And please don't say 'The Jazz Singer'.

Yes, I think that I know the answer but I have introduced this
question for Quality Control purposes.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 29 Jun 2003 11:30 PDT

Hmmm ... are you thinking of the German 1922 movie "Der Brandstifter"?

Greetings,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by probonopublico-ga on 29 Jun 2003 12:21 PDT

Nein!

Dat ist nicht wat Ich was athingingof.

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 29 Jun 2003 14:05 PDT

"The first movie with sound was Don Juan [1926], which only had a
sound track on a separate record, but had no dialogue."

SOUND
http://www.op97.k12.il.us/LAB/akids/soundlight/his_sound.htm

The sound was produced via the introduction of "vitaphone".

ENTERTAINMENT IN THE 20'S AND 30'S
http://mail.urbanschool.org/library/Pages/grandparents/timelines/Entertainment.html

How's that as an answer?

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 29 Jun 2003 14:07 PDT

OOPS...NOTE TO ME:

"Next time read the comments before making a fool of yourself."

Sorry.

Dad

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Clarification of Question by probonopublico-ga on 29 Jun 2003 22:07 PDT

Hi, Tutuzdad

Full marks for trying.

Thanks!

Bryan

Hi Bryan,

OK, I'll bite.  I knew your reference to Sarah Bernhardt, so all I had
to do was find the film.  And it is listed on the page that I cited in
my comment, though for some reason the link came out wrong the first
time:

http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/indexes/earlySoundFilms.html

The film is Le Duel d'Hamlet, from 1900.  It was Sarah Bernhardt's
film debut, and apparently was accompanied by a cylinder with recorded
dialgoue.

"Le Duel d'Hamlet"
Silent Era
http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/D/DueldHamlet1900.html

"Moving Pictures"
The Sarah Bernhardt Pages
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~temple/Movies.htm

"Le Duel d'Hamlet"
The Sarah Bernhardt Pages
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~temple/wshn.htm

"Interesting Figures of the Ragtime Era" (Last Update 05/21/2002)
"Perfessor" Bill Edwards
http://www.perfessorbill.com/nostalgia/nstlgia0.html

- justaskscott-ga


Search terms used on Google:

"sarah bernhardt" sound film
"sarah bernhardt" hamlet 1900 dialogue

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Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 29 Jun 2003 22:47 PDT

Sorry, that should be "dialogue", not "dialgoue".  Gotta spell-check
before I post next time.

Hmmmmmm

I was actually thinking of Leslie Caron.

I've never heard of Sarah Bernhardt but, if you say so, I'll buy it!

Were there really TWO famous French actresses?

"1910 - Eugene A. Lauste was born in Paris in 1857, worked at Edison's
Orange N.J. lab 1887-1892 under W.K.L. Dickson, joined Major Woodville
Latham 1894 to develop the Eidoloscope, a wide film projector that
used the Latham loop, first exhibited publicly in May 1894 in New
York...Lauste made many sound films 1910-1914, but was halted by the
war."

"1924 - The first experimental, electrically recorded talking picture
was exhibited with success in Woolsey Hall at Yale University in New
Haven in October, 1922. The New Haven success was followed by a 1924
film called Hawthorne.  This was a film with sound-on-disc showing
Western Electric's role as the manufacturing unit of the Bell System.
It was the first industrial sound picture and was shown at the Hotel
Astor in New York at a dinner given by C. G. DuBois, then president of
Western Electric, to 250 Bell System officials. By 1924, many people
thought sound motion pictures should be commercialized."

"1926 - Warner moved the Vitaphone studio to the old Manhattan Opera
House in NYC (would move to Hollywood 1927/07). Production began on
the first Vitaphone short May 24, The Volga Boatman. the music for Don
Juan was recorded by the New York Philharmonic in June for the film's
premier Aug. 6. E.C. Wente brought the last equipment needed at the
end of July: loudspeakers that were installed in the Warner Theatre
orchestra pit only 2 weeks before the August premier. "On August 6,
1926, the glitter of Broadway was intensified by illuminated
billboards announcing the premiere of the world's first commercial
movie with sound."

See the entire timeline at
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/motionpicture1.html - you
didn't specify "film" just "talkie"

Best regards,
journalist-ga

The one that I have in mind starred a VERY famous actor/actress.

"...on August 6th, 1926, Western Electric and Bell Labs in
collaboration with Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., and the Vitaphone
Corp. showed the world's first successful commercial sound picture,
Don Juan, featuring John Barrymore, at the Warners' Theater in New
York."

From same timeline as above.  Is that the actor to which you are
referring?

Just to muddle matters more, it's possible that the first talkie was
Opera Martha from 1898.  If it's not that, then it might be one of
several French films from 1900.

"Early Sound Films of the Silent Era" (Updated 30 November 2002)
Silent Era
http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/indexes/earlysoundfilms.html

Amazing how the "easy" questions are sometimes the hardest ones!

P.S.: Don Juan from 1926 had music and sound effects, but no talking. 
Perhaps the same is true of Opera Martha, but we may never know.

You are getting warm!

French it was.

And, before the event, Oscar Wilde called the great actress in question 'Divine'.

CLUE: She later finished up with only one leg.