New sound process for films announced
By the mid-1920s several competing systems had been developed to add sound to motion pictures.In 1923 inventor Lee de Forest demonstrated Phonofilm in which music was recorded on a narrow strip at the edge of the film.When De Forest tried to sell Phonofilm to the major Hollywood movie studios however they rejected it dismissing talking pictures as a novelty that was not worth the cost.
De Forests sound-on-film system evolved into the Movietone sound process introduced in 1927.The major studios also turned away Western Electric makers of Vitaphone in 1925.The Vitaphone system logged sound on a record linked electronically to the projector keeping sound synchronized with image.Because the precise alignment of projector and phonograph had to be set by hand the system was prone to human error fitting a movie theater for a Vitaphone sound system was also extremely costly.
Warner Brothers then a minor studio decided to act aggressively.It sank 3 million into the promotion of Vitaphone which the studio announced it would use to provide synchronized musical accompaniment for all its films.Vitaphone debuted in August 1926 with the costume drama Don Juan starring John Barrymore and featuring an orchestral score by the New York Philharmonic.The following year Warner Brothers released its second Vitaphone feature The Jazz Singer which included classical and popular music as well as about 350 words of dialogue.
The success of these two films led directly to the motion-picture industrys conversion to sound as the major studios quickly lobbied to gain the rights to use Vitaphone as well.Warner Brothers agreed to give up its exclusive rights to the system in exchange for a share of the royalties and by the spring of 1928 virtually every Hollywood studio had jumped on the sound bandwagon.
