The Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894) FULL VIDEO

 

The Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894)

Director: William K.L. Dickson

Cast: William K.L. Dickson 

Release Date: August 31, 1894

Country of Origin: USA

The phonograph soundtrack to the oldest sound movie still in existence has been lost. William K.L. Dickson is shown in the backdrop, standing next to a massive sound pickup horn that is attached to a Thomas Edison phonograph recorder.

The first sound film ever made. In the background, William K.L. Dickson is positioned next to a massive sound pickup horn that is attached to a Thomas Edison phonograph recorder. Two men are dancing in the foreground while he plays the violin. This movie was created to showcase the Kinetophone, a new device invented by Thomas Edison. These devices were Thomas Edison wax cylinder phonographs linked with Kinetoscope peepshow viewers. However, this movie was never released, and the Kinetophone never gained popularity. The phonograph music has been lost, but the movie is still in existence.

Dickson plays a violin into a recording horn for an off-camera wax cylinder in the movie. The melody comes from the barcarolle "Song of the Cabin Boy" from Robert Planquette's 1877 light opera Les Cloches de Corneville (literally, The Bells of Corneville; performed in English-speaking nations as The Chimes of Normandy). Two men are dancing to the music in front of Dickson. A fourth man briefly moves from left to right behind the horn in the closing seconds. The restored movie lasts for seventeen seconds, and the audio is included on the accompanying cylinder, which has about two minutes of sound, including twenty-three seconds of violin music.

William Dickson created the Dickson Experimental Sound Film in late 1894 or early 1895. It appears to be the first motion picture produced using the Kinetophone, the early sound-film technology created by Dickson and Thomas Edison, and it is the earliest known film with live-recorded sound. (The film was made in Edison's "Black Maria" film studio in New Jersey.) The Kinetophone, which consisted of a Kinetoscope and a cylinder-playing phonograph, was not a real sound-film system because there was no attempt to synchronize picture and sound throughout playback. It has never been shown in its original version, according to the evidence.

The Dickson Experimental Sound Film was considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and was suggested for preservation when it was added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 2003.

The Museum of Modern Art purchased a soundless 35mm nitrate print of the film, which was reportedly exactly forty feet long, and converted it to safety film in 1942. The Edison Laboratory was given to the United States by Thomas A. Edison, Incorporated. National Park Service in 1956. When a wax cylinder in a metal canister marked "Dickson—Violin by W.K.L. Dixon with Kineto" was discovered in the Edison laboratory's music room in the early 1960s, the soundtrack was inventoried at the Edison National Historic Site. When researchers opened the canister in 1964, they discovered that the cylinder was split in two. That same year, all of the nitrate film materials that were still at the facility were taken to the Library of Congress for conservation. A print identified as Dickson Violin by the Library of Congress was one of the filmstrips. The cinema and television curator at the library, Patrick Loughney, describes this print as "thirty-nine feet and fourteen frames [two frames short of 40 feet]."

The Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894) is recognized for several pioneering firsts in cinematic history: 

First Known Film with Live-Recorded Sound: It is the earliest surviving motion picture recorded with a soundtrack simultaneously.

Earliest Synchronous Sound Experiment: It was the first film created for the Kinetophone, a prototype sound-film system that attempted to synchronize a Kinetoscope (viewer) with a cylinder-playing phonograph.

Oldest Surviving Music Video: Because it features W.K.L. Dickson playing a violin specifically for the camera while others dance, it is frequently cited as the first "music video" or movie musical.

First Depiction of Same-Sex Dancing: The film captures two men waltzing together, which has led film historians to categorize it as the first instance of "gay" or homoerotic imagery on film, though researchers note this was likely due to the all-male environment of Edison's laboratory.

Cultural Preservation: In 2003, it was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". 

The film remains a critical artifact for researchers, representing the first major attempt to link the recording and motion picture industries.