The Sound and Vision of De Forest
“Forgetting is the only form of forgiveness; it’s the only vengeance and the only punishment too.”-Jorge Luis Borges
Well here is a big one: 100 years ago today the first sound film was shown at the Rialto Theater in New York City by audio pioneer Lee de Forest (and his partner Theodore Case). De Forest pioneered sound amplification…vacuum tubes and oscillators that effectively allowed radio broadcasting to become a reality ushering in the Electronic Age. And on April 15, 1923…four years before The Jazz Singer debuted…de Forest hosted an evening where he showed 18 shorts using his newly patented Phonofilm process to give his audience a totally new experience: sound attached to the moving images they were looking at in the dark.
Phonofilm was a process where sound could be imprinted on the film itself. And to showcase his invention to get film companies interested in using his Phonofilm technology for all of their movies, De Forest produced shorts that ran the gambit from featuring opera divas, vaudeville performers, popular singers, ballet performances with musical accompaniments…performances from jazz/blues/broadway pioneers Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle (he also recorded Blake playing Swanee River) and showman Eddie Cantor…a fabulous recitation of Casey At Bat by DeWolf Hopper: different sound situations to give movie moguls an understanding of the width and breath of the innovation. And because of the diverse subjects displayed, the shorts shown that evening were both historic because of the sound-film innovation and because as a collection they were an incredible cultural time capsule for that era.
De Forest took the show on the road…trying to, and failing to, garner interest in his invention (although the Fleischer Brothers did use the technology on some of their early cartoons). He added shorts along the way, including a speech by President Calvin Coolidge, and routines by vaudevillians Bard & Pearl and Weber & Fields…but when the Jazz Singer was released in 1927, it was Vitaphone’s sound-on-disc technology created by Western Electric engineer E.C. Wente that was used to bring sound to commercial Hollywood films. While Western Electric started out by using De Forest’s Audion amplifier tube, ultimately their innovation featured a better sound quality than that offered by Phonofilm. Sometimes (many times?) it just does not pay to be the person who is first to the innovation party.
But nevertheless, what a night it must have been, 100 years ago, when for the first time there was a theater experience where the people on the screen talked and sang to their audience!
Shabbes!
An interesting piece digging into a murder mystery at the famed Carmel literary colony that was once a popular hang out for Jack London and others. I have seen pictures (above) taken at the colony but this piece is the first I have read anything about it. Warning: the case of the tainted marshmallows is not solved and presents an anticlimactic end to the article…but they DO solve the murder.
Top 25 Most Expensive Items Sold on Discogs in March 2023
Anyone want a punk rock record for $12,000+???? Yes, The Fix’s Vengeance is a goodie…and yes, it is the first record on the legendary indie label Touch and Go…but damn. As usual, Pink Floyd is represented with a version of Darkside of the Moon going for $5,434 (image from cover above).
Guitarist Neil Hagerty accused of cutting Denver police officer with badge
Very upset to hear about Neil Hagerty’s situation. By the look of his mugshot, and the story behind his arrest, I have to think that he has had a deep mental breakdown. For those who do not know his work, he is an underground legend, guitarist for Pussy Galore, co-leader of Royal Trux and the leader of my favorite of his projects, The Howling Hex. I LOVE his 2003 record/Howling Hex debut. The kids met him when my friends Anne Cook and Jeremy Solterbeck filmed him for their fab Pressure Drop TV enterprise. Kaya even spoke to him about his daughter (who is of a similar age) and soccer. Wishing the police officers injured a speedy recovery and for Neil to get the help he needs.
The Flood Behind Bessie Smith’s “Back-Water Blues”
Happy Birthday to Bessie Smith, one of the early queens of the blues. To celebrate, here is a great recent piece of investigative journalism by Ashawnta Jackson….
Warner Bros music executive's collection could fetch $120m during New York's May auctions
I was lucky enough to visit Mo’s house once and see his art collection. He had a fab. Mark Tansey, René Magritte, Cy Twombly, Jean-Michel Basquiat…his taste in painting was as fantastic as his taste in music.
Dissident artist Ai Weiwei recreated a Monet masterpiece entirely in Lego
OH YEAH…..
After A Death
By: Tomas Tranströmer
Once there was a shock
that left behind a long, shimmering comet tail.
It keeps us inside. It makes the TV pictures snowy.
It settles in cold drops on the telephone wires.
One can still go slowly on skis in the winter sun
through brush where a few leaves hang on.
They resemble pages torn from old telephone directories.
Names swallowed by the cold.
It is still beautiful to hear the heart beat
but often the shadow seems more real than the body.
The samurai looks insignificant
beside his armor of black dragon scales.
“--Why are we fighting them?
--They're mad. We're sane.
--How do we know?
--That we're sane?
--Yes.
--Am I sane?
--To all appearances.
--And you, do you consider yourself sane?
--I do.
--Well, there you have it.
--But don't they also consider themselves sane?
--I think they know. Deep down. That they're not sane.
--How must that make them feel?
--Terrible, I should think. They must fight ever more fiercely, in order to deny what they know to be true. That they are not sane.”
― Donald Barthelme