Although inventors had experimented with sound since cinema's inception, the drawbacks of the early models--expense, clumsiness and poor quality, among others--had prevented them from succeeding. In the late 1920s, however, an improved sound-on-film process took hold of the industry. First, Warner Brothers and Fox embraced sound, followed by the rest of the studios, necessitating a multi-layered transformation. From the method of shooting a film, to the stars featured, to the equipment used to exhibit, the movies would never be the same. Sound
The first experiments with sound concentrated on trying to synchronize music played on a phonograph with the film as it was projected. The two media, naturally, were very difficult to synch, and in addition phonographic sound was difficult to amplify. The only solution was to record sound directly onto the film strip by converting sound waves into patterns of light--an objective that was not achieved until after World War I. In 1925, Bell Telephone researchers developed the first sound-on-film process, called Vitaphone, but the studios were reluctant to try something so untested and expensive. In 1926, however, Warner Brothers, a small, struggling studio with little to lose, financed a series of sound shorts.
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Edison National Historic Site | Thomas Edison's Kinetophone, pictured here in 1913, attempted to synchronize sound with film. The synchronization was achieved by connecting the projector with the phonograph with a pulley system. Although Edison produced 19 talking pictures in 1913, the kinetophone system proved to difficult to operate precisely and didn't catch on. |
At first, sound was mainly used just to provide music to otherwise silent pictures. Soon, however, filmmakers tried out more sophisticated applications. Fox, eager to compete with Warner Brothers, developed a similar process called Movietone and employed it in newsreel shorts accompanied by synchronized narration, called Fox-Movietone News. These news updates, which allowed audiences to hear such historical events as Lindbergh's plane taking off, proved hugely popular, and spurred Warner Brothers to produce a feature film with sound.
In April 1927, Warners built the first sound studio and began shooting The Jazz Singer. Conceived as a silent picture, The Jazz Singer included a few sequences in which star Al Jolson not only sang but ad-libbed some dialogue, and the result was sensational. According to David A. Cook, "the effect was not so much of hearing Jolson speak as of overhearing him speak," and audiences thrilled to the intimacy of the new device. Sound swept the industry, and Warners' profits escalated from about $2 million in 1928 to $14 million the following year.
 | | American Film Institute | | The 1927 film The Jazz Singer is considered by many to be the first "talkie," and featured several sequences with Al Jolson singing and speaking. | |  | | American Film Institute | | Al Jolson is best known for his role in The Jazz Singer where audiences were able to hear Jolson sing and speak, including the famous line, "You ain't heard nothin' yet." | |
Although the studios chiefs balked at the expense of full-scale conversion to sound, by the end of the decade, Vitaphone's popularity could not be ignored. On May 11, 1928, eager to avoid a patent war, Paramount, Loew's, First National and United Artists signed agreements with Western Electric to standardize a sound system. In response, weekly movie ticket sales shot up from 60 million in 1927 to 90 million in 1930.
In spite of its obvious monetary windfall, sound caused myriad artistic, technical and commercial problems in its first few years of existence. Bulky equipment made it difficult for the camera to move freely, and cuts within a scene became rare once again. Actors, shouting to ensure that they could be heard by a single microphone hidden in a prop, were often reduced to deliberate, static performances. In addition, the newly necessary spoken dialogue was awkward, conveying either too much or too little and not yet well adapted to the needs of cinema narrative. As depicted in 1952's Singin' in the Rain, the movies turned to the stage for help, hiring diction coaches, theater actors and playwrights to smooth the transition.
Color
Adding to the confusion was another important technological advance, that of color. Although tinting, hand-painting and other primitive forms of color had been experimented with, none had proved particularly realistic. The Technicolor Corporation formed in 1915 and immediately developed a two-strip color process that was used sporadically. The Gulf Between, the first two-color Technicolor production, was produced in 1917. This system, however, proved too cumbersome to earn widespread approval, as did Cinecolor's competing two-color process.
By 1932, Technicolor perfected a three-color process that used two prints as a medium to transfer dyes to a third print, a system that produced richer, more uniform hues. The film Becky Sharp, released in 1935 by Pioneer Pictures, served as the first feature example of the process, and its clear, vibrant color dazzled audiences and filmmakers alike. Despite necessitating special makeup, cameramen, consultants and processing, Technicolor maintained a monopoly on color systems for 20 years.
A whole new world
Just as the addition of sound and color to film engendered new genres to take advantage of the technologies, the economic demands of the Great Depression also precipitated new attractions to lure the poverty-stricken public to part with their quarters. Although the Depression initially had less of an effect on movies than on most industries (because customers remained eager for escapism and entertainment), by 1933 admissions had noticeably decreased. Studios were quick to respond with reorganizations, layoffs, mass theater closings and requests for government aid, as well as with special attractions to lure in reluctant patrons. For instance, two-for-one features became popular, as did gambling games and contests held between screenings. By 1935, profits swelled once again, and by 1938, approximately 65 percent of the American population saw a movie each week.
In accordance with the desire for distraction, moviemakers initially provided their audience with lighthearted comedies, sophisticated romances and musicals; realistic gangster and journalistic films that reflected the days' values; and inexpensive revues and series. The earliest "talkies" were actually "singies," musical sketches that displayed not only the ability of sound recording but also the supposed talents of the studio's roster of stars, many of whom were forced to sing and dance regardless of their aptitude.
The genre of social realism flourished during the Depression because of its economical production costs, its reliance on clever, tough dialogue and its expression of the era's focus on gritty honesty. Films in the genre varied from James Cagney's gangster flicks to prison dramas and numerous screenplays based on reporters tracking down criminals. Warner Brothers is commonly considered the chief producer of this cycle of films, typified by Mervyn LeRoy's Little Caesar and William Wellman's The Public Enemy.
The Hays Office grows teeth
This wave of more complex, often rougher depictions aroused the notice--and wrath--of more conservative society, especially in the religious community. In 1934, the Roman Catholic Church introduced an organization designed to oversee and rate movies to determine if they were morally acceptable, called the Legion of Decency. Fearful of government censorship, the Hays Office tightened its self-regulating methodology by creating the Production Code Administration (PCA). The code put forth a series of conservative, cautious and repressive rules under which films could not include sexual promiscuity, brutality, illegal or immoral lifestyles, or words such as "God," "hell," "nuts" or "louse." By denying "unacceptable" films a seal of approval, without which most theaters would not show a film, the PCA would influence the content of movies for over 20 years to come and presage our modern film rating system.
Conclusion
Regardless of the pressures of censorship, technological hiccups or the upcoming world war, the 1930s marked the last full decade of the American studio system's reign. Although profits didn't reach their peak until 1946, two years later a massive antitrust suit, U.S. vs. Paramount, would force studios to sell off their theaters, and as a result the studio structure began to crumble. At the same time, television emerged as a competitor that enabled mass audiences to obtain their entertainment from the living room couch instead of from the theater seat.
In the 1930s, however, the movies still served as the world's paramount entertainment medium, and Hollywood remained its capital. In its first 50 years, the industry had grown from a handful of unknown businessmen to a swelling community of artists to a full-fledged mass enterprise, and yet the golden age of Hollywood film had only just begun. A handful of filmmakers had laid the foundations--commercial, artistic and narrative--that would shape the industry, and the society from which it sprang, for decades to come.
