Absolutely New -- the Marvel of the Age! -- May 23, 2024

Montreal Daily Star, 31-May-1924

Lee De Forest, a pioneer in vacuum tubes and radio, introduced his Phonofilm sound-on-film picture process in 1923. By 1924, his movies were showing in major theaters. "Extra Special Added Attraction."

Film Daily, 11-May-1924

Plastigrams were 3-D movies that used a process invented by Frederic Eugene Ives and Jacob Leventhal. The movies were viewed with red- and blue-lensed glasses. I wonder what these psychologists found interesting. I need to see if there is a copy of that book available.

Film Daily, 05-May-1924

The World in Color was a magazine-format series of short films "Issued monthly by Kelley Color Laboratory." William Van Doren Kelley, inventor of the Prizma natural color process, opened a laboratory in New Jersey which would be dedicated to making natural color prints.

Film Daily, 11-May-1924

Film Daily, 11-May-1924

I don't know anything about Reel-Colors, Inc, but I will keep my eyes open.

Film Daily, 05-May-1924

Claude Friese-Greene was the son of William Friese-Greene, who claimed that he had invented motion pictures in the 1880s. William went on to try to develop color motion pictures and Claude carried on his father's work. 

Film Daily, 14-May-1924

Film Daily, 28-May-1924

Last month, we saw that the Brock Company, which I still know nothing about, applied hand coloring to sequences in feature films.

Film Daily, 21-May-1924

Experts from ATT announced that transmitting motion pictures (television) would never be practical. Always good to ask the experts. 

Exhibitors Herald, 24-May-1924

Another piece of technology which is not directly related to movies made a huge change in the movie industry. Before air conditioning, many theaters in hot areas had to close during the summer. 

Says Movies of Future Will Reproduce Sound and Color -- April 23, 2024

Motion Picture News, 26-April-1924

"...Leon Bakst, famous Russian scenic artist, predicts that the motion picture of tomorrow will be in natural colors and reproduce sound by means of radio." 

Motion Picture News, 19-April-1924

The weekly Pathé Review included a section in Pathécolor, which was a stencil process.

Film Daily, 09-April-1924

Film Daily, 16-April-1924

Film Daily, 24-April-1924

The Brock Company, which I know nothing about, appears to have kept busy applying hand coloring to sequences in feature films. 

Motion Picture News, 26-April-1924

This item is a bit confusing. Where most Phonofilms were single shots showing vaudeville act, De Forest said his new film would be shot with exteriors and a cast of twenty. I can't find a film like that in the Phonofilm filmography. J Searle Dawley (great name) did direct some Phonofilms, and De Forest supplied the soundtrack for a 1925 Fleischer Brothers cartoon called "East Side, West Side." I will have to dig around. 

Motion Picture News, 12-April-1924

"...there has been much widespread comment and query as to whether or not the talking motion picture has a real future, or whether this is only another novelty." 

Film Daily, 24-April-1924

De Forest planned to donate prints of his Phonofilms to the Smithsonian Institution "for the permanent use of that establishment." 

Motion Picture News, 26-April-1924

The reader will notice that WE Waddell is said to be the person who wrote the story for the ambitious Phonofilm "East Side, West Side." 

"Does the Public Want Talking Pictures?

"By W. E. Waddell

"There has been much discussion recently as to whether or not there is a demand for other than pantomime motion pictures. In the opinion of many the silent drama fills every requirement.

"The old-timer is wont to say, 'O, yes, I've seen talking pictures and they are no good — the people don't want them.' He is guessing when he says the people do not want them, for no one in the history of amusements has yet been able to successfully guess what the public wants, and when he refers to talking pictures he has seen in the past he is thinking of various combinations of phonograph and motion picture machines. By this method there has been no illusion, no perfect tone production.

"In addition there are still more vital reasons why this method is doomed to failure. A phonograph record is limited to time of running, and no change of scene can take place. The motion picture of today consists of many quick changes of scene and settings.

"Many of the 'shots' are not over ten feet (ten seconds) in length. Therefore a picture that talks cannot successfully compete with its silent brother if it be limited to a single set.

"What happens when the film breaks with the phonograph-motion picture combination? There is only one answer to that. Burn it up, and get another print, for synchronism has been permanently destroyed.

"But a new talking picture has arrived in the remarkable adaptation of radio to motion pictures, invented by Dr. Lee DeForest, who calls it the Phonofilm. There is no phonograph used in connection with the Phonofilm. The film itself literally talks and reproduces music. The actor performs exactly as he does upon the speaking stage. While the camera lens is catching every movement of his lips a tiny gas-filled tube by its side is faithfully catching every sound he utters.

"By the Phonofilm method pictures may be made with all the latitude of the silent drama except that the director must discard his megaphone.

"Long shots, close-ups, interior and exterior scenes may be made without regard to continuity. Then they are assembled in the usual way, with perfect synchronization.

"What happens when the film breaks? Nothing. Simply patch it together and a fraction of a word with its accompanying action is missing as in a regular motion picture; but synchronization is not disturbed.

"Many stage successes are useless for the reason that their charm lies in clever repartee. Therefore a world of splendid material is available for the talking picture that has been considered useless for the silent drama. In addition, musical comedies, light and grand operas, great orchestra concerts, may be reproduced."

Motion Picture News, 12-April-1924

Meanwhile, inventors on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean were working to develop mechanical television systems. C Francis Jenkins was working in the US. This item mentions that he had developed an early motion picture projector, the Phantoscope. 

Film Daily, 14-April-1924

John Logie Baird was working on his own system in the UK.

At Last! The Third-Dimension Movie -- March 25, 2024

Motion Picture News, 15-March-1924

Plastigrams were 3-D movies that used a process invented by Frederic Eugene Ives and Jacob Leventhal. The movies were viewed with red- and blue-lensed glasses. 

Motion Picture News, 15-March-1924

Film Daily, 26-March-1924

Claude Friese-Greene was the son of William Friese-Greene, who claimed that he had invented motion pictures in the 1880s. William went on to try to develop color motion pictures and Claude carried on his father's work. 

Film Daily, 25-March-1924

Prizma, Inc, creators of Prizma Color, declared bankruptcy in 1924. This was despite many filmmakers having added a reel of color to their feature films. 

Film Daily, 21-March-1924

A receiver's sale disposed of the company's assets.

Motion Picture News, 08-March-1924

Inventor Lee De Forest formed a company to produce talking films using his Phonofilm sound-on-film process. 

Phonaction, Actophone, Veritiphone, Prizma, Technicolor -- December 18, 2023

Motion Picture News, 29-December-1923

Polish-born Joseph Tykociner was a professor of engineering at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Tykociner developed and displayed the first successful sound-on-film system, which combined image and sound on a single strip of film. Despite Tykociner holding several patents for the process, a battle with the university over rights kept him from exploiting it commercially.

Motion Picture News, 29-December-1923

Interesting Details of Apparatus

Employed in Photographing Human Voice

THERE have been described in previous issues of the News various methods and devices used in registering photographically the human voice. These developments are of such an interesting nature that we feel warranted in publishing the following description which has been submitted on Professor J. T. Tykociner's apparatus, now in the process of being perfected.

 

The silver screen may be changed into a screen that gives forth the thousand varying emotions of the human voice, thanks to the invention perfected by a Polish scientist, Professor J. T. Tykociner, who is now conducting special research work at the University of Illinois. Silence the orchestra or disable the pipe organ and the present-day movie becomes a rather lifeless exhibition in which the performers do their best to portray the different emotions by means of pantomime. As a result tens of thousands of spectators merely guess at what the hero actually says when he laughs defiance at his adversaries, or else there is a break in the scene and the title is thrown on the screen. With this new invention, when the hero laughs with glee the audience hears the rollicking notes and responds immediately.

 

To solve this difficult problem in a practical way, many inventors have attempted to couple the motion picture machine with photograph records, but no such combination has met with wide adoption. It was more than twenty years ago that Professor Tykociner conceived the idea of photographing sound on the same film used for taking motion pictures. His purpose was to reproduce the speech or song of artists at the same time that their acting is shown on the screen.

 

After several years of experimenting he has perfected a working model of such apparatus. These models represent only a part of the invention developed during this period. The models that have been constructed show the following features:

 

The production of talking motion pictures is accomplished by a camera, which in addition to the ordinary devices used for taking pictures on a film, carries another photographic objective for the purpose of photographing on a narrow portion of the same film the image of a slit illuminated by a mercury arc light. The electric current that feeds the arc is made to vary by connecting the arc to wires leading from amplifiers to the stage, where a telephone transmitter is actuated by sounds and voices accompanying the play of the artists.

 

The amplification of the sounds to be photographed is accomplished by audio frequency or radio frequency methods. When no sounds are produced on the stage, the light of the mercury arc is steady and therefore the place on the film designated for the photographic sound record and running along the pictures, shows, after the usual developing, a narrow band of uniform transparency. If, however, sound is accompanying the acting on the stage, the light of the arc is forced to fluctuate in accordance with the intensity of the sound coming from the telephone transmitter. Consequently, the image of the slit photographed on the moving picture film appears as a narrow band, shaded by lines more or less crowded and more or less transparent in agreement with the pitch and volume of the sound reproduced on the stage. This shaded band seen along the edge of the film is a true photographic record of the sound produced during the action on the stage. Every single photographed position of the actors has its fixed place on the film. Likewise, every sound produced has its fixed place on the edge of the same film near the corresponding picture. This part of the apparatus transforms the energy of sound waves into electric oscillations and produces changes of the amount of photographically active rays emitted by the mercury arc lamp so that the sensitized moving film is affected in accordance with the sound to be photographed.

 

The name "phonaction" has been chosen for this sound-recording apparatus, as this word expresses the manifold transformation of sound energy controlling actinic rays by means of a stream of ions.

 

The "phonaction" produces negatives which, after development, can be used for printing purposes. On the film can be seen a narrow band of shaded cross-lines which represent the photograph of the speech delivered at the time the picture was taken.

 

The question may well be asked, "How can the motion pictures and the sound be produced at the same time from such a film?" This is made possible through the use of another apparatus that Professor Tykociner has named an "actophone." In this model an ordinary motion picture projecting machine is used. To it are attached an additional light house and a second optical system. By means of the normal optical system, rays of light pass the part of the positive film occupied by the motion pictures, projecting them upon the screen. At the same time rays from the additional light house are directed upon that part of the positive film which carries the photographic sound record. The amount of light that passes through the shaded band varies according to the transparency of the particular places on the film, and illuminates the sensitive layer of the photo-electric tube placed behind the moving film. The photo-electric cell was developed and made by Professor Jacob Kunz of the University of Illinois. This tube has the property of releasing electric charges in quantities strictly in agreement with amount of light entering "the tube. In the actophone such a light, sensitive tube is connected with proper amplifiers, and as a result electric currents are excited, varying with the illumination. The currents thus obtained are strong enough to actuate a loudspeaking telephone located in a convenient place near the screen. While the motion pictures are projected on the screen, the loud-speaking telephone reproduces at the same time the voices and the sounds characteristic to the action occurring on the stage. In this way harmony of action and sound is achieved, creating a complete illusion for the ear as well as for the eye.

 

Many simple experiments have been made at the university to test this invention. For instance, the sounds are distinctly recorded when the demonstrator knocks on the door and is told, "Come in." The sounds made on opening and closing the door are distinctly heard, as is the greeting, "Good morning." If at the same time a typewriter should happen to click in an adjoining room or a clap of thunder should peal forth, the sounds would be duly recorded. A fox terrier in action makes a good subject. The machine reproduces accurately the sharp, excited barks that the dog emits while leaping in the air to catch a swinging ball. Other tests have included whistling, counting numbers, the ringing of a bell and other experiments, all of which have proved highly gratifying.
Professor Tykociner declares that his invention can readily be adapted to moving picture machines of the types now in common use. This means that the invention may come into wide commercial use. The inventor feels that his work has passed far beyond the experimental stage, and that the actual results obtained so far warrant him in making the assertion that the simultaneous reproduction of sound and action is now definitely assured.

Motion Picture News, 01-December-1923

While Professor Tykociner was working on sound-on-film, British inventor Claude Verity (great name) was creating and demonstrating a sound-on-disk system which relied on the operator to watch signal lights and adjust the speed of the projector or the phonograph to keep in sync. Verity called his system the "Veritiphone."

Film Daily, 23-September-1926

Film Daily, 06-December-1923

William Van Doren Kelley, inventor of the Prizma natural color process, opened a laboratory in New Jersey which would be dedicated to making natural color prints. The item mentions that Prizma was not producing movies at that time.

Motion Picture News, 29-December-1923