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Show Anniversary of Sound Movies Recalls Early Panic of Stars rri l as i i4 i V - - F ' '" - - - f - 1 ' Ji ........ v.vav.v. . . Isyj, rt swi vsv Amiwu&vl -. Avtt sua. vOu. .ii, wW w& S Public, Press Unenthused at 'Talkie' Advent Sound came to motion pictures just 20 years ago yet most of the , excitement over the invention that today makes movies one of America's Amer-ica's chief industries didn't come from the press or public, but from stars who were panicked by the realization that their voices might not be pitched for recording. Despite an unenthusiastic public, and skeptical producers of the first talkies, "The Jazz Singer" starring May McAvoy and Al Jolson, was released in 1927. From then on a star's voice was recordable or he was through. John Barrymore and Conrad Nagel made the transition from silence to sound without a hitch. Nagel, who was under contract to MGM at the time and receiving $2,500, was loaned to every other company in Hollywood and in the first two years of talkies, he made 31 films. Westerns Take Lead. Recording sound for Westerns at first seemed impossible but Fox EARLY IN CAREER . . . Douglas Fairbanks, acclaimed by millions as idol of the screen, is shown with his first camera staff while making mak-ing one of his early pictures. Actress Bessie Love played opposite the star in above picture, title unknown. made "In Old Arizona" with Warner War-ner Baxter as the star and such film greats as William Boyd, now Hopalong Cassidy, and the late Bill Hart rose to their fame. Westerns now total more box office receipts than any other type of picture. Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo both thought someone was playing a joke on them v " -' 4 . v v x v ' ' x V " " i ' ' - t " ft i I - "S( 1 ' - ' - ! - I 5 Jjf f v " ' i 1 I 1 i In. " 3 I N ,1 v - - ' 1 1 Dy substituting men s voices when they first heard recordings record-ings of their own voices. Wallace Wal-lace Beery made a talkie for Paramount his first promptly was fired and went to MGM. He's been there ever since. Zazu Pitts of silent days was considered con-sidered a great dramatic actress. Her voice on the sound track ruined it all and she wisely switched to comedy and made her fortune as a funny girl. Charlie Chaplin, silent and sound comedian of the early days, even now is planning a comeback after six years' of absence. Started in 1927. Picture and sound recorded and synchronized on the same piece of film caused little excitement when it first was shown to the public in Schenectady, N. Y., in 1927. So the late Charles A. Hoxie of Schenectady, Schen-ectady, who developed it in the laboratories of General Electric, carted his Kinemagraphone, as he called it, back to the plant. It wasn't until a year or so later that the president of the company took it with him to Europe to introduce intro-duce an educational film. There it was received with such enthusiasm that company officials believed the talking movie was perhaps best suited to educational purposes. Before Be-fore more educational movies had been produced, however, the movie industry put into general use the Hoxie machine. Today it is used by practically every movie company com-pany in the country. HISTORICAL STARS . . . Among the most famous stars in early days of silent films were Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan, shown here in a scene from "The Kid." |