[78-L] Sound for early silent films RE: what a whiner!

[David Lewis]

From: Michael Shoshani <mshoshani at sbcglobal.net>
> And not represent it as a record of a silent movie.
> Besides the fact that no such thing existed in 1908 

Michael Biel wrote:
> If you are being sarcastic by
> thinking that you are correct about there not being any sound system for
> silent films so the records would have to be blank, it was not a very
> good joke.

I was, and I suppose it wasn't. Nice thing about 78-L is that one gets
informed very quickly in areas in which one is ignorant.

MS
>>>

Well Michael, Dr. B. handed you your hind quarters for your lack of knowledge in the, I feel, rather extreme arcana of pre-Vitaphone sound films. Nevertheless, your objection to the original Ebay post is well noted; this guy has a 20-inch Pathe that he is listing as a 10-inch, and he doesn't even say what it is. He says that it is a film soundtrack record, but that's all. Perhaps I am putting my hind quarters on the line in saying so, but it seems most very early, pre-Kinetophone systems used the cylinder rather than disc. Wikipedia says it's "unclear," but it appears most of the surviving shorts of this kind that have been recovered -- not very many, mind you -- have sound sourced from cylinders. There were some that were mimed to commercial recordings; that's not quite the same thing. 

Eugene Lauste used a photographic disc for the purposes of recording optical sound in the experimental stages of his research in that area ca. 1911; Lee DeForest went through a similar phase in his research in 1919. However, in early sound systems that used some kind of direct sound it seems the cylinder was preferred. And Pathe wasn't a major player in very early European sound systems; that was Gaumont.

I seriously doubt that this record is what the guy says it is; it appears to be a 20-inch commercial Pathe record of a kind that is fairly rare and might go into the Nauck book with a minimum bid of $20 if it were in good condition; more if it was a good selection. But an early soundtrack? Probably not, and no record is worth $150K.
  
Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com

 		 	   		  
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