Sing-along-a Silents! Sound before the Talkies variety show

All sorts of chronophones, vivaphones, phonofilms and ornamental sounds feature in this variety pack of early sound films, made before the arrival of the talkies. Hosted by Bryony Dixon, BFI National Archive curator.

  • Total running time 90min

  • With recorded and live accompaniment by Stephen Horne

The component parts of what we call film now speak to each other seamlessly through digits. But for the first century or so of cinema, all sorts of mechanical, electrical, photochemical and musical solutions were needed to bring sound and picture together. Before the transition to synchronised picture and sound, which was largely complete by the early 1930s, filmmakers experimented with a multitude of weird and wonderful devices, in both commercial and artistic spheres. This cheery, all-celluloid variety programme brings you some fascinating surviving sound-picture and ‘visual sound’ combinations, as well as a ‘show-and-tell’ demonstration of some technological artifacts from the archive. Stars on the bill include Little Tich, Teddy Brown and his vibes, Leslie Sarony, Billy Mayerl and Gwen Farrar, Oscar Fischinger, and the master of the under-engineered device, Heath Robinson.

Bryony Dixon