- Photokinema
"Phono-Kinema" (some sources say "Photo-Kinema") was a
sound-on-disc system formotion pictures invented by Orlando Kellum. The system was used for a small number of short films, mostly made in 1921, of subjects such as actorFrederick Warde reading an original poem, labor leaderSamuel Gompers speaking on labor issues, JudgeBen Lindsey on the need for a separatejuvenile court system,Irvin S. Cobb reading from his works, a lecture byJames J. Davis , secretary of labor in the Harding administration, and a performance of the song "De Ducks" byAfrican American musiciansF. E. Miller andAubrey Lyles who wrote the book for the musical "Shuffle Along " (1921). "The Famous Van Eps Trio in a Bit of Jazz" (1921), filmed in Phono-Kinema, features Fred Van Eps, father of musicianGeorge Van Eps . A filmed performance by SirHarry Lauder made in Phono-Kinema is preserved at theUCLA Film and Television Archive but the disc with the sound is lost.The process was most famously used by
D. W. Griffith to record singing and sound effects sequences for his 1921 movie "Dream Street". Employing the Phonokinema system, Griffith turned what was originally asilent film into asound film , indeed the firstfeature film in which the human voice could be heard. Some prints of "Dream Street" show Griffith speaking in a brief introduction to the film. However, the sound quality was poor, and "Dream Street" was only shown with sound at the premiere engagement inNew York City . Two brief segments with sound wereRalph Graves singing, and background crowd noises during a scene showing a crap game.Phonokinema was soon overshadowed by the
Lee De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film system which premiered inNew York City on15 April 1923 . Phonofilm was itself overtaken by theVitaphone sound-on-disc system, premiered in New York with "Don Juan" on6 August 1926 , and then by othersound-on-film systems such as Fox Movietone in 1927 andRCA Photophone in 1928.In 1982, Kellum's widow donated the surviving films made with the Phonokinema process to the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
ee also
*
Vitaphone
*Phonofilm
*Movietone
*RCA Photophone
*Sound film
*sound-on-film
*List of film formats External links
* [http://www.imdb.com/List?sound-mix=Phono-Kinema&&heading=15;Phono-Kinema List of films made in Phonokinema at IMDB]
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