Mechanical Music Digest  Archives
You Are Not Logged In Login/Get New Account
Please Log In. Accounts are free!
Logged In users are granted additional features including a more current version of the Archives and a simplified process for submitting articles.
Home Archives Calendar Gallery Store Links Info
MMD > Archives > May 2001 > 2001.05.10 > 03Prev  Next


Mechanical Music at the Silent Movies
By Mark Kinsler

I don't know how much this has to do with mechanical music, but I don't
know where else to ask.  I'm reading a splendid book: "The Perfect
Machine," by Ronald Florence.  It's a comprehensive history of the
building of the Mount Palomar telescope.  This was a _long_ project,
started in 1928.  Along the way, there were certain nationwide economic
instabilities, to wit, the Great Depression, which seriously dulled
the public's appetite for nifty new scientific and technological
innovations.  By way of illustration, the author points out that,
"The economic critic Stuart Chase told the Women's City Club of New
York that the advent of "talkies" had thrown ten thousand movie house
technicians out of work."

I understand that the people who played pianos and/or organs for the
musical accompaniment of silent movies would clearly have lost their
jobs with the introduction of sound in motion pictures, but I don't
think that musicians would have been considered "technicians" at that
time.  Would a movie theater chain have maintained a corps of piano
or organ technicians to maintain their instruments (which seems
reasonable) or am I missing some other aspect of silent movies here?

Were automatic musical instruments used to accompany silent movies?
If so, was any sort of synchronization implemented?

Mark Kinsler


(Message sent Thu 10 May 2001, 12:49:54 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Mechanical, Movies, Music, Silent

Home    Archives    Calendar    Gallery    Store    Links    Info   


Enter text below to search the MMD Website with Google



CONTACT FORM: Click HERE to write to the editor, or to post a message about Mechanical Musical Instruments to the MMD

Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are those of the individual authors and may not represent those of the editors. Compilation copyright 1995-2024 by Jody Kravitz.

Please read our Republication Policy before copying information from or creating links to this web site.

Click HERE to contact the webmaster regarding problems with the website.

Please support publication of the MMD by donating online

Please Support Publication of the MMD with your Generous Donation

Pay via PayPal

No PayPal account required

                                     
Translate This Page