The Sound Behind Silent Film

[Revised] Silent films have well, always had sound, but until talkies were adopted by the five major studios in the late Twenties, it was simply never synchronized on screen. Sound was conveyed outside the production itself. The earliest theaters hired a local pianist or guitarist looking to make a quick buck to add as a sort of audio narration- making up tunes to match the tones of scenes, creating sound effects, and so on and so forth.

By the early teens, theaters, esp. those in wealthy suburban and highly trafficked urban areas, began to purchase massive organs called "Mighty Wurlitzers" (created by Rudolph Wurlitzer) which featured many different sound effects and musical melodies to compensate for the lack of an orchestra. Eventually, "epic" films such as Ben Hur and the Birth of a Nation featured actual scores, composed and shipped to the specific theater upon release. Local musicians thrived during the teens and roaring 20s, but, when the Depression hit in the late 20s, it destroyed live music in cinema. Most theaters, those that were still open, anyways, couldn't afford to pay any longer, not to mention, by 1931, nearly 80% of all films released by Hollywood studios had synchronized sound.

Music has always played a part in film history, but one of the most common misconceptions about silent films is that they never had sound to go along with it, and that silent films were barely watchable as a result. Hopefully, I've provided some insight, and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.