1924 Will Hays Short and Talkie Tests. "You can turn the machine off now!"

[scotrace]

With a big nod of thanks to missjoeri via Facebook, Here's a look at cutting edge technology in the moving pictures. 3D, Sound, Widescreen...


[video=youtube;NVLK8NPol74]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVLK8NPol74&feature=player_embedded[/video]
"CHEEEZE CRISPS! CHEEEEZE CRISPS!"

 

[Bruce Wayne]

That's great! I love it!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The "wide screen" process they're talking about was Fox Grandeur, which was a system using 70mm film introduced in 1930. Only a handful of features were made in the process and were only shown in 70mm in Fox houses in New York and Los Angeles -- I think the only complete Grandeur film that survives is "The Big Trail," a western which features a very young John Wayne, and which shows up on television from time to time.

The Grandeur cameras were adapted and reused in the 1950s for CinemaScope. The only known unadapted original sold recently for $6000.

Even a ferret would call Will Hays "Ferret Face."

 

[Shangas]

Oh my god! Pictures can talk!!

...Just imagine what a mindblowing thing that was in the late 1920s...

 

[Atomic Age]

The "wide screen" process they're talking about was Fox Grandeur, which was a system using 70mm film introduced in 1930. Only a handful of features were made in the process and were only shown in 70mm in Fox houses in New York and Los Angeles -- I think the only complete Grandeur film that survives is "The Big Trail," a western which features a very young John Wayne, and which shows up on television from time to time.

The Grandeur cameras were adapted and reused in the 1950s for CinemaScope. The only known unadapted original sold recently for $6000.

Even a ferret would call Will Hays "Ferret Face."

Actually the 70mm Grandeur cameras were not converted for CinemaScope, as it was a 35mm process and required no changes to the camera other than fitting an anamorphic adapter to the front of the standard lens. Standard plain jane Mitchell BNC cameras were used to shoot the vast majority of CinemaScope films. However at least 2 of the Grandeur cameras were modified for the CinemaScope 55 process, which ultimately only ever photographed 2 films, Carousel and The King and I. As the name suggests it was a 55mm film process.

Most of the Grandeur cameras were actually sold to Michael Todd and were modified for his Todd/AO Process. They were used to photograph Cleopatra, among other films. Several of those cameras ended up being bought Doug Trumbull in the 1970's and used to photograph the visual effects for movies like Close Encounters, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Blade Runner.

Agreed about Will Hays!

Doug

 

[dhermann1]

Isn't there a clip of film from 1922 with Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake that has pretty good sound?

 

[scotrace]

That would have been a better thing to capture for the test. "I'd like some more of those (whistle) Cheese Crisps, Ferret Face!"

When Hays goes color, am I seeing correctly that it is washed over the film in swaths? The lower part of his tie is blue, the upper part matches his Ferret-like neck.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's not actual color -- it's a photoshopped simulation. Two-color Technicolor and similar processes existed and were widely used in 1930 (which is more likely the correct date of the Hays clip, since Hearst Metrotone News didn't begin until the end of 1929), but they weren't used in newsreels.

Genuine 1930 Technicolor can be seen here.

 

[ukali1066]

I love how he was reading an autocue and didn't even try to hide it

 

[dhermann1]

Actually, if you think about it, they may have been the first cue cards ever used.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Oh my god! Pictures can talk!!

...Just imagine what a mindblowing thing that was in the late 1920s...

Jack Payne and the BBC Dance Orchestra -- My Brother Makes The Noises For The Talkies (1930)

[video=youtube;fKaqvGgLPjE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKaqvGgLPjE&feature=channel_video_title[/video]