Restored Edison Kinetophone Film

[CarlosV]

Here is an excellent restoration of a Kinetophone film done the Library of Congress, complete with synchronized audio. Some of the artists are from the Edison roster, like the conductor Jaudas.

(Double-click the video above or click this link to go to the video on YouTube.)

[EdiBrunsVic]

Thank you for sharing this historic film!!

[MisterGramophone]

Wow! Before I learned about the kinetophone, I would’ve thought this was from at late 1926

[recordmaker]

I think there were 2 versions of this one for British distribution and one for USA in that case ending with My country tis of thee not God save the King. note the two flags in the background at the end, and the quite difficult use of fans to have them flutter in opposing directions

[CharliePhono]

Thank you for posting. I am fascinated by these early efforts at sound/film synchronization. I was surprised to learn that the interlocutor in this vignette was Arthur Housman, who turned up in the talkies as the perennial drunk. He can be seen in several Laurel and Hardy pictures as such.

[Marco Gilardetti]

I am impressed by the length of the soundtrack, how do they manage to reach six minutes of continuous sound? The wikipedia entry is quite vague about sound, I went quickly thorugh it but it seems that all I could find were only references to cylinders playing along with movies but with no real effort to have them synched, and the matter of the total running time is not discussed.

[CarlosV]

I am impressed by the length of the soundtrack, how do they manage to reach six minutes of continuous sound? The wikipedia entry is quite vague about sound, I went quickly thorugh it but it seems that all I could find were only references to cylinders playing along with movies but with no real effort to have them synched, and the matter of the total running time is not discussed.

According to the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison- ... and-sound/ Edison made a very wide celluloid cylinder, probably running at lower speed than the commercial amberol:

In 1913, a different version of the Kinetophone was introduced to the public. This time, the sound was made to synchronize with a motion picture projected onto a screen. A celluloid cylinder record measuring 5 ½" in diameter was used for the phonograph. Synchronization was achieved by connecting the projector at one end of the theater and the phonograph at the other end with a long pulley.

Nineteen talking pictures were produced in 1913 by Edison, but by 1915 he had abandoned sound motion pictures. There were several reasons for this. First, union rules stipulated that local union projectionists had to operate the Kinetophones, even though they hadn't been trained properly in its use. This led to many instances where synchronization was not achieved, causing audience dissatisfaction. The method of synchronization used was still less than perfect, and breaks in the film would cause the motion picture to get out of step with the phonograph record. The dissolution of the Motion Picture Patents Corp. in 1915 may also have contributed to Edison's departure from sound films, since this act deprived him of patent protection for his motion picture inventions.

[Marco Gilardetti]

Thank you, that was interesting. The idea of the super long pulley from back to front of the theatre sounds like a troublemaker just by mentally visualizing it. It's quite unbelievable that any of these one-of-a-kind celluloid cylinders of a soon dismissed technology could survive.