Juan Monroy — American Film Industry: Class 4, Coming of Sound

Major Studios in 1920
- Big Three
  - Paramount
  - Loew’s
  - First National
- Little Five
  - Film Booking Office
  - Producers Distribution Corporation
  - Universal
  - Warner Brothers
  - Fox
Challenges for Film Sound
- Amplification
- Synchronization
- Little Interest among Major Studios
Roaring 1920s
- Stock Market–Credit Bubble
- Advent of Radio
DeForest’s Audion
- vacuum tube (1906)
- based on Edison’s light bulb
- amplified sound for telephone calls (AT&T)
Theodore Case
- partnered with Lee de Forest, 1921–24
- Thallofide vacuum tube
  - developed jointly with Earl Sponable
  - “light” recording method for sound
Phonofilm
- sound-on-film
- solved synchronization problem
- experimental shorts using celebrities
- program of debuted at Rivoli Theater, NYC, April 15, 1923
William Fox & Movietone
- strategy to gain market share
- partnered with Case
- bought US rights to German Tri-Ergon process
- branded Phonofilm as Movietone
Western Electric
- condenser microphone
- public address system
- sound-on-disk system
  - amplification and fidelity
  - distribution, synchronization, editing
Warner Brothers & Vitaphone
- acquired by Warner Brothers, 1925
- acquired Vitagraph Brooklyn studios
- began producing shorts
- Don Juan with John Barrymore August 1926
  - feature film with synchronized soundtrack
  - program of eight shorts
The Jazz Singer (1927)
- based on Samson Raphaelson play
- Al Jolson, A Plantation Act
- feature-length, talking picture
- premiered October 1927, Warners Theater
- launched talkie revolution
RCA
- patent pool for radio monopoly
  - Westinghouse and American Marconi
  - AT&T and General Electric
- acquired sound-film patents, 1925
  - sound-on-disk (Western Electric, AT&T)
  - sound-on-film (GE)
- became standard for sound film
  - RCA Photophone
  - Western Electric Westrex
Major Studios in 1930
- Big Five
  - Paramount
  - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
  - 20th Century-Fox
  - Warner Brothers
  - Radio-Keith-Orpheum
- Little Three
  - Columbia
  - Universal
  - United Artists