Word: vocafilm
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Smug Broadwayfarers learned last week that the shoguns of the show world, principally the Brothers Shubert, Albert Herman Woods, William A. Brady, Arthur Hammerstein, had bickered among themselves, had dickered with one David R. Hochreich, president of Vocafilm Corporation of America, makers of a talking picture device that theretofore had been obscured by Movietone (parade music, gunfire) and by Vitaphone (Ben Bernie, tapdancing, Frances Williams). Unofficially, the newspapers said that Hochreich and the theatre shoguns had made a deal: Hochreich to receive money, the producers the rights to his invention...
...more astute picturemen. To these wiser ones the action of the stagemen seemed a threat. The Brothers Shubert alone own, control or have easy access to more than 30 theatres in the provinces. Less powerful individually but dangerous en masse are Hammerstein, Brady, Woods, lesser lights. The Vocafilm reputedly costs less to install than does Movietone, Vitaphone. Further, cinemagnates recalled that the popularity of "talkies," particularly Vitaphone, was due largely to ability to present to audiences in Pottsville, Pa., or Missoula, Mont., stage stars who otherwise would not be heard and seen in such towns. A report that the autumn...
...salaries to be paid legitimate actors, nothing was printed. Rumor said performers would be paid flat sums for Vocafilm recording as now is done by Vitaphone, Movietone. Satisfactory terms, sufficient to prevent the stage stars being lured to the movies, surely would be arranged. Few artists, no hams, can wage private salary war against a Shubert-Hammerstein-Brady-Woods combination...
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