minikahood1710
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Although this was the first feature film with a Vitaphone soundtrack (therefore being the first film with a completely synchronized soundtrack), it is by no means the first sound film. The first sound film can be dated back to 1895, the process was re-discovered and improved by a French company (using a gramophone) in 1910. In 1913 Thomas A. Edison announced that all the problems of sound films were solved, and showed what he called, "the first sound film." As in the earlier efforts, 'Nursery Favorites' (1913) had a gramophone that appeared to synchronize with the film. There was one problem: the film was projected at the wrong speed, and the soundtrack was slowed down inadvertently. This problem happened all too often, and a frustrated Edison abandoned his process. In 1921, D.W. Griffith employed various experts to film a sound introduction for his film Dream Street (1921), which still exists, and went the performance went off without a hitch. Griffith soon stopped using sound because he thought it was financial suicide, stating "Only 5% of the world speaks English, so why should I lose 95% of my audience?" However by 1925 sound had arrived in the form of radio, and it was inevitable that film would follow. Movie studios tried various innovations to keep audiences coming (Technicolor, wide screen etc.) Warner Brothers, then a lesser film company, bought the old Brooklyn-based Vitagraph Studios and their all-important network of 34 film exchanges (the film distribution network vital to each studio) in 1925 and laid out plans to become a dominant force in the film industry. One of the 4 Warner Brothers, Sam, felt the future was in sound and convinced his skeptical older brother Harry (Warner's money man) to throw their lot in with Western Electric's 16" disc-based recording system, forming the Vitaphone Corp. on April 20, 1926 as 70% stockholders. Oddly, Sam never envisioned the system for voice synchronization, rather he saw it as an economical way to add the added dimension of musical accompaniment. The Vitaphone process solved the synchronization problem electro-mechanically, corresponding the projection speed with the recorded disc by utilizing the same motor for both devices.
