Video transcript · 4 min · 332 words
Will H. Hays introduces the Vitaphone before Don Juan (1926): transcript
Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, gave this introductory speech on the night Don Juan premiered in 1926. He presents the Vitaphone as a new chapter in motion pictures and credits the companies and people who developed it.
Key points
- Hays says no story written for the screen is as dramatic as the story of the screen itself.
- He traces progress from a few seconds of a dancer's shadow 30 years earlier to the Vitaphone, which synchronizes sound with action.
- He describes the motion picture as the chief amusement of most people and an immense influence on ideas, customs and ambitions.
- He says the Vitaphone will carry symphony orchestrations to small town halls and help the art of musicians endure.
- He credits Western Electric, Bell Telephone Laboratories, Warner Brothers and Walter J. Rich, and congratulates them.
- He closes by calling service the supreme commitment of life.
Chapters
Full transcript
0:22My friends, no story ever written for the screen is as dramatic as the story of the screen itself. Tonight, we write another chapter in that story. Far indeed have we advanced from that few seconds of shadow of a serpentine dancer 30 years ago when the motion picture was born, to this public demonstration of the vitaphone, synchronizing the reproduction of sound with the reproduction of action.
1:08The future of the motion picture is as far flung as all the tomorrow. Rendering greater and still greater service as the chief amusement of the majority of all of our people and the sole amusement of millions and millions. Exercising an immeasurable influence as a living, breathing thing. on the ideas and the ideals, the customs and the costumes, the hopes and the ambitions of countless men, women, and children.
1:54In the presentation of these pictures, music plays an invaluable part. The motion picture, too, is a most potent factor in the development of a national appreciation of good music. That service will now be extended as the vitaphone shall carry symphony orchestrations to the town halls of the Hamlets. It has been said that the art of vocalist and instrumentalist is ephemeral, that he creates, but for the moment.
2:38Now, neither the artist nor his art will ever wholly die. Long experimentation and research by the Western Electric Company and the Bell Telephone Laboratories, supplemented by the efforts of Warner Brothers and Mr. Walter J. Rich, have made this great new instrument possible. and to them, and to all who have contributed to this achievement, I offer my congratulations and my best wishes.
3:16To the Warner Brothers, to whom is due credit for this, the beginning of a new era in music and motion pictures, I offer my felicitations and my sincerest appreciation. It is an occasion indeed with which the public and the motion picture industry are equally gratified. It is another great service.
3:50Service is the supreme commitment of life.
Source and licence
Recording: File:Introductory Speech By Will H. Hays (1926).webm by The Vitaphone Corporation (1926-08-26), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.