''Photo-Kinema'' (some sources say ''Phono-Kinema'') was a

sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent syste ...

system for

motion pictures A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

invented by Orlando Kellum.

1921 introduction

The system was first used for a small number of

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s, mostly made in 1921. These films presented subjects such as actor

Frederick Warde Frederick Barkham Warde (23 February 1851 – 7 February 1935) was an English Shakespearean actor who relocated to the United States in the late 19th century. Career He was born in 1851 in Wardington, Oxfordshire, the son of Thomas Ward and ...

reading an original poem "A Sunset Reverie", labor leader

Samuel Gompers Samuel Gompers (; January 27, 1850December 13, 1924) was a British-born American cigar maker, labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as the organization's ...

speaking on labor issues, Judge Ben Lindsey on the need for a separate

juvenile court A juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes that are committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern lega ...

system,

Irvin S. Cobb Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb (June 23, 1876 – March 11, 1944) was an American author, humorist, editor and columnist from Paducah, Kentucky, who relocated to New York in 1904, living there for the remainder of his life. He wrote for the ''New York Worl ...

reading from his works, and a lecture by

James J. Davis James John Davis (October 27, 1873November 22, 1947) was a Welsh-born American businessman, author and Republican Party politician in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served as U.S. Secretary of Labor and represented Pennsylvania in the United St ...

Secretary of Labor The United States Secretary of Labor is a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and as the head of the United States Department of Labor, controls the department, and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all o ...

in the Harding administration. Kellum also filmed musical numbers, including a performance of the song "De Ducks" by

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

musicians F. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles who wrote the book for the musical '' Shuffle Along'' (1921), and ''The Famous Van Eps Trio in a Bit of Jazz'' (1921), featuring Fred Van Eps, father of musician George Van Eps. A filmed performance by Sir

Harry Lauder Sir Henry Lauder (; 4 August 1870 – 26 February 1950)Russell, Dave"Lauder, Sir Henry (1870–1950)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, online edition, January 2011, accessed 27 April 2014 was a S ...

made in Phono-Kinema is preserved at the

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the a ...

but the disc with the sound is lost.

D. W. Griffith and ''Dream Street''

The process was most famously used by

D. W. Griffith David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the n ...

to record singing and sound effects sequences for his movie ''

Dream Street Dream Street were an American pop music, pop boy band that was formed in 1999 by Louis Baldonieri and Brian Lukow. The band disbanded in 2002 following a legal dispute between parents of the band members and the band's managers. History The ...

'' (1921). Employing the Phonokinema system, Griffith turned what was originally a

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

into a

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decad ...

. Earlier crude sound-on-disc and sound-on-cylinder systems had been invented 1894-1914 by

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

( Kinetophone, Kinetophonograph), Cameraphone in the US, Gaumont ( Chronomegaphone) and

Pathé Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest film equipment ...

in France, and others, but they were only used for short films. ''Dream Street'' was the first

feature-length film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

in which a frame-synchronous human voice was heard from a sound recording of any kind. 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 two theaters in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The silent version premiered on April 12, 1921 at the Central Theatre in New York City. On April 27, Griffith and

Ralph Graves Ralph Graves (born Ralph Horsburgh; January 23, 1900 – February 18, 1977) was an American screenwriter, film director and actor who appeared in more than 90 films between 1918 and 1949. Biography Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Graves had already ...

filmed and recorded their respective sound segments at Orlando Kellum's Photokinema office at 203 West 40th Street. The premiere of the sound version of ''Dream Street'' took place on May 2, 1921 at

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

in New York City with Griffith's introduction. On May 15, the film also featured two other short sound sequences — Ralph Graves singing, and background noise in a scene showing a craps game. Unfortunately, no other theaters could show the sound version of the film, since no other theaters had the Photokinema sound system installed. Scott Eyman, ''The Speed of Sound'' (1997), page 43 On Sunday, May 29, ''Dream Street'' moved to the Schubert-Crescent Theater in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in a program with Phonokinema short films. However, business was poor and the program soon closed.

Phonokinema overshadowed by other systems

Phonokinema was soon overshadowed by the

Lee De Forest Lee de Forest (August 26, 1873 – June 30, 1961) was an American inventor and a fundamentally important early pioneer in electronics. He invented the first electronic device for controlling current flow; the three-element " Audion" triode v ...

Phonofilm Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s. Introduction In 1919 and 1920, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patents on a sound-on-film proce ...

sound-on-film Sound-on-film is a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying a picture is recorded on photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog ...

system which premiered in

on 15 April 1923. Phonofilm was itself overtaken by the

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...

sound-on-disc system, premiered in New York with ''

Don Juan Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni ( Italian), is a legendary, fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, ''El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra'' ...

'' on 6 August 1926, and by other

systems such as Fox Movietone in 1927 and

RCA Photophone RCA Photophone was the trade name given to one of four major competing technologies that emerged in the American film industry in the late 1920s for synchronizing electrically recorded audio to a motion picture image. RCA Photophone was an opt ...

in 1928. According to

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

, two low-budget

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

s released in 1930, ''Sagebrush Politics'' and ''The Apache Kid's Escape'', the latter film with Western star Jack Perrin, were the last two films released in the Phonokinema system. In 1982, Kellum's widow donated the surviving films made with the Phonokinema process to the

References

{{Reflist

External links

List of films made in Phonokinema at IMDB''The Famous Van Eps Trio in a Bit of Jazz'' at IMDB
History of film Film sound production Film and video technology Motion picture film formats

1921 introduction

D. W. Griffith and ''Dream Street''

Phonokinema overshadowed by other systems

See also

References

External links