How Talkies Replaced Silent Films
Learn how Hollywood movies transitioned from silent to sound.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Correspondence from 1904 between Henry Clay Folger and actress Julia Marlowe regarding Shakespearean acting. At the time that they exchanged letters, Marlowe had just completed a run as Juliet in a New York production of Romeo and Juliet, and the Folger Shakespeare Library had not yet been established.
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Transcript
[BIG BAND MUSIC] SPEAKER 1: On October 6, 1927, Warner Brothers released The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length film with synchronized dialogue.
AL JOLSON: Wait a minute. You ain't heard nothing yet.
SPEAKER 1: The release marked the beginning of the end of the silent film era. The term silent film is somewhat misleading, as silent films were often accompanied by live music, played by anyone from a single musician to a full orchestra. In fact, from the very beginning of cinema, people such as Thomas Edison and William Dickson had been trying to combine film and audio.
[PLAYING VIOLIN]
But it was only in the mid-1920s that Hollywood began seriously considering utilizing synchronized sound in feature films. It was then that Warner Brothers used a sound-on-disk system called Vitaphone to incorporate a completely synchronized score.
WILL HAYS: Through this public demonstration of the Vitaphone, synchronizing the reproduction of sound with the reproduction of action.
SPEAKER 1: Performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra into the 1926 film Don Juan. After that movie's success, Warner Brothers immediately began production of The Jazz Singer, using the same system to include dialogue, in addition to the musical score.
The inclusion of synchronized sound altered the landscape of filmmaking. Cameras, being noisy, were sequestered into soundproof booths, robbing them of free movement. Directors could no longer vocally direct actors while filming, since the microphones would pick up the sound. Furthermore, many actors' voices didn't fit their onscreen image or were heavily accented, leading to many silent film stars being unable to transition to talking films.
Despite it all, sound in movies led to major increases in profit for studios. By 1933, most technical problems had been resolved, leading to a new era of film.
AL JOLSON: (SINGING) Nothing but blue skies from now on. Did you like that, Mama?
SPEAKER 2: Yes.
AL JOLSON: I'm glad of it.
[BIG BAND MUSIC]
AL JOLSON: Wait a minute. You ain't heard nothing yet.
SPEAKER 1: The release marked the beginning of the end of the silent film era. The term silent film is somewhat misleading, as silent films were often accompanied by live music, played by anyone from a single musician to a full orchestra. In fact, from the very beginning of cinema, people such as Thomas Edison and William Dickson had been trying to combine film and audio.
[PLAYING VIOLIN]
But it was only in the mid-1920s that Hollywood began seriously considering utilizing synchronized sound in feature films. It was then that Warner Brothers used a sound-on-disk system called Vitaphone to incorporate a completely synchronized score.
WILL HAYS: Through this public demonstration of the Vitaphone, synchronizing the reproduction of sound with the reproduction of action.
SPEAKER 1: Performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra into the 1926 film Don Juan. After that movie's success, Warner Brothers immediately began production of The Jazz Singer, using the same system to include dialogue, in addition to the musical score.
The inclusion of synchronized sound altered the landscape of filmmaking. Cameras, being noisy, were sequestered into soundproof booths, robbing them of free movement. Directors could no longer vocally direct actors while filming, since the microphones would pick up the sound. Furthermore, many actors' voices didn't fit their onscreen image or were heavily accented, leading to many silent film stars being unable to transition to talking films.
Despite it all, sound in movies led to major increases in profit for studios. By 1933, most technical problems had been resolved, leading to a new era of film.
AL JOLSON: (SINGING) Nothing but blue skies from now on. Did you like that, Mama?
SPEAKER 2: Yes.
AL JOLSON: I'm glad of it.
[BIG BAND MUSIC]