Tag: first sound film in toronto

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Talkies redux: The arrival of sound films in Toronto

Eric Veillette

With the surprising success of The Artist, a modern-day silent film dealing with the downfall of an actor at the on-set of the sound revolution, here are a few articles published here over the last few years dealing with the talkie transition in Toronto. Talkies the talk of Toronto! For the first time in the entirety of a feature film, they could hear the creaking of the stairs, the ghostly wind and the voices of all the characters. “Even the credits were spoken,” said the Daily Star. Other sound films had already played at the Tivoli, mostly Vitaphone shorts and … Continue reading Talkies redux: The arrival of sound films in Toronto

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You’re fired: Silent film musicians & the talkie revolution

Eric Veillette

To coincide with our upcoming Silent Sundays screening of Eisenstein’s pro-labour Strike on May 1, we examine how the arrival of sound pictures affected the livelihood of silent film musicians. The successful commercialization of synchronized sound films in the late 1920s was arguably the medium’s most important technological achievement since its invention. But often neglected is how the costly conversion to sound systematically put thousands of silent film musicians out of work. In Toronto, sound films first arrived at the Tivoli, at Richmond and Victoria Sts., when the Fox Movietone film Street Angel premiered on October 5, 1928. As Luigi … Continue reading You’re fired: Silent film musicians & the talkie revolution