Talking Pictures and the Public
The old road has been electrified and it is not, paradoxically, as easy to travel as it was when steam was the rule. With the dawn really coming up like thunder and with ham and eggs sizzling on the Transvox screen of the Roxy, the press agent has his troubles. He is asked,—and the answer must be ready,—“Was that really Rin-Tin-Tin that barked?” He coins names like “talkies”, “audible cinema” and “non-sinks”, and he does not always pick the term that is most descriptive. He must decide whether to publicize the fact that those swords didn't clash in the reconstructed palace of Louis but that Hugo Reisenfeld's musicians tapped some teacups with spoons inside the Trinity Baptist Church in Camden, N. J. He must take the blame for making audiences conscious of mechanical contrivances while they are seeing and hearing productions that aim to achieve an emotional effect; it is undoubtedly true that in the magnificent job of publicizing sound devices publicity departments went beyond the life lines and planted the whirling discs and the tiny sound tracks in the mind's eye of every moviegoer.
- Print ISSN
- 0096-6460
- Published
- 1929-05
- Content type
- Original Research
- DOI
- 10.5594/J10209