Phonofilm, The Rejection

Adams, Mike

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0418-7_8

Phonofilm, The Rejection

Mike Adams²

Chapter
First Online: 01 January 2011

573 Accesses

Abstract

Phonofilm will not go quietly. In spite of the odds, Lee de Forest will continue to make and distribute films in the Phonofilm format to those few theaters equipped to show them. There is limited success, but the field for sound movies is getting crowded. Yes, Phonofilm is finally a mature technology, but now it is not the only sound-on-film system. As a result of rapid progress in the past few years, the quality of the audio that can be recorded and played back has improved in a way that the public just may embrace it. The electrical recording and playback of the phonograph record has been one of the science success stories of the middle 1920s, and while this will be good for home record consumers, it will also form the technical basis of the Warner Bros. Vitaphone sound system for the movies. So Lee de Forest, one of the first inventors to develop and demonstrate a sound-on-film system, falls farther behind. The signs are ominous, and as he continues to promote his system and sign up theaters, his influence is waning. Even with the production of hundreds of little films of singers, dancers, and vaudeville acts, it will be Al Jolson, not Lee de Forest, who will be the voice of the movies. This is the beginning of good times for the movie industry. This is the beginning of bad times for Lee de Forest.

Keywords

Motion Picture
Case Company
Film Industry
Case Paper
Silent Film

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Notes

1.
De Forest diary, May 24, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
2.
Case telegram to de Forest, September 2, 1924, Case Papers.
3.
Case letter to de Forest, September 16, 1924, Case Papers.
4.
ibid.
5.
Case notes, a single undated scrap of paper, probably late 1924, Case Papers.
6.
De Forest letter to Case, September 20, 1924, Case Papers.
7.
Case letter to Waddell, October 16, 1924, Case Papers.
8.
De Forest letter to Case, October 18, 1924, Case Papers.
9.
Case book keeper Eldred letter to de Forest, October 24, 1924, Case Papers.
10.
Waddell Letter to Eldred of case company, October 27, 1924, Case Papers.
11.
Case letter to De Forest, October 29, 1924, Case Papers.
12.
ibid.
13.
Case friend and advisor Osborne telegram to Case, November 10, 1924, Case Papers.
14.
Case letter to de Forest, November 10, 1924, Case Papers.
15.
De Forest letter to Case, November 12, Case Papers.
16.
De Forest diary, December 1924, Perham de Forest papers.
17.
ibid.
18.
ibid.
19.
New York City Financial News, December 31 1924.
20.
De Forest letter to Case, March 5, 1925, Case Papers.
21.
ibid.
22.
ibid.
23.
De Forest letter to Case, May 22, 1925, Case Papers.
24.
Case letter to de Forest, May 23, 1925, Case Papers.
25.
Boston Transcript, April 22 1925.
26.
Stephanie Przybylek, Breaking the Silence on Film, Cayuga Museum, 1999, p82.
27.
Case letter to de Forest, September 25, 1925, Case Papers.
28.
De Forest letter to Case, October 25, 1925, Case Papers.
29.
De Forest attorney Sam Darby letter to de Forest, November 16, 1925, Case Papers.
30.
Case letter to de Forest, November 20, 1925, Case Papers.
31.
De Forest letter to Case, November 21, 1925, Case Papers.
32.
ibid.
33.
ibid
34.
Case Lab employee Eldred letter to de Forest company, December 7, 1925, Case Papers.
35.
From a de Forest speech on Phonofilm in late 1925, Perham de Forest papers.
36.
ibid.
37.
De Forest diary, September 27, 1925, Perham de Forest papers.
38.
De Forest diary, October 15, 1925, Perham de Forest papers.
39.
De Forest diary, September 28, 1925, Perham de Forest papers.
40.
De Forest diary, December 24, 1925, Perham de Forest papers.
41.
De Forest diary, December 1925, Perham de Forest papers.
42.
ibid.
43.
De Forest diary, February 19, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
44.
De Forest diary, March 4, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
45.
ibid.
46.
De Forest diary, July 25, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
47.
ibid.
48.
ibid.
49.
De Forest letter to Phonofilm shareholders, August 26, 1926, de Forest papers, HSJ.
50.
ibid.
51.
DVD restoration, “The Jazz Singer” with “The Coming of Sound” documentary and disc of Vitaphone shorts, Warner Brothers, 2008.
52.
The Kol Nidre is a speech given in the synagogue before each evening of Yom Kippur.
53.
DVD restoration, “The Jazz Singer” with “The Coming of Sound” documentary and disc of Vitaphone shorts, Warner Brothers, 2008.
54.
De Forest diary, March 20, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
55.
De Forest diary, April 15, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
56.
ibid.
57.
de Forest diary, May 1, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
58.
ibid.
59.
de Forest diary, May 24, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
60.
New York Times, August 5, 1926.
61.
ibid.
62.
Case attorney Livingston Gifford letter on patents, February 16, 1926, Case Papers.
63.
ibid.
64.
ibid.
65.
de Forest attorney Sam Darby letter to William Fox, May 14, 1926, Case Papers.
66.
ibid.
67.
Fox attorney Courtland Smith letter to Case, May 17, 1926, Case papers.
68.
Eldred letter to Fox attorneys, May 20, 1926, case papers.
69.
Case-Fox agreement, July 23, 1926, Case Papers.
70.
ibid.
71.
New York Times, August 5, 1926.
72.
It is estimated that this could equal $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 in today’s dollars.
73.
Letter to Phonofilm shareholders, October 11, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
74.
De Forest diary, October 7, 1926, Perham de Forest papers.
75.
Notes, meeting on talking motion pictures, October 14, 1926, Case Papers.
76.
ibid.
77.
ibid.
78.
Victor Appleton, Tom Swift and his Talking Pictures, 1928, NY, Grossett and Dunlap.
79.
ibid.
80.
ibid.
81.
Lee de Forest, “Recent Developments in the Phonofilm,” SMPE Transactions, Vol X, No. 27, October 1926.
82.
ibid.
83.
P. M. Rainey, “Some Technical Aspects of the Vitaphone,” SMPE Transactions, Vol III, No. 30, April 1927.
84.
Earl Sponable, “Some Technical Aspects of the Movietone,” SMPE Transactions, Vol XI, No. 31, September 1927.
85.
ibid.
86.
Terry Ramsaye, “Early History of Sound Pictures,” SMPE Transactions, Vol XII, No. 35, September 1928.
87.
ibid.
88.
ibid.
89.
William A. Johnston, “The Public and Sound Pictures,” SMPE Transactions, Vol XII, No. 35, September 1928.
90.
ibid.
91.
ibid.
92.
ibid.
93.
ibid.
94.
ibid.
95.
ibid.
96.
Mordaunt Hall, “The Reaction of the Public to Motion Pictures with Sound,” SMPE Transactions, Vol XII, No. 35, September 1928.
97.
ibid.
98.
ibid.
99.
ibid.
100.
H. B. Franklin, “The Entertainment Value of the Sound Movie,” SMPE Transactions, Vol XII, No. 35, September 1928.
101.
ibid.
102.
Frank Woods, The Sound Picture Situation in Hollywood,” SMPE Transactions, Vol XII, No. 35, September 1928.
103.
Warren Nolan, “Talking Pictures and the Public,” SMPE Transactions, Vol XII, No. 35, September 1928.
104.
Lester Cowan, editor, Recording Sound for Motion Pictures, McGraw-Hill, 1931, New York, p v.
105.
HG Knox, Recording Sound for Motion Pictures, McGraw-Hill, 1931, New York, p6.
106.
ibid., p7.
107.
ibid., p6.
108.
ibid., p12
109.
Film, “Mysterious Island,” 1929, TCM cable channel.
110.
Peter Kobel and the Library of Congress, Silent Movies, the Birth of Film and of Movie Culture, Little. Brown and Company, NY, 2003, p267.
111.
William K. Everson, American Silent Film, Da Capo Press, NY, 1998, p335.
112.
ibid.
113.
For the story of the conversion from silent to sound, written while it was happening, see: Arthur Edwin Krows, The Talkies, Holt and Company, New York, 1932.
114.
Arthur Edwin Krows, The Talkies, Holt and Company, New York, 1932.
115.
Arthur Edwin Krows, Journal of the SMPE, vol 16, no. 4, April 1931.
116.
New York Evening Post, March 14, 1929.
117.
ibid.
118.
New York Times, June 19, 1927.
119.
ibid.

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Department of Radio, Television, and Film, San José State University, San José, CA, USA
Mike Adams

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Adams, M. (2012). Phonofilm, The Rejection. In: Lee de Forest. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0418-7_8

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0418-7_8
Published: 07 September 2011
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