A 麻豆传媒映画time travelogue brought to you by聽.
Granville Street, showing the Maple Leaf Theatre on the left.
The arrival of sound films, or 鈥渢alkies,鈥� is usually associated with the 1927 film,聽. This classic launched the rise of talking pictures and triggered the rapid decline of silent films, but it also represents the culmination of聽聽in a race to develop a commercially viable system of synchronizing recorded sound with motion pictures.
The race to bring talking pictures to the public resulted in 麻豆传媒映画having not just one, but two theatres specializing in talking pictures between 1908 and 1909. The first was the聽聽on the 800 block of Granville (on the left in the photo), which installed the聽聽system developed by Leon Gaumont in France in 1903. Chronophone included two gramophones amplified by compressed air. A deft operator was expected to seamlessly switch records while maintaining synchronization with the action on the screen.
It wasn鈥檛 a perfect system, but you鈥檇 never know聽:
The pictures of the actors on the screen not only move in pantomine, but their lips move and there appears to issue from them the words just as from the lips of a living person; thus the Chronophone accomplishes by a perfect system of electrical synchromism between the projecting and talking machines.
The Maple Leaf was one of several theatres in various cities to install the chronophone, but it was the first in Canada. The聽聽were shorts, including scenes from the French coast, singing by a popular Australian singer, and songs like 鈥淲altz Me Around Again, Willie鈥� and 鈥淩egiment of Frocks and Frills.鈥� Attendance in the opening week was apparently smaller than hoped, so the Maple Leaf 鈥渟ubstantially鈥� reduced the price of admission to ten cents.
The chronophone鈥檚 biggest competitor was the New York-based Cameraphone, which added 麻豆传媒映画as one of the urban markets testing it鈥檚 own talking picture system聽, three months after the chronophone鈥檚 debut at the Maple Leaf. On the same day, the Maple Leaf聽聽after being closed for renovations. It was now 鈥渢he prettiest place of amusement on the Pacific Coast,鈥� but the chronophone machine hadn鈥檛 yet been reinstalled after being sent off for upgrades. When it returned, the theatre聽聽that an expert would be on hand so that 鈥渢he pictures would really and actually 鈥榯alk.鈥欌�� This was the first indication that the technology was less than perfect.
There were several issues still to be worked out in talking picture technology. Consistent synchronization was perhaps the main problem. Another was that the sound quality from gramophones wasn鈥檛 yet up to the task; while gramophones聽聽for home enjoyment, the amplification needed to fill a theatre made them sound metallic and shrill. Many people seem to have聽聽by the novelty of talking pictures, but the聽聽meant it would be years before they were a commercially viable form of mass entertainment. Chronophone films at the Maple Leaf seem to have聽聽by March 1909 and on 5 July the Cameraphone Theatre at 58 West Hastings was聽,聽a regular vaudeville theatre featuring live acts and silent films.
Source: Photo of Granville Street (1920, cropped), City of 麻豆传媒映画Archives聽
