The speed of sound : Hollywood and the talkie revolution, 1926-1930

From acclaimed author Scott Eyman comes the fascinating story of how the transition from silent films to ‘talkies'transformed Hollywood.It was the end of an era. It was a turbulent, colorful, and altogether remarkable period, four short years in which America's most popular industry reinvented itself. Here is the epic story of the transition from silent films to talkies, that moment when movies were totally transformed and the American public cemented its love affair with Hollywood. As Scott Eyman demonstrates in his fascinating account of this exciting era, it was a time when fortunes, careers, and lives were made and lost, when the American film industry came fully into its own. In this mixture of cultural and social history that is both scholarly and vastly entertaining, Eyman dispels the myths and gives us the missing chapter in the history of Hollywood, the ribbon of dreams by which America conquered the world. For the first time ever, here is the epic story of the transition from silent films to talkies - that moment when movies were totally transformed and the American public cemented its love affair with Hollywood. In the Speed of Sound, author Scott Eyman, whose biography of filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch was hailed as "resoundingly wonderful," has created a mixture of cultural and social history that is at once both scholarly and vastly entertaining. Here is the first and last word on the missing chapter in the history of Hollywood, the ribbon of dreams by which America conquered the world. Myth has it that it happened overnight, that Al Jolson said a few words in The Jazz Singer and the talkies were born, that stars with weak or inappropriate voices either killed themselves or went into seclusion, that the movie industry simply refitted itself and went on with business. The truth, however, is more involved - not to mention sinister, colorful, and entertaining. Sound was something the industry had resisted, and it was accepted only reluctantly and only after the Warner Bros. Studio had forced the issue with its aggressive selling of The Jazz Singer. But that was 1927, and for a long time afterward there were still those filmmakers, film stars, and even some filmgoers who resisted the appealing novelty. Change, however, was inevitable, and when it came it was devastating. As Scott Eyman demonstrates in his fascinating account of this exciting era, it was a time when fortunes, careers, and lives were made and lost, when the American film industry came fully into its own, and when the American film-going public truly succumbed to Hollywood's bewitching spell.

Eyman, who won praise everywhere for Mary Pickford: America's Sweetheart and Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise gives color and depth to that time when America succumbed to Hollywood's bewitching spell in this epic story of the transition from silent films to talkies. 16 pp. of photos. 400 pp. Local author publicity. 12,500 print.

"The Speed of Sound is the epic story of the transition from silent films to talkies, a turbulent time in Hollywood history. Myth has it that it happened overnight, that Al Jolson said a few words in The Jazz Singer and the talkies were born, that stars with weak or inappropriate voices either killed themselves or went into seclusion, that the movie industry simply refitted itself and went on with business. The truth, however, is more involved--not to mention sinister, colorful, and entertaining. Certainly sound marked the end of moviemaking as its first creators had known it; their careers and those of many others who had been celebrated during Hollywood's silent era were over. But as Scott Eyman demonstrates in his fascinating account, it was also a time when the American film industry came fully into its own, and when the American film-going public truly succeumbed to Hollywood's bewitching spell"--Page 4 of cover The author of Mary America's Sweetheart provides an account of the bad and the good that happened in Hollywood after Al Jolson first opened ears in the Jazz Singer, the seminal film that led to the rise of new stars and a decline of the old ones. 12,500 first printing. The story of Hollywood's transition from the silent era to that of sound. In that period, heralded by the words of Al Jolson in "The Jazz Singer", fortunes were made and lost, and the American film industry came fully into its own.