The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello. Another passion of mine, alongside records, in early film antiques, such as old projectors, nitrate film etc...
But I read about something the other day was a really interesting crossover between two of my collecting interests: 78 records which were used in the earliest days of cinema, as a ay of creating early ''sound films''. What happened was the person was filmed, while at the same time speaking into a recording device, or the person was filmed speaking, and then the person spoke into a recording device at another point. Thus, when the record and film was played back it was like a sound film.


I have seen pictures of such records, but never for sale. Such brands include Cinephone or Vivaphone. I have attatched pictures of such labels.


Out of curiosity, have any members here ever encountered such records? Also, I don't suppose any of you know where I might find one for sale.


Any help would be much appreciated.

I believe, as with the Pathé and other early systems, the sound was recorded first; then the performer was filmed lip-synching to the playback.

Bill

Thanks Bill. That makes sense. I also saw this video of an actual disc paired with the corresponding film, and it definitely seems like it's a lip synch rather than an actual recording of the guy singing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSJ90Fl ... e=youtu.be

Apparently, in the U.S.A. early on, Siegmund Lubin's Cinephone used already issued Victor Talking Machine Co. records as sources for which actors would mime the parts for the film. The British Cinephone thing above in the pic I think is Will Barker's Cinephone, which is different. I don't know if this is a Cinephone film, but they must have looked something like this. None of the people in this film are the ones on the Victor record of the Sextette : [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCSRXy2RM3I[/youtube]

That's very interesting, and makes sense. Would be able to save time by just having actors mime already recorded discs from other artists. Great footage too, I can't imagine there are many of these film/disc pairs still in existence. Amazing to see such attempts in the early days of film.

Indeed, the photos in the original post are ordinary records of other brands overstuck with the film-related labels, so they must have been chosen from pre-existing record titles, presumably with films created afterwards to match.

Yes, good point. Thanks for that.