Sound Extension Task 1

1.

In 1919, the population of Hollywood was 35,000, but by 1925, had swelled to 130,000.By the late 1920s, the art of silent film had become remarkably mature. Although called silent’s, they were never really silent but accompanied by sound organs, gramophone discs, musicians, sound effects specialists, live actors who delivered dialogue, and even full-scale orchestras.
In 1925-26, America technologically revolutionized the entire industry, with the formation of the Vita phone Company (a subsidiary created by Warner Bros. and Western Electric). Warner Bros. launched sound and talking pictures, with Bell Telephone Laboratory researchers, by developing a revolutionary synchronized sound system called Vita phone. This process allowed sound to be recorded on a phonograph record that was electronically linked and synchronized with the film projector - but it was destined to be faulty due to inherent synchronization problems. Originally, Warner Bros. intended to use the system to record only music and sound effects - not dialogue. The process was first used for short one- and two-reel films, mostly comedies and vaudeville acts.
The first feature-length film with synchronized Vita phone sound effects and musical soundtrack, but without spoken dialogue, was Warner Bros.' romantic swashbuckler adventure Don Juan (1926). The prestigious production was premiered in New York on August 6, 1926, and starred John Barrymore  as the hand-kissing womanizer Director Alan Crosland's expensive film failed to create the sensation that Warners had hoped for. The second Vita phone production was The Better 'Ole (1926), featuring musical comedy and recording star Al Jolson, among others.
Most of the studios started to convert from silent to sound film production - a tremendous capital investment. Thousands of existing theatres had to be rewired for sound at great expense. In the mid 1920s, Warners invested over $3 million in outfitting its 'picture palaces' to show Vita phone films, and went into debt because of it.
In 1926, William Fox of the Fox Film Corporation responded to Warner’s success with its own similar and competing advanced Movie tone system - the first commercially successful sound-on-film process developed in conjunction with General Electric. It added a 'soundtrack' directly onto the strip of film and would eventually become the predominant sound technology.