Photokinema

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

The process was most famously used by D. W. Griffith to record singing and sound effects sequences for his 1921 movie Dream Street. Employing the Phonokinema system, Griffith turned what was originally a silent film into a sound film, indeed 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 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 then by other sound-on-film systems such as Fox Movietone in 1927 and RCA Photophone in 1928.