The Warners, during the summer of 1925 would erect a new sound stage at the old Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn where they would soon embark on producing a series of synchronized shorts. In April the following year, the company established the Vitaphone Corporation, to lease Western Electric's sound system along with the rights to sub-license. Sam Warner began to plan the launching program for Vitaphone, his expenditure of some $3 million in it is hardly consistent with the concept of a bankrupt studio.
The culmination of fiery activity came on August 6,1926 with the inspired Vitaphone premier of Don Juan - the first film that came replete with a synchronized score. And what it was - was that the musical accompaniment and not the art of the talking picture that was so appealing to the film moguls. The supporting program consisted of a series of decidedly elegant musical shorts, preceded by a ponderously filmed speech of introduction by the president of the MPPA - Will H. Hays.
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| Vitaphone nee Flatbush Studio, Brooklyn, New York 1926. |
The first Vitaphone program amply justified Warners' faith and investment - it would run in New York for nearly two years - and henceforth the brothers were staunchly committed to sound. They announced that all their future productions would be provided with Vitaphone accompaniments and began the process of equipping major cinemas throughout the country for sound. On October 6,1926, Warners presented a second Vitaphone program with Sydney Chaplin in The Better 'Ole and some new short films of vaudeville material in striking contrast to the prestige shorts shown at the Vitaphone premiere two months earlier.
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| Sydney Chaplin (Charlier's older brother) potty training in The Big 'Ole (1926) |