DBWI: WI Talking Motion Pictures Had Been a Success?

Of course many people at the time realized the idea would be a flop, notably Thomas Edison:

"No, I don’t think the talking moving picture will ever be successful in the United States. Americans prefer silent drama. They are accustomed to the moving picture as it is and they will never get enthusiastic over any voices being mingled in. Yes, there will be a novelty to it for a little while, but the glitter will soon wear off and the movie fans will cry for silence or a little orchestra music.

"I believe the experiments will prove highly successful. I am certain that voices can be reproduced to fit in just the right place with the play on the screen, but the American people do not want it and will not welcome it. We are wasting our time in going on with the project. (Film Daily , 4 March 1927, pp. 1, 2)

http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/artic...g-the-Audience-Warner-Bros-and-Vitaphone.html

I guess they never really recovered from the complete flop of The Jazz Singer with Georgie Jessel...
 
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One, some of the most beloved and influential actors of of time don't exist. William Shatner, Jessie Ventura, and Karim Abdul Jabar would not have made it in the talkies, they speak best through their physicality. Without that very aspect being prized by producers could any of them have gotten a break? Especially Shatner, have you ever heard the man speak? He's incapable of staying anything without odd pauses and random screaming. It makes attending his book signings a very odd experience.

Two, some of the great modern composers don't come about, no John Williams and his icon villain symphony, no James Hetfield and the integration of rock, soul, and blues into orchestral scores. Really without the film industry driving it the orchestra could very well be an endangered species. There wouldn't be any money in performing Beethoven's 9th for the four hundred and fifty first time, you need new and modern scores to mix with the old classics. Without the film industry and their need for scores there isn't a driver for modern classical to stay an alive meduim, rather it would wither away in a slow death.
 
You Americans always think that simply because you diverge in a field of art and culture, so does the whole world.

'Baltunki' thrive in the Russian Empire, with Vladivostok seeing camera crews arriving on a nearly weekly basis, all looking for scenery and inspiration. I presume you've never heard the raising speeches of Oleg Vorchunov, or the soliloquies of Svetlana Kabanova? Not surprising, seeing as how you seem to actually put faith into the words of Foolish Edison, an old coot and a bigoted Unionist.

Although, it is somewhat understandable. Richmond doesn't really approve of cultural change, and the Federalists in Washington, for all their boasting of the FRA being 'a new and progressive America', aren't that much different.

If you are looking for some American baltunkies, I advise you to travel to the Imperial Melbourne Film Festival, or to the busting city of San Francisco. I believe their President, a South German immigrant by the name of Otto Schicklgruber, is a loving patron of the talking picture subculture in the cities Japanese Hill district.
 
Shouldn't this be in the ASB forum?

We go to the movies to see **moving pictures** (it's in the name), not to listen. If we wanted to listen, we'd stay at home and listen to the wireless or a gramophone.
 
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