The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931The Talkies offers readers a rare look at the time when sound was a vexing challenge for filmmakers and the source of contentious debate for audiences and critics. Donald Crafton presents a panoramic view of the talkies' reception as well as in-depth looks at sound design in selected films, filmmaking practices, censorship, issues of race, and the furious debate over cinema aesthetics that erupted once the movies began to speak. |
Contents
The Uncertainty of Sound | 1 |
A NEW ERA IN ELECTRICAL ENTERTAINMENT | 19 |
Electric Affinities | 23 |
De Forest and Vitaphone | 63 |
FoxCase Movietone and the Talking Newsreel | 89 |
Warner Bros and Vitaphone | 101 |
ERPI and RCA Consolidate Sound | 127 |
Hollywoods Defensive Strategies | 165 |
19291930 | 313 |
19301931 | 355 |
Shorts Travelogues and Animated Cartoons | 381 |
Outside the Mainstream | 402 |
Foreign Affairs | 418 |
HEARING THE AUDIENCE | 443 |
The Voice Squad | 445 |
The Fans Perspective | 480 |
Boom to Bust | 181 |
Labor Troubles | 217 |
Inaudible Technology | 225 |
Talkies Change the Bijou | 250 |
THREE SEASONS THE FILMS OF 19281931 | 267 |
19281929 | 271 |
THE JAZZ SINGERS Reception | 516 |
The Great Ninety Per Cent | 532 |
Selected Box Office Grosses 19281931 | 547 |
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| 633 | |
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Common terms and phrases
acoustic actors advertising Al Jolson American April AT&T audience August Barrymore box-office broadcast Broadway camera cartoons Chaplin cinema comedy Coming of Sound critics December dialogue director disc entertainment equipment ERPI exhibitors fan magazines feature February Film Daily filmmakers Forest Gilbert Gomery hear Hollywood houses January JAZZ SINGER John Jolson July June Lee de Forest March microphone million Mordaunt Hall Motion Picture Classic movie Movietone National newsreel November numbers October orchestra Paramount patents Pathé performance Phonofilm phonograph Photoplay play players popular premiere production radio RCA Photophone recording released reproduction revue Sarnoff scenes screen September 1929 shot silent film singing song sound effects sound film sound track sound-on-film speaking speech stage stars story studios synchronized talkies talking pictures telephone theater tion trailer United Artists University vaudeville Vitaphone vocal voice Warner Bros Western Electric William Fox York