William K.L. Dickson plays the violin while two men dance. This is the oldest surviving sound film where sound is recorded on the phonograph.
Mme. Bob Walter performs the serpentine dance.
The famous Parisian chanteuse in the rag-time cakewalk 'Hello, Ma Baby,' with which she made such a sensation at the New York Theatre.
Woman sings.
A turn-of-the-last-century hand-tinted short, which features two women, Miss Lally and Miss Julyett, dancing at a ball. By the legendary French filmmaker Alice Guy.
A dancer personifying Winter, dances in the snow.
A band-leader has arranged seven chairs for the members of his band. When he sits down in the first chair, a cymbal player appears in the same chair, then rises and sits in the next chair. As the cymbal player sits down, a drummer appears in the second chair, and then likewise moves on to the third chair. In this way, an entire band is soon formed, and is then ready to perform.
The leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.
Alice Guy experiment with visuals and sound by Félix Mayol.
Felix Mayol performs Théodore Botrel's 'Lilas-blanc'.
Félix Mayol performs The Trottins Polka (La Polka des Trottins, by A. Trebitsch and H. Christine) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Mayol, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.
Felix Mayol performs a song, in colour.
Dranem performs "Five O'Clock Tea" for Alice Guy.
Armand Dranem performs The True Jiu-Jitsu ("Le Vrai Jiu-Jitsu", by P. Briollet & G. Fabri / C. D'Orviet) in this phonoscene by Alice Guy. This early form of music video was created using a chronophone recording of Dranem, who was then filmed "lip singing". Guy would film phonoscenes of all three major Belle Époque celebrities in France: Polin, Félix Mayol, and Dranem.
Polin performs a song.
An early example of trying to mix film with sound.
A crazy, rude musician gets some supernatural comeuppance.
Modern Americans think that the movies learned to talk in 1927 when Al Jolson opened his mouth in THE JAZZ SINGER, but sound pictures had a much longer history. Edison envisaged combining the phonograph with motion pictures even before they had been perfected and there is a test sequence from 1895. By the time this 'phonoscene' had been made, Alice Guy had been directing a series of them and there was a series in production in Germany, too. Yet true synchronization remained a problem, what with records wearing out and film breaking until the perfection of sound on film itself.