be but a new and attractive form of the only art born in the Christian era.

Source: Louis Reeves Harrison, “The Edison Talking Machine,” Moving Picture World 1 March 1913, 890.

Kinetophone Scripts

This item appeared as part of Epes Winthrop Sargent's "The Photoplaywright" column. In it, Horace Plimpton outlines the criteria for a Kinetophone script. Particularly significant are the requirements that the script be limited to six minutes (the maximum length of recording) and that there be no scene changes.

Mr Horace G. Plimpton, Manager of Negative Production for Thomas A. Edison, Inc., answering our inquiry as to the market for scripts for the new talking pictures, is good enough to reply very fully and to the point. He writes:

Answering your card, we are open for plots for Kinetophone work, this being the name used for the talking motion picture. I am enclosing a copy of a form letter which we are sending out and which indicates in a general way the requirements. I would suggest that in anything which you may see fit to print on this subject you not minimize the difficulties. We are beginning to be flooded with plots and I am sure in a short time it will be just as bad as it is now with the regular picture scenarios. Therefore it occurs to me that it would be just as well to let the public understand that on the whole it is pretty hard work.

In talking pictures all of the dialogue and all of the leading business should be indicated and carefully timed. The requirement that the length shall not exceed six minutes and that the action shall be held to one scene will operate against the novice and, speaking more plainly than Mr. Plimpton has, we would suggest to the beginner to keep out. The talking pictures at present are for the trained writer. These are the rules laid down by the Edison company:

The following information will guide those who wish to submit plays for the Edison Kinetophone (talking-motion pictures):

1. Each play should be figured to run six minutes, making due allowance for the time taken in movement or incidental business.
2. The characters should be few and the action laid in one set.
3. Either dramas or comedies will be considered for acceptance provided they are clean and free from offense. Great care should be exercised to avoid infringement upon any copyrighted work, either story or play.
4. A stamped and self-addressed envelope should accompany each plot.
5. The Company will exercise due care in handling and returning plots, but distinctly disclaims any liability for their safe keeping or return. If sent they are entirely at the author’s risk.
6. Prices vary in accordance to the Company’s estimate of the value of the plot. The author may, if he wishes, affix his own price, in which case it will be considered on that basis.
7. Address all plots to the Edison Studio, Bedford Park, Bronx, New York City.

Source: Epes Winthrop Sargent, “The Photoplaywright,” Moving Picture World 1 March 1913, 881.

Surprisingly, given that Plimpton above claimed his department was overwhelmed with scenarios, Edison himself was apparently soliciting them from Harvard students. At least, that's what this little item from 22 March 1913 claimed:

College Students Writing Scenarios

In the columns of “The Crimson,” the Harvard college daily, there appeared a letter from Mr. Thomas Edison inviting the students to write scenarios for use in the kinetophone. These “talking-plots” are limited to six minutes in length, and must be clean, with free range of subjects. Now that we have school children writing compositions on the pictures they have seen, and college students writing scenarios; there can be little doubt that the moving picture is making great head-way among the educational powers of today. Hitherto the original writings in the class-room have had no profit beyond the immediate object for which they were written, now however, with both a literary and financial attraction before them, new zeal will be given to this branch of study with good results to all concerned.

Source: “College Students Writing Scenarios,” Moving Picture World 22 March 1913, 1199.

Talking Pictures and Silent Drama

This article, by Epes Winthrop Sargent, a regular columnist for the Moving Picture World on advertising and screenplay writing, evaluates the threat of Edison's Kinetophone to the future of the silent film. Sargent sees the Kinetophone as playing a niche role in moving picture exhibition and thinks it will be more of threat to live vaudeville than to the silent drama. He also notes that the Kinetophone rights as well as those of other talking picture systems have been purchased by vaudeville interests rather than those with specific interests in motion picture exhibition.

Talking Pictures and Silent Drama

Ever since the announcement that the Edison Talking Pictures had become a commercial possibility, there has been coming into the office of The Moving Picture World a storm of letters from the exhibitors of photoplays, most of whom seem to argue that the appearance of the talking play means the end of the silent drama. The expressions of opinion run all the way from a slight note of dread to a revelation of abject fear for the future of the photoplay today.

Without in the least seeking to detract from the undoubted value of the Talking Pictures as an important contribution to amusement devices, this writer, after a careful survey of the photoplay, vaudeville and dramatic situations, is not inclined to believe that the talking pictures will in any way interfere with the prosperity of the silent drama. He has discussed their value with leading photoplay men, with important vaudeville factors and men of moment in dramatic affairs, and the consensus of opinion seems to agree with his own belief that the talking picture will find a niche of its own and will not to any marked degree interfere seriously with the filmed drama without words.

Those most concerned over the appearance of the talking picture are the vaudeville men. They have suffered long from the superior attraction of the photoplay. They have sought to counteract the effect of the cheaper and more popular form of amusement, and they have hailed with delight the supposed appearance of a stronger attraction; and while one powerful body of vaudeville managers have made a long time contract with the Edison company, others have trafficked with John Cort for his device and with the promoters of a foreign scheme, but practically none of the leading photoplay managers have sought the rights to the talking pictures, for they, of not the lesser managers, realize that the place of the talking picture is and probably always will be, in the vaudeville theaters; not so much those houses that mingle pictures with cheap vaudeville, but the better class of places where the single reel shown ends the performance and even those who would gladly sit through three or four reels in a picture theater, troop out when the picture is announced.

The talking picture belongs to the talking stage, just as the silent drama thrives best in its own house. Vaudeville booking agents resent the appearance of the device because they know that it will cut down their commissions, but they seem to be about the only men in the amusement world who have a reasonable excuse for hostility against the talking picture.

To take a concrete example; the other day the Edison company filmed and phonographed Miss Cecelia Loftus, one of the highest priced single entertainers in vaudeville. Miss Loftus was paid handsomely for the service, a sum that would represent several weeks of professional engagements in the vaudeville houses, but now the smallest vaudeville theater may announce Miss Loftus where before her single salary would represent a sum in excess the cost of the entire bill. And the pictures of Miss Loftus will replace a “headline” feature for which some agent would have received a commission.

But the appearance of Miss Loftus in a city does not appreciably hurt the business at the photoplay houses, and it is difficult to perceive that the appearance of the talking pictures of Miss Loftus in the smaller towns will to any great extent lessen the takings of the photoplay theaters. The vaudeville manager may be able to advertise Miss Loftus instead of some three hundred dollar act or a thousand dollar act, but will he hurt the photoplay theater to any great degree? Personally we think not. We know the Palace Theater, London, and the Orpheum theater, San Francisco, and unless we are greatly mistaken we think that the talking pictures, once the keen edge of novelty is worn off, will not draw ten dollars from the photoplay theaters.

It is true that the photoplay has drawn many patrons from the vaudeville theaters, but not as many as is popularly supposed, and they are not real vaudeville lovers but photoplay patrons who merely waited for the arrival of a better appreciated form of entertainment. The photoplay audiences have been drawn largely from the galleries and balconies of the dramatic houses and not a few of the orchestra patrons as well.

They find in photoplay the vaudeville of the drama. Instead of the twenty minute sketch, unfolding but a single point, there is the eighteen minute drama complete in itself or an act or a two, three, or four part play. Vaudeville’s greatest charm always has been the diversity of the performance that the brevity of the individual acts made possible. Photoplay has done the same thing for the drama. It has done more than this. It has made possible the actual showing of scenes that in the dramatic play must be alluded to, because of the impossibility of making numerous sets. It has given to the smaller towns and the smaller houses of the large cities a grade of acting that is five or ten times the price of admission could not command.

It has done more than this. It has presented the old play favorites in a new and delightfully compact form. “The Prisoner of Zenda,” for example, offers a more complete story in less than one half the time required by the dramatic version and does this in a wealth of stage settings that would be an absolute theatrical impossibility. The production is made but once and is not moved from the studio. Instead of the long explanations of events occurring off the stage these events are shown in addition in appropriate settings. The action is retained. The tiresomeness of the dialogue is eliminated. Given the talking pictures, the dialogue would be replaced. It would be interesting if we could get Mr. Hackett’s fine voice as well as his spirited action, but not at the cost of an additional two hours of time.

To regard it from another angle, the silent drama makes possible much that must be avoided in stage versions. As one competent commentator put it the other day, “I like to watch the western plays, but I’d hate to have my wife hear the dialogue that would go with some of that stuff.” Talking pictures can never supplant the silent drama if for no other reason than the impossibility of supplying the fifty to one hundred plays required each week. There are not a sufficient number of dramatists in the world to supply this demand adequately. Plays of a sort could be written, but not plays with the proper sort of dialogue, for it is the absence of dialogue and the lack of necessity for technical skill in the handling of dialogue that makes possible the success of the photoplay. Each season scores of dramas are withdrawn from the stage for no other reason than that the dialogue is not commensurate with the plot.

From whatever angle the situation is viewed, the intelligent observer arrives at but one conclusion. The talking pictures are an entertainment idea admirably suited to vaudeville. They may, in a sense, aid the silent drama, just as the publication of the phonograph record has not seriously damaged the popularity of records of the popular songs, nor will the combination of film and phonograph ever overset the popularity of pictures without dialogue.

The photoplay is a distinct and, we think, a lasting form of amusement, not to be deposed by the newer device nor even threatened by the combination of voice and view.

For a third time Mr. Edison has contributed importantly to the entertainment of the amusement lover, but he has not supplanted his earlier devices by the third. He has merely augmented the sources of amusement.

Source: Epes Winthop Sargent, “Talking Pictures and Silent Drama,” Moving Picture World 22 February 1913, 756.

Nursery Favorites (1913)

Here is a YouTube copy of "Nursery Favorites," a Kinetophone film released in 1913. You can see that the aesthetic very much follows that of recorded theater. This particular film lacks a strong narrative thread and is structured instead as a series of thematically related songs. It would have been right at home on a vaudeville show, which was in fact the primary exhibition venue for the Kinetophone.

Kinetophone and Opera

This is an excerpt from a short front page article in the New York Times on Edison's work improving the submarine. Edison in fact seemed more interested in talking about the state of his Kinetophone, and the possibility of bringing opera to the masses, than improvements in submarine technology. This article comes at a point, November 1914, where the novelty of the device had worn off. In addition, the beginning of the First World War had cut international demand for the device. Edison's statement here suggests that he was thinking of marketing the Kinetophone to moving picture theaters. (The Kinetophone had previously been controlled by vaudeville interests.) Edison's shift in strategy was never able to bear fruit: in December, the Edison plant would burn down and the company would decide not to rebuild the Kinetophone facilities.

The Wizard is still devoting attention to the new “talking movies,” which he calls the kinetophone, and he indicated today that something new in this line would soon be forthcoming.

“I told the people when the kinetophone was first put on the market that sooner or later they would be able to see and hear opera by the best artists for a nickel,” he said. “The workingman has popularized the ‘movie,’ and now we are going to give the poor man and his family something more for a nickel.”

Source: “Edison Submarine Coming,” New York Times 9 November 1914, 1.

Edison, Motion Pictures and Opera

This is an excerpt of a short article covering the 1913 Motion Picture Exhibitors' League of America convention in New York. The end of the article is taken up by a short interview with Thomas Edison on the future of moving pictures, especially its potential for recording "perfect opera" for the masses, a theme Edison returns to again and again.

Thomas A. Edison last night attended the International Moving Picture Exposition in the Grand Central Palace. Mrs. Edison accompanied him. Mr. Edison, to a reporter of The New York Times, said:

“The educational value of the moving picture is, and will be, enormous. Both the speaking and moving picture will be improved and developed, but it takes time. Through these mediums the great masses of the people can have the advantages of the rich man. There has already been some improvement, and this will increase.

“What will be the future of the moving picture?” Mr. Edison was asked.

“Perfect opera,” answered Mr. Edison. “All delusions will be perfect and probably the actual color will be produced.”

“Will this be your work?”

“Unless some one gets ahead of me.”

“Will the talking pictures displace the silent drama?” was then asked.

“No; both the speaking and silent moving pictures will continue to exist. Both will be improved. Both as they stand are just samples. Now we will go on to perfection. Both have been shown just to exhibit the possibilities.”

“Picture Men At Odds,” New York Times 12 July 1913, 3.

Clever Ruse

This short notice provides revealing information of some of the limitations of the Kinetophone. The sound recordings, though longer (and louder) than commercial recordings, were still only about half the length than a reel of film. Consequently, most talking pictures were kept shorter than the length of the sound recording, about 6 minutes. Longer subjects, such as a scene from Gounod's Faust, required some way to change recordings. Many competing talking picture systems at the time addressed this problem by adopting a dual phonograph; but the Edison system, which was mechanically more complicated, did not. Instead, the Edison company solved the problem by introducing actions, such as a curtain call, that could "naturally" appear without sound, allowing a break in the sound track where the recordings could be changed.

Clever Ruse

Mr. Edison recently demonstrated his newly invented talking pictures to an association of mechanical engineers, who were much interested in learning some of the difficulties that had been overcome.

One feature of the programme Mr. Edison had arranged for his guests was a scene from [Gounod's] “Faust,” acted and sung. The gentlemen present showed their appreciation of this wonderful achievement by frequent and lavish applause.

To their astonishment, Mephistopheles appeared upon the curtain and bowed as if in response to their encore. This bit of acting was so simply and naturally done that none of the men present realized its importance. As a matter of fact, it was absolutely necessary in order to synchronize the future action and sound of the performance.

One of Mr. Edison’s assistants explained to his eager listeners the fact that it was impossible to get enough music on one record to accompany the film to the end. The problem they had been working on for weeks was to find a way of changing the record while the pictures were before the audience. This change would require a fraction of a minute.

At last one morning about 3 o’clock, after puzzling over the matter all night, some one thought of a curtain call. That would provide that necessary moment when there was action without sound. When Mephistopheles was bowing the operator changed the record and the performance continued.

Source: “Clever Ruse,” New York Times 8 June 1913, SM10.

Suffragettes Pose

Below is an interesting short item on the filming of a short suffragette meeting. What is particular noteworthy here is the description of the shoot, which included, it seems, the use of the coconut shells as a rudimentary clapperboard to establish the initial points of synchronization.

Suffragettes PosePhotographs and Speeches Taken for Talking-Picture Records.
In the year 2013 the world will know that the suffragists of 1913 could make five good suffrage speeches in five minutes. Suffragists went to the Edison Studios yesterday morning to act and talk before the moving and talking picture machine. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, the National President and champion suffrage speechmaker, was prevented by illness from attending the meeting.

Miss Harriet May Mills presided at the meeting and Mrs. Raymond Brown, Miss Elizabeth Freeman, Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, and Mrs. John Rogers, Jr., made the speeches. With the introductions of the Miss Mills, the whole session was over in five and three-quarter minutes. The women, when they found what they had to do, held three rehearsals of their speeches, then they talked to the phonograph, which gave their speeches back to them, and then came two genuine acts, as they were actually to be reproduced—the words and motions together.

The meeting began at the sound of the cocoanut—a couple of cocoanut shells clapped together—and each time the women came out on time in their minute speeches. What interested the moving picture men in charge of the work was that, while the women kept to the time limit, their speeches were so far impromptu that they never gave them twice alike.

Source: “Suffragettes Pose,” New York Times 20 March 1913, 9.

New York Applauds the Talking Picture

This is the New York Times' review of the Kinetophone, which as noted yesterday was intended for use on the vaudeville circuit rather than in the regular moving picture theaters. Though synchronization was generally no more an issue for the Kinetophone than for the later Vitaphone, mishaps did occur (see the parody in Singin' in the Rain) and evidently it happened the night the reviewer saw the show.

The ad on the right ran in the New York Times the week of 17 February 1913; the one below ran on Sunday, 23 February 1913.

New York Applauds the Talking Picture
Only Drawback Is When the Talk Falls Behind the Picture.
Much Depends on Operator
Edison Kinetophone Proves to be a Valuable Accession as a Vaudeville Attraction.

After Thomas A. Edison had invented the motion picture and the talking machine he dreamed of talking pictures, and the next morning he went to work again. For several years hints came from the Edison laboratory that the kinetophone was in process of development. Finally Edison spoke of his invention as a thing accomplished, and yesterday, for the first time on any stage, the “Kinetophone” was on the bill at four of the Keith Theatres, the Colonial, the Alhambra, the Union Square, and the Fifth Avenue. To judge from the little gasps of astonishment and the chorus of “Ain’t that something wonderful?” that could be heard on all sides the Kinetophone is a success.

The problem involved was fairly simple. Mr. Edison was looking for perfect synchronization of record and film. The difficulty was to have a record sufficiently sensitive to receive the sounds from the lips of actors who would still be free to move about in front of the camera instead of being obliged to roar into the horn of a phonograph. But the difficulties have been overcome and the kinetophone is actually in vaudeville and highly regarded there.

The first number of the exhibit was a descriptive lecture. The screen showed a man in one of those terribly stuffy, early eighties rooms that motion-picture folk seem to affect. He talked enthusiastically about the invention, and as his lips moved the words sounded from the big machine behind the screen. Gesture and speech made the thing startlingly real. He broke a plate, blew a whistle, dropped a weight. The sounds were perfect. Then he brought on a pianist, violinist, and soprano, and "The Last Rose of Summer" was never listened to with more fascinated attention. Finally the scope of kinetophonic powers was further illustrated by a burglar's apoplectic efforts, and the barking of some perfect collies.

The second number was a minstrel show with orchestra, soloists, end men, and interlocutor, large as life and quite as noisy. It brought down the respective houses but the real sensation of the day was scored quite unintentionally by the operator of the machine at the Union Square Theatre last evening. He inadvertently set his pictures some ten or twelve seconds ahead of his sounds, and the result was amazing. The interlocutor, who, by a coincidence, wore a peculiarly defiant and offended expression, would rise pompously, his lips would move, he would bow and sit down. Then his speech would float out over the audience. It would be an announcement of the next song, and before it was all spoken the singer would be on his feet with his mouth expanded in fervent but soundless song.

This diverted the audience vastly, but the outbursts of laughter would come when the singer would close his lips, smile in a contented manner, bow, and retire while his highest and best notes were still ringing clear. The audience, however, knew what had happened, and the mishap did not serve to lessen their tribute of real wonder at Edison's latest.

Source: “New York Applauds the Talking Picture,” New York Times 18 February 1913, 3.

Book Talking Pictures

This short item from mid-January outlines some of the financial dealings of the kinetophone, noting in particular the prominent place vaudeville would play in its distribution. In fact, the device would be exhibited almost exclusively on the vaudeville circuit. American Talking Picture Company was in fact an arm of the United Booking Offices, which was in turn controlled by the Keith and Albee vaudeville circuit.

Book Talking Pictures

Edison Invention to be Installed in 100 Vaudeville Houses.

It was announced yesterday by the United Booking Offices that arrangements had been made with Thomas A. Edison whereby his latest invention, the kinetophone, or talking pictures, would be installed in more than 100 vaudeville theaters under its control.

Contracts signed with the American Talking Picture Company, which will distribute the invention, are expected to net more than $500,000 in royalties within the year. One day last week an exhibition of the kinetophone was held at the Edison laboratories in West Orange, at which the vaudeville men were present. Among them were E. F. Albee, representing B. F. Keith; A. Paul Keith; Martin Beck, head of the Orpheum Circuit; J. J. Murdock, executive manager of the United Booking Offices; F. F. Proctor, Sr. and F. F. Proctor, Jr.; M. Shea of Buffalo and Toronto, Jake Wells of Wells’s Southern Circuit, Harvey Watkins of Montreal, Carl Lothrop of Detroit and Rochester, and Mr. Shenberger of Baltimore.

In discussing the matter yesterday, Carl H. Wilson, Vice President of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., said that there would not be any contract made whereby any manager could get exclusive use of the invention. He said that while the selling arrangements had not yet been perfected it was certain that any one who wanted could buy one of the machines.

Source: “Book Talking Pictures,” New York Times 13 January 1913, 11.

The Kinetophone

This is a short publicity notice for the Kinetophone, which, at the beginning of January 1913, Edison was gearing up for release to the vaudeville circuit. As was typical of his statements on moving pictures (see the previous two entries), Edison here emphasizes the democratic potential of the device, which had the capacity, he claimed, to cross barriers of both distance and income. Nevertheless, Edison had no real plans to put this device into the moving picture theaters. He sold the distribution rights to the B.F. Keith circuit, which thus ensured that the device stayed in the (relatively expensive) vaudeville theaters or, at any rate, would not be in a position to challenge vaudeville.

The Kinetophone

Mr. Edison has devoted four years of his useful life to making it “possible for the poorest families in Squeedunk to see the same operas and plays that are produced in New York City.” He thinks his attempt is successful in the production of the kinetophone, which produces motion pictures that are very literally “speaking likenesses” of their originals. If he can in this way bring to the consciousness of the masses in the cities and rural districts, at a ridiculously low price, the best performances of opera, comedy, serious drama, and oratory, Mr. Edison will have made a genuine contribution to the advance of democracy.

The talking-picture-machine promises to be of great educational value. The promoters of university extension, for example, will not need the presence of their lecturers, who may be the most eminent at home and abroad, to give the best that they have to audiences in the district schoolhouses of the Nation. The machine will exercise its powerful influence in the revolution of conditions in the country living. Sons and daughters would not troop to the city, the city in all its aspects of instruction and entertainment might be brought to them by the adaptions of this invention. The realization of its promise seems almost too good to be true. We hope it is true.

“The Kinetophone,” New York Times 5 January 1913, 16.

The Talking Pictures

The following summary article appeared in the Times the next day. It is shorter and much more general, adding little new information. What it does illustrate, however, is the extent to which Edison could drive the news coverage. Cameraphone, a company that had made a big splash with talking pictures a couple of years past, had gone bankrupt the previous year and been dissolved in the spring. For Edison to be speaking so optimistically of the talking picture now when the major talking picture firm in the U.S. had just failed seems a bit surprising. For the press not to have hinted at the previous failures seems very remarkable indeed.

The Talking Pictures

Mr. Edison, having solved the problem of congestion in cities and cheap but wholesome living for the poor, by inventing a new kind of dwelling house, which can be poured in liquid form out of a pitcher wherever there happens to be a vacant space for it to occupy, has lately turned his attention to the combination of the phonograph and the moving picture. Thus far, his kinetophone is in an experimental stage, but the experiment, according to good judges who have seen and heard it, works well. The voice of the moving figure on the screen is heard at the right instant. Phonograph and picture work in unison, in control of electrical appliances invented by Edison. The records for the eye and the ear are made simultaneously.

By means of this machine Mr. Edison intends to make the personality and voice of Col. Rossevelt, John Drew, and the great opera singers familiar in the remoter parts of the earth. Probably he will not neglect Mr. Pinchot, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Marie Dressler. “Broadway productions” are to be made accessible in the deserts and frontier towns. The educational possibilities of the new invention or undeniable. Already the moving picture has measurably helped in the development of human intelligence, and the singing and talking machines have done much for the increase of musical knowledge and taste. But with all the improvements Mr. Edison’s inventive genius can supply, moving and talking pictures will never supplant opera and drama in its natural form. They may greatly increase the demand for musical and dramatic art by cultivating the taste of the multitude. That is something worth doing.

Source: “The Talking Pictures,” New York Times 28 August 1910, 8.

Motion Pictures Are Made To Talk

The surge in the talking pictures around 1908 seems to have rekindled Edison's interest in the problem of synchronizing phonograph and moving pictures, and by August 1910 he had a machine ready to demonstrate for reporters. The following is a report of this demonstration published in the New York Times. The Kinetophone would not, in fact, be commercially released until early 1913—though the lecture film described by the reporter seems very similar to the one that was shown when the device would be inaugurated at a theater.

It is important to recognize what Edison presented as the novel aspects of his machine: that the picture and sound recording would be taken simultaneously. Because at the time phonograph recording was done mechanically through a horn (rather than electrically through a microphone) and for best results a recording horn needed to be located fairly close to the sound source, talking pictures before the kinetograph were usually made by first recording the sound and then having actors synchronize to playback. Such filming to playback (or lipsynching) would in fact remain common in the sound era, particularly for musical numbers. Edison, however, devised a method of recording while being able to keep the recording apparatus out of the line of the camera.

Motion Pictures Are Made To Talk
Edison Invents a Machine that Combines the Kinetoscope and Phonograph.
Records Taken Together
When the Pictured Man Acts the Voice in the Box Speaks, and Illusion is Perfect.

Thomas A. Edison gave to an audience of not more than a dozen men last night the first exhibition of his talking pictures, the product of the new Edison kinetophone, which combines in one machine the wizardrly of the phonograph with that of the kinetoscope. The brief glimpse offered in the laboratory in West Orange was enough to show that Mr. Edison has achieved what he and a host of other inventors have long striven for—the perfect synchronization of sound and action for the moving picture screen.

Into the scene thrown upon the screen last night a man walked, and as his lips moved the sound of his voice issued from the concealed phonograph, effecting an illusion that was perfect. This was all that Mr. Edison would show, but he has more in preparation, and his plans for the future of his kinetoscope are boundless.

“We’ll be ready for the moving-picture shows in a couple of months,” he said, “but I am not satisfied with that. I want to give grand opera. I want to have people in far stranded towns able to hear and see John Drew. And,” he added in a birth of confidence, “I want to have ‘Teddy’ [Roosevelt] addressing a meeting.”

But these things are not yet. A year or more Mr. Edison allows for their achievement. Already he has an ambitious drama reproduced on a long film, but there are flaws in one or two places, and he is unwilling to show the play. The kinetophone as it now stands is the product of two years’ labor, which Mr. Edison has shared with his assistant, Mr. Hyams.

One Operator Does It All.
It is one machine, part phonograph, part kinetoscope, and it requires one operator. From the projecting machine behind the audience, wires run along the ceiling to the screen behind which stands the phonograph. The two parts are operated by the turning of the handle beside the kinetoscope portion.

In the newly perfected process the records and pictures are taken at the same time, a sufficiently sensitive record having been devised to catch and retain the slightest sound accompanying the portrayed action. Here has been the stumbling block in the effort to accomplish this result. Hitherto the pictures and records had to be taken separately, in the fact of the difficulty of receiving in the horn the voices of the actors, and at the same time, having them move freely and, as far as possible, dramatically around in an unobstructed range of the camera. The special recorder used for the kinetophone permits of the speaker being twenty feet away.

A little platform with a lecturer’s table and back screen was the picture last night. On the screen was flashed a fairly impressive man in a frock coat, who explained the points of the kinetoscope. There was o flaw in the illusion. He seemed to be talking. The sound of the working of the concealed phonograph could not be detected four feet away. To demonstrate its possibilities the gentleman on the screen bounded an iron ball on the floor. There was an accompanying noise. He carelessly dropped a plate with a resounding smash. He pounded with a mallet, and finally tooted an automobile horn with uncanny effect.

There is another feature of the combination which the inventor has been working as a side issue. He hopes soon to have the pictures reproduce the natural color of the originals.

In honor of his audience made up largely of newspaper men, the first picture shown last night, of the old and silent type, was entitled “The Big Scoop, a drama of a metropolitan newspaper.” It was all about a young and handsome reporter, who had been discharged, regaining his prestige by overhearing some prominent bank officials discussing highly important matters in a restaurant. The bank was going to close its doors in the morning, and the paper made an unpleasant point of it all over the front page. No one enjoyed it half so much as Mr. Edison himself. He fairly beamed as the handsome young reporter went home and told his wife about it.

The inventor takes immense satisfaction in watching moving pictures and never sees to tire of them.

Source: “Motion Pictures Are Made To Talk,” New York Times 27 August 1910, 8.

Rumors of Edison's Kinetophone

"Observations By Our Man About Town" is a column that had been appearing regularly in Moving Picture World since before 1910. The topics of the columns varied considerably, from reviews of theaters (especially in the early years) to trafficking in industry rumors and gossip, as in the excerpt below. This week, "Our Man" spends much of his column on the Edison Kinetophone, which had recently been demonstrated for the press. Surprisingly, "Our Man" thinks the rumors of the imminent distribution of the Kinetophone to be rash speculation: "it is extremely doubtful that the great event will take place in the near future." In fact, the very next issue of the paper will carry an ad from Edison soliciting bids from exhibitors to install the device.

Although poor in pronostication, this excerpt also contains some quotations from industry people that are highly revealing of attitudes toward the talking film.

For years people have been asking why talking motion pictures have not been successfully produced and every once in a while some inventor, including the esteemed wizard of Orange, has come forward with a promise to produce them in the near future. It is claimed now that Mr. Edison has the goods in the form of a machine he calls the kinetophone and this is supplemented by the statement that the apparatus will soon be in operation in about a dozen theaters in New York and Brooklyn. Mr. Edison has been industriously working on the problem of synchronizing sounds and pictures for a long time and those who know him well say that when the talking motion picture becomes a fact he will be the first to launch it; but it is extremely doubtful that the great event will take place in the near future. This is confirmed by a statement credited to Mr. Edison to the effect that “in the next year or two it will be no unusual thing to present an entire play or opera as we now are able to produce a playlet or scenes from the big plays.” This is taken as an intimation that the reporters who witnessed the recent tests are a little enthusiastic over them and that the great inventor must devote more time to the development of the talking motion picture as the public will expect to see it produced.

* * *

One of the most prominent men in the motion picture field when shown the report for Orange said: “It will come, but not for some time. The reports of such successful tests are important now only in so far as they keep the public informed that the strides toward perfection are steady and eventually we will have attained the long desired goal. I think Mr. Edison will be the first in the field with the talking pictures, but I do not look for it within the next year. When it does come it will be preceded by a blare of trumpets that will make the people sit up and take notice. It will completely revolutionize the motion picture industry and eventually make the regular theatrical productions look like ‘has beens.’ The majority of theatrical managers now look upon motion pictures as a competitor that has come to stay and a great many of them have become investors in one or more branches of the business. One of the most prominent and influential managers in New York said the other day that he stood ready to let the pictures into any house he owns where existing contracts would not interfere. He stated frankly that motion pictures are growing steadily in popularity with a class of people who heretofore have been disposed to discount their importance as a factor in the field of entertainments and when the talking motion picture has positively passed the point of theory and become a practical proposition what is now known as the legitimate theatrical field will become almost a discard.”

* * *

“That will be a severe blow to the members of the legitimate profession,” remarked a bystander.

“Not necessarily,” replied the manager. “It will affect just as many, if not more, the people who are now appearing the photoplays. I am inclined to think that they will be displaced in the motion picture studios by the regulars. Yes, I know that nearly all the picture producing companies now engage only professional people. From a pantomimic standpoint scores of people who worked on the stage for years without even attracting passing notice have become great favorites with the patrons of the picture houses. Now, as I understand it, one of the chief aims of the talking motion pictures will be to give the public an opportunity to both see and hear celebrated actors and those rising in the theatrical profession. To this end the perfection of the talking motion pictures must involve the reproduction of the voices so that they will be recognizable. This is second in importance only to the synchronizing of sounds and pictures. Motion picture actors and actresses will then become an entirely different class as compared with what they are to-day. They will be required to speak as well as act. Action will not be the sole test and those making up the supporting company will be obliged to handle their parts consistently with the leads. I fear many now playing in the studios will fall short of the mark and the regulars who have seen the photoplays gradually force them into the studios, or into minor positions on the regular stags, or out of the profession altogether, will find a new field. It is my opinion that the advent of the motion pictures will be a great blessing to them.”

“Observations By Our Man About Town,” Moving Picture World 18 January 1913, 270.