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PRES. HARDING TO TALK TO 500 TOWNS AT ONCE“Talking Movies” Perfected by New DevicesFive hundred towns to see and hear Galli Curci sing on the same evening, the same five hundred to see and listen to President Harding the next evening, or .see and hear Marconi, Pershing, Lloyd George or any one of hundreds of leaders of science, business, art or the drama.An impossibility? It would have been five years ago. It is a practical thing today. How? Why, by means of vocal motion pictures. Oh, yes, it has been tried before and proved a failure, but the failure was the fault of the individuals. The idea is sound and only lacked, at that time, the mechanism to put it through successfully.Today the mechanism, eliminating the errors of the past, has been perfected and, covered by 17 patents, is on the market. Operated entirely by electricity, it can be attached to any motion picture machine, turning every motion picture house in the world into a vocal auditorium as well.Louder Than NoiseOn Broadway, now, amid the clatter of the street cars and the banging of motor car exhausts, the machine has been set up and hourly demonstrations are being made. The tests are trying out the machine in the most noisy spot obtainable, and there one can see and hear men and girls sing and dance, or listen to Abraham Lincoln make his Gettysburg speech.The words synchronize perfectly with the lips of the singer or speakei*—the very thing that makes real talking pictures, the lack of which, always caused the failure of all previous attempts.The inventor of the R. and E. synchronizing mechanism, Harrison \V. Rogers, spent years and thousands of dollars to perfect the machine, which is fool-proof, and completely eliminates the human equation from the production of vocal motion pictures. All the operator has to do is to change the records when they are played out.Under the old attempts by Edison and others, tw'o operators were required, one to start the record behind the screen when a signal was sent from the booth that the picture was started, and the operator who ran the picture. The timing of the record was always ahead or behind the picture, which made the entire performance ridiculous because the singer might be bowing or sitting down while the notes of his song were still ringing out over the heads of the audience.Mr. Rogers, who was active in all the other successful attempts to obtain successful talking pictures, tabulated their failures and the reasons for them. He then went to work to build a machine that would absolutely prevent their occurrence. His machine operates without supervision. The apparatus consists of two turn-tables mounted on a frame, and the tables, which carry the records, are run by the same motor that operates the motion picture machine.How Movies TalkThe film positively controls the action of the sound records. As the picture is run a slot in the film permits a metal pin to fly out from a roller over which the film passes. This pin closes an electric circuit which starts the turntable carrying the record. This device, automatic and not depending on the will of the operator, brings the sound out at just the right moment, and perfect synchronization is thus obtained.The sound is carried by wires to amplifiers behind the screen, the whole mechanism being in the booth with the motion picture operator. When one record is played the machine automatically starts the second record at the same tjate of speed as the first. This keeps up the continuity of the words or sound. The first record is removed ahd the third set up on the turn-table That is the only work necessary for the operator. The machine automatically starts and stops the record whenever the picture requires or does notrequire sound.A vocal motion picture has been the dream of the inventor for years, and in the motion picture industry more than $11,000,000 has been spent in trying to obtain a real talking picture. The possibilities of the device are without end.Not only can the great opera singers bo brought to the smallest namlet in the country, but famous lecturers and educators can send their messages into every community. Noted physicians and scientists can teach thousands by this machine, where now they reach but hundreds. Political candidates can ad-« dr-^fs dozens of audiences nightly.Merchants and manufacturers can sell m.ve of helr goods. People remark with pride and amazement how tho golden notes of our great singers are being preserved for the future generations. How much more will the vocal motion picture bring earthly immortality to the famous of all the arts and sciences.
Newspaper Details
Boston Post Sunday Magazine
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Sun, Jul 30, 1922
Page 84
Full Page
Clipped by
Kelly S.
USA 06 Feb 2025
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