E A R L Y   S O U N D   F I L M S

 
From the earliest days of the Kinetophone - a peepshow Kinetoscope with music cyclinder attached - recorded musical accompaninemt was sometimes played with films. From around 1900, various methods were used to produce and show synchronised films of singers with audio recordings of their songs. Usually, the singers mimed to their recordings. By 1910 many systems with synchronised disc players, such as the Gaumont Chronophone and Hepworth Vivaphone - mostly using some form of acoustic amplification - were installed in cinemas in Britain and Europe. Limitations, such as lack of editing potential, meant that the sound-on-disc systems disappeared during the First World World War, not to re-appear until the Warners' Vitaphone of 1926 heralded the start of the 'talkie' era.  

Find out about EARLY HOME MOVIES OR:

FILM GAUGES AND FORMATS, OR:

Pay a visit to GEORGES MELIES

Back to The Projection Box