''Finding His Voice'' (1929) is a

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

created as an instructional film on how the

Western Electric Western Electric Co., Inc. was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that operated from 1869 to 1996. A subsidiary of the AT&T Corporation for most of its lifespan, Western Electric was the primary manufacturer, supplier, ...

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 s ...

recording system worked. Recording stars Billy Murray and Walter Scanlan, uncredited, provide the speaking and singing voices. Murray also provided the voice for the

Fleischer Studios Fleischer Studios () was an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures in 1942, the parent company and the distri ...

character

Bimbo ''Bimbo'' is slang for a conventionally attractive, sexualized naive woman. The term was originally used in the United States as early as 1919 for an unintelligent or brutish man. As of the early 21st century, the "stereotypical bimbo" appea ...

Plot

A live-action hand draws a strip of (sound) film, which takes the form of a human head and uses musical notes to form a body. Then, he sings notes that create a xylophone. Then, he performs a short solo until another piece of film (silent) jumps on him. The talking strip yells, "Hey, Mute! What's the big idea, ruining my act?" The silent piece uses

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...

, with subtitles above, asking him about his voice's origin. He talks about a man named "Dr. Western" that gave him "a set of vocal cords", saying he needs to see him, too. Conceding The Betty They go to his office, with "

Talkie A sound film is a motion picture with 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 decades passed befo ...

" telling him to put "'Mutie' through the 'works.'" They go on a filming set, where Talkie sings "

Love's Old Sweet Song "Love's Old Sweet Song" is a Victorian parlour song published in 1884 by composer James Lynam Molloy and lyricist Graham Clifton Bingham. The first line of the chorus is "Just a song at twilight", and its title is sometimes misidentified as such ...

." Then, Dr. Western explains every step of the Western Electric process of sound recording, and Mutie finally earns his voice as Talkie is performing his song. He jumps onto the stage and disrupts his solo. He asks him to calm down, and they perform " Goodnight, Ladies" as they sail on a boat, with the awkward ending of a

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

eating the boat and an advertisement for Western Electric.

Production background

Late in 1926,

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

and

created a licensing division, Electrical Research Products Inc. (ERPI), to handle the company's film-related audio technology rights. (In ''Finding His Voice'', the credits give W. E. Erpi as the story's author.) The

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

sound-on-disc system

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 Pictures, First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone is the last major analog sound-on-disc sys ...

still had legal exclusivity, but having lapsed in its royalty payments, effective control of the rights was in ERPI's hands. On December 31, 1926—just four months after the premiere of the first Vitaphone feature ''

Don Juan Don Juan (), also known as Don Giovanni ( Italian), is a legendary fictional Spanish libertine who devotes his life to seducing women. The original version of the story of Don Juan appears in the 1630 play (''The Trickster of Seville and t ...

''—Warners granted

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

Case Case or CASE may refer to: Instances * Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design * Special case, an instance that differs in a certain way from others of the type Containers * Case (goods), a package of relate ...

a sublicense for using the Western Electric system. In exchange for the sublicense, Warners and ERPI received a share of Fox's related revenues. The patents of all three concerns were cross-licensed.Gomery (2005), pp. 42, 50. See als
Motion Picture Sound 1910–1929
, perhaps the best online source for details on these developments though here it fails to note that Fox's original deal for the Western Electric technology involved a sublicensing arrangement. Superior recording and amplification technology were now available to two Hollywood studios, pursuing two very different methods of sound reproduction. Although the film explained the Fox-Case sound-on-film system, when the film was initially released, the sound was provided by the Western Electric sound-on-disc system. Co-director F. Lyle Goldman had done the animation for ''Wireless Telephony'' (1921) and ''The Mystery Box'' (1922) for the Bray Studios and released by

Goldwyn Pictures Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company that operated from 1916 to 1924 when it was merged with two other production companies to form the major studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was founded on November 19, ...

, and ''The Ear'' (1920) for

International Film Service International Film Service (IFS) was an American animation studio created to exploit the popularity of the comic strips controlled by William Randolph Hearst. Despite their similar names "Hearst News" IFS, California, is not related to "Internati ...

and released by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

References

Bibliography

* Douglas Gomery, ''The Coming of Sound: A History'' (New York and Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2005) {{ISBN, 0-415-96900-X

External links

''Finding His Voice'' at IMDB

''Finding His Voice'' available for download at Internet Archive

''Finding His Voice'' at the AT&T Tech Channel Archive
1929 films 1920s English-language films Fleischer Studios short films 1929 short films Films about filmmaking American black-and-white films 1920s American films English-language short films

Plot

Production background

See also

References

Bibliography

External links