Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894)

The sound has been found in the form of an old Edisonian recording cylinder. The cylinder was repaired, then Walter Murch ACE MPSE synced the film to the correct music in (I believe) 2002. Total running time is approximately 17 seconds.

Stars:

William K.L. Dickson

1 win.

Cast

Uncredited cast:
William K.L. Dickson	...	Violinist (uncredited)

Storyline

The earliest extant sound film. William K.L. Dickson stands in the background next to a huge sound pickup horn connected to a Thomas Edison phonograph recorder. As he plays a violin, two men dance in the foreground. This film was made to demonstrate a new Thomas Edison machine, the Kinetophone. These machines were Kinetoscope peepshow viewers mated with Thomas Edison wax cylinder phonographs. But the Kinetophone never caught on and this film was never released. The film still exists, but the phonograph soundtrack has been lost.

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Plot Keywords:

recording | violin | dancing | man dancing with man | early sound | 

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Genres:

Short

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Also Known As:

Dickson kísérleti hangosfilmje

Company Credits

Production Co:

Edison Manufacturing Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

0 min 0 min (2003 release)

Sound Mix:

Kinetophone

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The synchronized sound version was restored in 2000 by Walter Murch, Rick Schmidlin, Industrial Light and Magic, and Skywalker Sound which is a division of Lucas Digital, Ltd., LLC (a George Lucas company) in collaboration with the Library of Congress and the Edison National Historic Site.

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Quotes

Man: Are the rest of you ready? Go ahead!

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Connections

Featured in Hugo (2011)

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Soundtracks

"The Chimes of Normandy"
(1877) (uncredited)
(Originally called "Les cloches de Corneville (The Bells of Corneville)"
Written by Robert Planquette
Small section played on violin by William K.L. Dickson

User Reviews

Missing sound has been discovered

The Library of Congress has discovered the missing sound-track for this film, which was at the Edison National Historical Site all along. It was a cylinder, broken in half, labelled "WKL Dickson Violin with Kineto" and it has recently been repaired, transcribed, and put in synch with the image. This short film now takes its place as the oldest existing sound film. Before the image starts, you can just hear someone saying "Are the rest of you ready? Go ahead!"