On 6 August 1926, Warner Bros. premiered its production of Don Juan in New York. The swashbuckling vehicle for popular matinee idol John Barrymore, who stars as the titular lothario, was the first full-length feature film to include a synchronised music and effects track (but no dialogue) using the Vitaphone soundon- disc system. The premiere screening was preceded by a colourful programme of short subjects designed to showcase the Vitaphone system, including this precious document of the famous Italian operatic tenor Giovanni Martinelli (1885-1969) in his heyday. Just over a year later, Warner Bros. released the seminal The Jazz Singer (1927), and when star Al Jolson was heard to utter the words “you ain’t heard nothin’ yet”, the “talkies” had arrived, and silent films were a thing of the past… or were they? As with all popular film history myths, the reality was far more complicated, and the sound film “revolution” didn’t happen overnight… as we shall see in the coming years.

Oliver Hanley