Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-12

with Hollywoods leading industry.
It hasn't been so long ago that series OF
remarkable inventions were combined to make
the talkies possible. And those inventions have
Increased by anywhere from IS to so per cent
the number of persons required to make pic
lures.
Scores of jobs ranging from red flag waving
30 symphony orchestra conducting have been
created since the film industry went "squawkie."
Some Of them in all probability will be tenn
porary, but many have become fixtures in the
industry.
Despite all of these new positions to be
filled, however, Hollywood still is facing the
same unemployment problems it did in the
days of silent pictures 1t seems that no mat
ter how much work there is in the movies
there always are two or three persons for every
Job.
In the acting end alone the addition of sound
TO pictures has opened tremendous new ave-
nueS. Singers, vaudeville artists, dramatic stage
players, chorus girls and other varieties of en-
tertainers have had and are having chances in
pictures which they never would have been
given without the advent Of sound Many of
them already have taken upper berths back to
Broadway. Others soon will follow But there
are few who will stick and make good.
When the talkies first struck Hollywood the
whole village was in an uproar. Everybody
tried to rush out sound pictures. Releases on
productions already completed were held up
until sound could be added. This was
done with number of films and in each case
1t proved more of q detriment than anything
else In several instances the sound wasn't
6ynchronized properly. And in all Of them it
was unsuccessful
It didn't take producers long, however to
overcome the mountainous obstacles confront
Sng them. Proof of that Is that nova scant
year and a half later-we have almost perfect
talking films.
The first to receive the benefits of the talkies
tE,o
They were employed by the thousands to rush
construction of the expensive sound-proof
stages in all of the major studios. Hundreds
of thousands Of dollars were poured into these
stages even before producers were sure that the
talkeS were more than passing fad.
Now the celluloid hamlet Is the home of any
number Of new professions which never could
have existed in the pre-talkie days.
Dialogue writers, dialogue directors, sound ex-
pertS, elocution instructors, singing teachers,
dancing instructors music teachers song
writers, high-clasS musicians-al Of these and
many more have come into being the last year
and half.
With the first intimation that the talkies
would be popular, for a time at least, there
was q general upheaval in the ranks of the
players. Producers started seeking the services
of stage celebrities and New York actors fiocked
here by the scores in search Of new jobs.
At the same time all studios started frantic
campaign of voice testing. Every important
player in the film colony had his or her voice
tested to see If it was suitable for the talkies.
And nearly every player who had not had
previous stage experience joined a vocal in
Struction class.
IT was just as If the clock had been turned
back 20 years. The movies were in an ex-
Detrimental stage just as they were back in
1908. Everybody was worried, the actors wnn-
&ering what would happen to chem.
Hollywood was overrun with technical III