Photokinema

Photo-Kinema (some sources say Phono-Kinema) was a sound-on-disc system for motion pictures invented by Orlando Kellum.

1921 Introduction

The system was used for a small number of short films, mostly made in 1921, of subjects such as actor Frederick Warde reading an original poem, labor leader Samuel Gompers speaking on labor issues, Judge Ben Lindsey on the need for a separate juvenile court system, Irvin S. Cobb reading from his works, a lecture by James J. Davis, secretary of labor in the Harding administration, and a performance of the song "De Ducks" by African American musicians F. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles who wrote the book for the musical Shuffle Along (1921). The Famous Van Eps Trio in a Bit of Jazz (1921), filmed in Phono-Kinema, features Fred Van Eps, father of musician George Van Eps. A filmed performance by Sir Harry Lauder made in Phono-Kinema is preserved at the UCLA Film and Television Archive but the disc with the sound is lost.

D. W. Griffith and Dream Street

The process was most famously used by D. W. Griffith to record singing and sound effects sequences for his movie Dream Street (1921). Employing the Phonokinema system, Griffith turned what was originally a silent film into a sound film. Earlier crude sound-on-disc systems had been invented 1894-1914 by Thomas Edison (Kinetophone, Kinetophonograph), Gaumont, and Pathe in France, and a few British systems. However, except for these few early films, Dream Street was the first feature film in which the human voice could be heard. Some prints of Dream Street show Griffith speaking in a brief introduction to the film. However, the sound quality was poor, and Dream Street was only shown with sound at the premiere engagement in New York City. Two brief segments with sound were Ralph Graves singing, and background crowd noises during a scene showing a crap game.

Phonokinema Overshadowed by Other Systems

Phonokinema was soon overshadowed by the Lee De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film system which premiered in New York City on 15 April 1923. Phonofilm was itself overtaken by the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, premiered in New York with Don Juan on 6 August 1926, and by other sound-on-film systems such as Fox Movietone in 1927 and RCA Photophone in 1928.

According to Internet Movie Database, two low-budget Westerns released in 1930, Sagebrush Politics and The Apache Kid's Escape, the latter film with Western star Jack Perrin, were the last two films released in the Phonokinema system.

In 1982, Kellum's widow donated the surviving films made with the Phonokinema process to the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

See Also

• Vitaphone
• Phonofilm
• Movietone
• RCA Photophone
• Kinetophone
• Kinetophonograph
• Sound film
• sound-on-film
• List of film formats

External Links

• List of films made in Phonokinema at IMDB
• List of Early Sound Films 1894-1929 at Silent Era website