Word: sound
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...this week. An unemployment crisis, now acute, started in 1926 when Warner Bros., as licensee of Western Electric Co., introduced to Manhattan audiences the Vitaphone. In 1927, Fox Film Corp. gave its first public demonstration of Movietone. Today, approximately 2,000 theatres throughout the land have been wired for sound picture showing...
...cinema patrons the "talkies" are only a new form of amusement. But to the American Federation of Musicians they are an unprecedented affliction. Since the introduction of sound films, it is estimated that 35,000 musicians have been thrown out of work. As current contracts expire this number will grow fast. In some places, not even current contracts are saving the musicians...
Last week in San Francisco a lawsuit was pending under which the local union sought to compel various motion picture theatres which have installed sound equipment to employ members of the musicians' union, under a contract entered into last year with Allied Amusement Industries...
Another typical case is that of the Strand Theatre, Akron. The Strand's musicians must remain in the pit six hours on Sunday, three hours on week days, although they only play for 15 minutes per day since the installation of a sound apparatus. If they leave, their contract is broken...
...constitute a theatre orchestra according to the size and type of the house. The cost of maintaining even so small an ensemble as 15 men at the average wage of $60 per week is $46,800 a year, exclusive of a conductor. The cost of installing a sound apparatus, according to the latest figures from Radio Corp. of America, is from $13,500 to $15,500 for a house seating 2,500 to 3,500; $9.000 for a theatre with a capacity of 750 to 1,250. Even plus the price of operation, the savings to theatre owners are obvious...