First Sound Film?
When was the first sound film made? The Warner Bros. studio began experimenting with its Vitaphone technology in 1925. This technology used a mechanical system to lock the projected film to a phonograph turntable. The synchronized audio worked well most of the time, but could be thrown out of sync if everything didn’t go perfectly. It improved enough within two years for the part-sound, part-silent The Jazz Singer (1927) to become a popular hit. Later, the accompanying sound track was incorporated onto the film itself.
The very first attempts at synchronizing sound with film reach almost as far back as the invention of film. Thomas Edison’s assistant, W.K. Laurie Dickenson, produced an experimental sound film in 1884 using Edison’s “kinetophone” process, which attempted to link a Kinetoscope movie projector with Edison’s phonograph player. The film shows two men dancing to the accompaniment of a violinist. As far as we know, it was never shown outside the Edison movie studio.
Trivia