Apr 20 2009
What is Vitaphone?
Prior to this date in 1926, when you went to the local movie house to watch a motion picture, you were watching a silent film, or a film where it had sound, but the sound was played in a different format than with the film, or was not synchronized. This changed on April 20, 1926 when Western Electric and Warner Bros, announced Vitaphone (from Latin and Greek words meaning “living” and “sound”), a process to add sound to movie film and was synchronized to the dialogue.
Now, this process did not imprint the sound into the movie film itself, it was recorded to a 16 inch disk, very similar to a phonograph record. When the movie was run, the disc was played and the audience was able to enjoy sound with the picture. Vitaphone was used from 1926 through 1930 and was deployed in over 2,000 short subject films.
The first motion picture was projected in 1900; however this film did not have any sound. As technologies became available for incorporating sound, such as the Vitaphone, these early pictures were known as Talking Pictures or “talkies”. Sound synchronized to the film began in 1923; however it was not until the Vitaphone and the release of The Jazz Singer (1927) that full length feature “talkies” made use of synchronized sound.
Image from Wikipedia, trivia from This Day in History and the History Channel.
I guess if I am understanding correctly. The film and Vitaphone had to start almost at the same time so the actors would look like they were speaking correctly?
Thanks folks for stopping by and sharing a comment. The actors and the sound track can get skewed even in theaters today - if the projectionist does not get the film loaded correctly and he gets too big of a loop where the film exits the projection gate and the sound roller, then you will see the actors chatting away and then the sound comes after.