Catriona Rhiannon G.

Maniego August 10, 2007

COM 115.3 – A // American Cinema Mr. Mark Escaler

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE:

SOUND AND MUSIC IN HOLLYWOOD

“After the invention of the cinema itself, the most important event in film history was the
introduction of sound.” (Cook, 1990)

If you ask the contemporary moviegoer to try watching a movie without dialogue, without sound
effects and without a recognizable film score, chances are he will scoff in your face, proclaiming the
notion absurd and, dare I say it, boring. And yet in 1920s Hollywood, studio executives said the very
same thing, except vice-versa: the idea of making films with actual dialogue and a sound track was
deemed to fail miserably.
As we know now, they were wrong. Audiences loved this new brand of moviemaking and tossed
out the old silent movies that just the previous week they were going crazy over. New opportunities
flourished, but old styles and techniques were doomed to fail in this revolutionary new means of
expression. What exactly about the coming of sound brought about this influx of technological and
economic changes in Hollywood? Why did it have such a polarizing effect on both producers and
consumers of movies? And how did it permanently alter the way movies were made in the still early days
of Hollywood cinema?

HOLLYWOOD’S REACTION TO THE COMING OF SOUND

The idea of synchronizing sound and motion pictures had been present since the invention of the
cinema, even historically precluding it. When Thomas Edison invented his Kinetograph (one of the earliest
forms of image projection), it was for a visual accompaniment to his phonograph; in 1889, it was roughly
achieved by W.K.L. Dickinson. In the early 1900s, European inventors experimented and marketed these
devices, called phonofilm systems, at various conventions and expositions. German Oskar Messter
started producing short sound films as novelty items in 1903 and in America, the Edison Corporation hit
moderate success with their versions of these devices—the Cinephonograph and the Kinetophone.
However, several problems plagued these early phonofilm systems, namely those of sound
synchronization, amplifying the sound to fill a large room and the brevity of the disks used to contain
sound in comparison to the reels which were used to store film. These problems, which contributed to the
difficulty of producing and showing sound films, prevented Hollywood from adopting this new system.
In the meantime, Hollywood filmmakers in the 1920s were deep into the art of silent cinema,
reveling in its form, which was liberating enough for actors, directors and cinematographers to
concentrate on perfecting their craft without having to think of any kind of restrictions. As far as they knew,
their only restrictions were their imaginations and how they utilized the camera and their own bodies.
Studios and producers were also delighted with the style of silent cinema, since the public adored the
films, their stars and kept on coming back every time a new movie came out—which was very often, since
many studios employed the convention of shooting several films at once, to conserve budgets.
The smallest rumors of movies to start employing the technique of sound-on-film were easily
dismissed by studio producers and filmmakers. To their knowledge, there was so much to do and to
explore in the silent cinema art form that it never crossed their minds that it was starting to get even the
slightest bit monotonous. With every film release, new techniques were being discovered and utilized.
Silent film was a subtle art, which required both filmmakers and audiences alike to pay close attention to
the emotions behind the exaggerated movements of the actors and the nuances and slight shifts in
lighting, moods and meanings. Besides, silent cinema was far from being truly “silent.” There were always
sound effects that emphasized things happening on screen, to add to the drama or comedy of the
moment, usually made by the special effects crew members or a sound effect machine like the Allefex or
the Kinematophone. And what began with the nickelodeon pianist and continued with the coming of the
grand theater orchestra, there was almost always musical accompaniment with the silent film to enhance
the quality of the motion pictures. By the early 1920s, Hollywood filmmaking had settled into a nice, quiet
rhythm of studio production which satisfied all parties involved.
This all changed with the arrival of Vitaphone, a sound-on-disk system which was the most
sophisticated one of its time. It was developed by Western Electric and Bell Telephone Laboratories, a
subsidiary of the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (AT&T), at great expense. It was
marketed heavily by Western Electric in 1925, but most studios politely turned them down, believing the
enterprise not worthy enough for the amount of money to be invested. But Warner Bros., at the time a
relatively minor studio compared to the others, took a chance on sound and took Western Electric’s offer
for Vitaphone, and, by April 1926, set up Vitaphone Corporation and acquired exclusive rights to lease it
to other studios.
This had several effects on the Hollywood scene. First of all, this investment was quite costly,
amounting to a figure of $800,000 for exclusivity rights. Since Warner was having temporary cash-flow
problems at the time, they had to secure financial backing, and they did, with the help of Wall Street
banking group Goldman Sachs. This was the beginning of Hollywood’s close association with Wall Street
during the whole transition period of sound. Second of all, this was not yet the beginning of the first talking
picture. Warner’s plans for acquiring sound were for synchronized musical accompaniment on disk for all
Warner Bros. films, generally targeting the lower-grade theaters which had no orchestra to play the film
score. It premiered its new sound system on August 6, 1926 for the newest John Barrymore costume
drama Don Juan by Alan Crosland in New York’s Warner Thearer, which had a recorded orchestral score
synchronized with it. It was preceded by a one-hour series of sound film shorts and a brief filmed speech
by Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) president Will Hays, heralding it as
“the beginning of a new era in music and motion pictures.”
There was unanimous praise for the Vitaphone system from both critics and the general public.
However, no one could tell whether this meant that sound was here to stay or was just a momentary
novelty, something that Warner Bros. refused to let it become (Geduld, 1975.) The rest of the studios,
however, had very good reason to hope for the public’s passing interest in the sound system. A full-scale
conversion of all the multiple movie theaters, mostly owned by the studios themselves, across the country
to accommodate all the technological requirements of sound (like wiring it once for Vitaphone and twice
for other competing sound systems incompatible with the Vitaphone system) would cost “an incalculable
amount of money and perhaps even bring the industry to financial collapse” (Cook, 1990.) In addition to
this, they would also have to purchase and outfit new sound studios and recording equipment. A huge
backlog of silent films waiting to be released would have to be delayed even more to wait to be re-
recorded with an orchestral score. They did not even take into account that the silent films, which
represented millions of dollars in investment, would give way to films with recorded dialogue, which
jeopardized not only their investment in the Western hemisphere, but also their international industry,
when the easily translatable intertitles (short for interpolated title, which were the dialogue cards between
scenes) would give way to the more difficult to translate speech. The star system, which all the studios
upheld and sustained, would be thrown into chaos when actors and actresses trained in the art of mime
and exaggeration would have to deal with the subtleties of acting in the coming of sound.
In a nutshell, the whole economic structure that sustained the Hollywood system of production
was thrown into confusion and disarray with the coming of sound, and so its resistance was
understandable.
Warner Bros., buoyed by the success of Don Juan, announced its plans to outfit at least one
theater in every major American city with Vitaphone sound and start production on the film that would
change the film industry forever: Alan Crosland’s The Jazz Singer. Promoted as “Warner Bros. Greatest
Triumph,” it started the studio’s regular production of Vitaphone features in a film for distribution. But it
also had an aspect that thrilled moviegoers and led to the film becoming an international success. It was
conceived as a “singing” picture, rather than a “talking” picture, which is the reputation it enjoys today. It
retained the use of intertitles common in silent cinema, only employing sound for the musical numbers in-
between scenes. However, there were two instances when Al Jolson, the lead in the movie and a popular
vaudeville star, ad-libbed some dialogue, which made it onto the final film. The impact of the spoken
dialogue in the film was tremendous—this was the first time the audiences “overheard” people speaking
to one another in a film, instead of the kind of speech which was contrived and done outside of the
context of the story of the film. This revolutionary means of conveying the story, now known as the
“talkie,” was what finally convinced the other studios to consider that sound was here to stay.
Because of the success of The Jazz Singer, the public’s demand for more films with sound led to
the inevitable. In February, the Big Three’s executives (MGM, Famous Players—soon Paramount, and
First National) and the representatives of the biggest of the Little Five (Universal) signed an agreement to
adopt a uniform sound system competing against Vitaphone when conversion became absolutely
necessary. This was called the “Big Five Agreement,” which led to the promotion of sound-on-film rather
than sound-on-disk and eventually led to Vitaphone phasing out.
 By 1928, it was clear to everyone that the sound film had permanently changed the landscape of
Hollywood forever. Richard Griffith, noted film historian, even goes so far as to say that by the spring of
1928, the year following the release of Vitaphone and The Jazz Singer, that “the worst sound film would
outdraw the best silent picture in any given community in the country.” The coming of sound actually
rescued the film industry by electrifying the public and giving them something new to watch.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SOUND FILM

After the industry accustomed itself to the changes it wrought, it finally concentrated on what this
new addition meant for the art of making movies. The coming of sound changed the way films were made
and told, from the development of the director as the auteur to the reconstruction of the studio structure,
the star system and finally, the actual production of the films to accommodate the revolution. All of these
changes helped construct what we recognize today as the contemporary film industry.
Its most lasting contribution, however, would have to be in the realm of genres. With the coming
of sound, genres never thought possible during the era of silent cinema arose and shaped what we now
know as the modern industry. While it heralded the end of the silent cinema, there were many new genres
that resulted from the introduction of sound that rose up to take its place, giving the studios a wide
spectrum of expression to explore. Indeed, it was around these new genres that the new studio system
and star system was built, with studios and actors thriving in particular genres (Universal with the horror
genre, John Wayne in the Western, et cetera.) Foremost was the form of the movie musical, but there
were many others that were born in the excitement of the new medium that survive to this day, including
the gangster film, as well as newer versions of old genres, like the screwball comedy and the Western.

One of the first few genres that arose from the sound era was the feature-length animated movie,
which was Walt Disney’s primary domain of influence. His “Silly Symphony” series, which began in 1929,
pioneered the animated musical and the technique of perfect synchronization of animated image and
sound which producers in the realm of live-action narrative film couldn’t manage quite yet. This term is
called Mickey Mousing. This led to Walt Disney’s company producing three more feature-length films in
the late thirties: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Pinocchio, and the lauded and highly experimental
Fantasia.
Another implication of sound was this new sense of narrative realism that was perpetuated by
genres like the social drama, the historical biography film (biopic), the urban gangster film and the
newspaper film. Sound was able to bring filmmaking for dramas to a new high, because they could now
rely on dialogue and subtle sounds to convey important information to the audiences. These particular
genres found a sympathetic audience with the Depression-era audiences, which grew more concerned
with their social surroundings.
In addition to the new genres, sound revived interest in some old ones. Slapstick comedies that
were extremely popular with silent cinema audiences recognized the same popularity after the transition
to sound, culminating in the dialogue comedies of the Marx Brothers. Screwball comedies were the most
favorable of the romantic comedy genres, due to the success of the Frank Capra and Howard Hawks
features, like You Can’t Take It With You and His Girl Friday, respectively. And to contrast the idyllic
portrayal of American virtues, proliferated for war propaganda, the social satires of Preston Sturges
offered to show the other side of American ideological institutions, including the film industry in Sullivan’s
Travels.
We can all agree, however, that the genre that the sound film is most commonly associated with
and is arguably the most recognizable genre that the sound film brought about is the Musical. What
began as mere stage play brought to film eventually evolved into a sophisticated narrative that had
unparalleled production numbers and talented stars headlining the movies within a few years since the
genre’s inception. This was largely due to the choreography of Busby Berkeley (42nd Street and the Gold
Diggers musicals) and Fred Astaire (The Gay Divorcee, Top Hat and Swing Time.) Contrary to studio
executives’ beliefs during the pre-sound transition, the musical numbers actually enhanced the visual
rather than detracted from it, due to the flamboyant and enjoyable song-and-dance numbers the musicals
employed. These were further enhanced by the addition of color to films.
This was the one genre and movie form that would not have come about if sound did not hit it big
with audiences. And so we will take a look now at an example of a musical that takes full control of the
aspects of sound and music as part of the narrative and plays around with it, all while maintaining
historical accuracy and keeping within film scholar John Belton’s notion of narrative form.

THE SOUND FILM AS NARRATIVE: SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952)

Singin’ in the Rain is a film starring Gene Kelly as silent film star Don Lockwood and Debbie
Reynolds as Kathie Selden, an aspiring actress with an amazing voice. Like most Hollywood films, it is a
story within a larger national context (Belton, 2004)—in this case, the arrival of sound, that signaled a
rapid transition for all the studios involved. It’s a film that falls under the genre that came about with the
coming of sound about the coming of sound.
It is remarkable how a film with all the elements of a classical Hollywood narrative as described
by Belton—equilibrium and disruption, characters and goals, the notion of artifice and invisible art,
segmentation and structure (2004)—situates itself within its context and remains consistent with it,
attributing external events and character motivations to its historical framework. It even includes the pitch
that phonofilm systems used to try and secure deals for then-newcomer Vitaphone Corporation and
chronicles the resounding success of The Jazz Singer. Roger Ebert, in his famous review of the movie,
says:
“The movie simplifies the changeover from silents to talkies, but doesn't falsify it.”

The film begins with Kelly’s Don Lockwood in the throes of stardom. He, alongside his delusional,
vapid and tiny-voiced screen partner Lina Lamont (played excellently by Jean Hagen), is situated in
Hollywood, with the glamour and comforting familiarity of silent cinema as the setting of equilibrium. The
distortion comes in two levels: personally, it is Lockwood’s encounter with the fresh-faced and opinionated
Kathie Selden. Professionally, it is the coming of sound.
The movie documents the hardships that the transition to sound encountered, like the issue of
synchronization (during the premiere of the movie), of the difficulty of hiding the microphone and how to
isolate exactly the sounds you want them to pick-up (during the re-shooting of one of their formulaic
romantic pictures, The Dueling Cavelier) and of the added complexity of scriptwriting now needed to
communicate more (the riotous scene in the movie which had Lockwood saying “I love you” over and over
because he had no idea what else to say, which is a parody in itself of John Gilbert’s first foray into a
talking picture). It also paralleled a similar transition in Lockwood’s life, from concentrating on his career to
considering a romance with the talented ingénue Selden.
The movie portrayed the musical as the unique selling point of the whole sound film, one that
utilized its full spectrum of expression, as well as ventured into areas never-before-considered (after all,
what is a dance number in a silent film with no musical accompaniment but ridiculous movements on
screen?) On the personal level, it also represented a return to form for Lockwood who, as explained in the
earlier part of the film, draws his roots from vaudeville and theater. This is later reinforced by the story
behind his “Broadway Ballet” extravaganza—the story of a young man, ideal in the beginning, then slowly
becoming so immersed in the culture that he soon forgot why he was there in the first place, until he is
reminded by seeing another young man, much like himself, looking to see if he can make it in Hollywood
because, like him, he’s “gotta dance.” For Lockwood, this could represent how Selden’s presence in his
life reminds him of his youthful enthusiasm for his craft. This is the element of artifice and invisible art. We
know that it’s a movie, that people do not suddenly get up and dance and make fun of their voice coach
(in the famous “Moses Supposes” sequence) and thoughts do not manifest as elaborate theatrical
production numbers like the “Broadway Ballet,” but we are invited to suspend belief and invest our beliefs
in what is happening on screen.
The film tries to make this suspension of belief as smooth as possible, placing enough realism in
the narrative as possible (it even makes fun of the transition from narrative to musical number in the “You
Were Meant For Me” sequence by having Lockwood ‘set-up’ as romance pictures do.) It thus utilizes
sound as something that moves the narrative forward, instead of making it seem like something abrupt
and jarring for the audience.

The coming of sound heralded a technological and economic revolution, that’s true, but more
than that, it represented the coming of a new means of expression that developed the structure of the
whole film industry, not just that of the studios or of the actors. Because of the coming of sound, new
genres previously unexplored were now possible and, with the coming of the musical, sound became not
just something that added to a movie, but was integral part of the communication of the film’s narrative.
And because of this revolution, we now enjoy films as they are today—simply visual and aural delights.
 REFERENCES

Belton, J. (2004). American Cinema/American Culture. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Cook, D.A. (1990). A History of Narrative Film. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company

Geduld, H.M. (1975). The Birth of the Talkies: From Edison to Jolson. Bloomington, USA: Indiana
University Press

Kiesling, B.C. (1937). Talking Pictures. Richmond, VA: Johnson Publishing Company

Walker, A. (1978). The Shattered Silents: How the Talkies Came To Stay. London, UK: Elm Tree Books.

Grade: A
Comments: Excellent paper! First,your research is impeccable. Second, you truly fulfill the requirements
by examining how the technology of sound actually changed the manner in which movies told stories
at the time. And third, you illustrate this very well in Singin’ in the Rain. Nice work!