Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-10-09
NHERE have been strange goings
on in the Warner Brothers
studio in HOLLYWOOD.

studio In HOLLYWOOD.
Il This imposing edifice-once
devoted to the art of the silent
drama,-has been very noisy of late
some one shouting Nanny! Nanny
Ma-ha -ha NEE" and You Amt Seer
Nothin' Yet" That some one is nc
less than AL Jolson, who Is about tt
appear on the screen in film called
''1'he Jazz Singer
1t is terribly important picture, NJ
view of the fact that it represents the
first attempt in many years TO acnleVe
talking movies on large scale.
There have been many short VITA
phone, Phonofilm and Movietone pic
lures, of course. but THE Jazz Singer
is the first full-length photoplay in
which any of these new devices are
used to record the speech of the char
acters.
/ don't know whether it will be talk
ing all the way through. or whether
the Vitaphone will be brought into
play only when Mr.. Jolson does his
singing. I hope that the latter proves
to be the case, as movie ruiz or louu
dialogue would probably be terrible.
This is too long step forward to
be taken all at once. We must be.
come accustomed to 1t by gradual
degrees.
Oddly enough, talking movies are
not new; indeed, they are older than
silent movies.
When Thomas A. Edison had &C.
complished the invention of the phono-
graph he felt the need of pictures to
accompany it. Being deaf, he used
his eyes to supply that which was
deficient in his ears.
1t was this infirmity that was di-
rectly responsible for the birth of the
movie. Mr. Edison wanted to see as
well as to hear the singers and monol-
ogists whose voices were reproduced
on his records. He and his collabo-
rator, w. X. L. Dickson evolved a
workable movie camera and others
produced a workable projection ma
chine: with the result that motion pic
lures outgrew the photograph and be-
came an independent medium OF ex-
preston.
Mr.. Edison, however, refused to be-
lieye that silent movies could ever be
popuIar-and went on with his at
tempts to synchronize pictures and
sound. That perhaps was fatal mis-
take--for as a result of it, Mr.. Edl-
son lost control of the device for
which he had been primarily respon-
sible.
About 1913-twenty-five years after
the first experiments with moves
Edison announced that he had per-
fected synchroniZation and that talk
ing films had at last arrived. He pro.
duced one of them-I think 1t was u
screen version of Julius Caesar
and it proved to be disaster. What
ever connection existed between the
projection machine and the phono-
graph was broken from time to time.
SO that the sound never quite agreed
with the action.
The "talkies," as they were then
called. promoted many loud, insulting
laughs.
Since the development of the Phono-
Aim, Vitaphone and Movietone, syn
chronization apparently has been per.
fected and these inventions have been
used to reproduce the musical score
which accompanies the feature pic
tures-thereby removing the neces-
sity for high priced orchestraS in film
parlors.
In the melodrama. "Old San Fran
CISCO" Warner Brothers went SO far
as to indicate the noise Of a great
earthquake. 1t proved very effective.
The spectator sees buildings crumb-
ling and crashing and hears, at the
same time, an uproar of shrieks.
groans, fire bells and so forth.
In the new picture, Sunrise"
which also has a Movietone accom-
paniment, there are all sorts Of sounds
to supplement the action-and they
are very cleverly introduced.
Now comes THE Jazz Singer"-and
after that, perhaps the term silent
drama" may vanish from our language
forever.
X X y
There is one thing certain-if talk
ing movies become popular, there will