Pallophotophone
- Thread starter pucho812
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ruffrecords
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Like!
Cheers
Ian
Cheers
Ian
pucho812
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yeah, I have been watching a lot of videos lately on recording equipment of yesteryear. There is a lot of great videos and information. 8)
That seems a little localized to General Electric and regional upstate NY history...pucho812 said:
Only at the end in passing does he mention Western Electric when the recording trails off...
My dad worked at Western Electric (1920s-30s) and he even worked at Vitaphone the first talking picture company (joint venture between Western Electric and Warner Brothers.)
In my dad's old notebooks there are strips of acetate film with modulated optical sound tracks, but as far as I know the early Vitaphone movies synchronized film to sound on big record discs.
JR
boji
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Thanks Pucho, interesting vid!
pucho812
Well-known member
JohnRoberts said:
fascinating...
Brian Roth
Well-known member
After watching the Pallophotophone video, Youtube brought this up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31VRgGV-AfM
A bit of a fluff piece about the Blattnerphone which vaguely rang a bell in my olde brain.
Dang....I thought 12" or 14" diameter reels of 2" tape (as used for multitrack audio or "quad" video recording of live shows back in the day) were big!
Bri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31VRgGV-AfM
A bit of a fluff piece about the Blattnerphone which vaguely rang a bell in my olde brain.
Dang....I thought 12" or 14" diameter reels of 2" tape (as used for multitrack audio or "quad" video recording of live shows back in the day) were big!
Bri
16” disks were common for broadcast and film before tape was used.
The earlier Scully/Westrex lathes had two lead screws. An outside to inside and an inside to outside. The sound quality of a disk changes from the outside diameter to the inside diameter. This way the A side would be cut outside in then the B side would be cut inside out.
Voice only program for broadcast would often be cut at 16 2/3 RPM on 16” disks.
The earlier Scully/Westrex lathes had two lead screws. An outside to inside and an inside to outside. The sound quality of a disk changes from the outside diameter to the inside diameter. This way the A side would be cut outside in then the B side would be cut inside out.
Voice only program for broadcast would often be cut at 16 2/3 RPM on 16” disks.
JohnRoberts said:
It's patent pool era though, I believe. WE, GE, Westinghouse, RCA, all doing post-war work together with foreign companies (Marconi mainly) locked out.
I just read 'Shadow of Sound' by E.S. Gregg who started with WE, went through ERPI, and retired as head of Westrex. Fascinating look at the upper level business side of things with real detail on the advances in sound for film. 'Don Juan' is credited as the first public showing of sound film on Aug 8, 1926, more than a year before 'The Jazz Singer'. Barely mentioned by the press. The time in between was about overcoming resistance to sound from an industry that was perfectly happy with the way the Silents were going for them.
Yes after WWI There was a lot of industry drama, perhaps a little more around broadcast than talking pictures.EmRR said:
I perceived a little upstate/down state bias... GE was founded up in Schenectady(?) while RCA, WE, and more were in NYC area and NJ (Bell).
In my fathers papers I found a 300+ page history of sound movies, "Okay for Sound" C 1946 edited by Frederick Thrasher, a NYU PHD. This book was sent to my Father by CG Stoll President of Western Electric in 1947 with a nice letter.
I just looked at the handful of my fathers organizational charts from jobs he held in the 20s... I did not find ES Gregg as an employee at ERPI while my father worked there, or an employee of Vitaphone. But these were just a few isolated snapshots from back in the 20's
I have a bunch of press materials from the Don Juan premiere including a fancy engraved(?) invitation to the movie theater premier (My dad worked for Vitaphone). I even have some newspaper write ups about the movie but those are in pretty rough shape (newspaper paper doesn't age well). Included in the press package is the old time equivalent of an 8x10 glossy of John Barrymore. It is signed, not a hand written signature but a machine printed movie star handout.
Of course my scanner just failed (12V wall wart is dead)... Attached is a smart phone photo of a post card Stan Watkins mailed to my father who was working at Muzak in 1948. Stan was one of the big dogs involved in sound for film. Apparently the camaraderie among early industry pioneers persisted for decades later.
One of my regrets is that I never got to ask my father about his life experiences. He died in the 50s when I was all of ten years old. I do recall one Saturday morning bus ride into NYC to visit the RCA recording studio where he worked before he died. I was too young to be impressed by the studio gear but I vaguely recall a life sized "nipper" statue in the lobby.
JR
