The New York herald., 1921-05-01
Silent Drama No
Longer, for TaIkie
'MOpieS' Are Here
Soon They May Be Writing
of the Voices in the
Picture.

With "The Birth of Nation" at the
Capitol Theatre, Dream Street" ut the
Town Hall and ''Way Down East" still
at the Forty-fourth Street Theatre,
Broadway for the first time has three
large films from the work of one man
running at the same time.
More novelty is attached TO this by
Mr.. Griffith's introduction of talking
pictures into his Dream Street" pro-
duction. The invention that apparently
has perfected this old experiment Is the
work of Orlando Kellum of San Fran
CISCO applied by Bryan Battcy of New
York
Many OF u.s." says Mr.. Griffith, who
have watched this invention believe II
is mt least near perfection 50 useful
that 1t will make a vital and e9during
change In the motion picture Industry.
The combination of the film end the
record gives n power to the spoken
voice that Ia beyond the possibility OF
platform OF stage effect
"The resources OF the film magnify
the figure on the screen until he stands
at the very elbows of the audience, and
the refinements of the talking machines
bring the voice In clear and natural
tones to the most distant corners of the
thea tres"
II can't say" continued the producer.
that / contemplate using this device
entirely for a production in the future.
Possibly when IL has been further de-
veloped I may undertake a picture in
which the characters viii speak con-
tinuously. That would mean quite q
change in the writing Of scenarios.
But regardless OF how far this In
vention goes toward making motion pic
lures entirely vocal. Its historical and
propaganda effect is enormous. Con-
slider the big boon II Will be to public
speakers, who can now be reproduced In
many places at once without such a
great strain on their vocal chords. And
think what we would give now to have
talking pictures of Lincoln and Wash
| i1gton, with their exact infection OF
| dice. together with the gestures they
made as they uttered historic words !''
These comments we're expressed by
Mr.. Griffith after a private showing last
week of several OF the Incidental films
to demonstrate the practicability of the
| device. The listeners agreed that the
| synchronization was perfect--every
\ syllable came out clearly and fell on the
car timed precisely with the pursuing OF
/ tie lips on the part of the man who
uttered t. In the earlier developments
| Of the idea--some 5000 patents for
/ which are said to have been applied for
the spoken words. besides being
blurred, usually trailed In couple oi
teconds late or early.
II was constant race to see which
would get ahead. the phonograph OF
the nlm projection machine. Now, II
cne Of these two constituents breaks
down or slows up. th, other has to dc
/ likewise. for they are geared to the
same sprocket Only one operator Il
/ needed 10 control the mechanism.
/ All the figures on the screen faced the
4 little band OF newspaper representatives
T who came to scofr and remained to praise
80 Il could readily be seen that the move
ment OF their mouths and the sequence
/ OF sounds were simultaneous. Andre
/ Anderson rendered the speech OF Spar
tacus % the Roman gladiators he led II
revolt. Walter Damrosch and irwin 8