Vitaphone 80th Anniversary Program on TCM

On August 6, 1926, a rather ostentatious audience filed into the new flagship Warner Bros. Theatre on Broadway, having paid a steep $10 and more per seat. The exhaustive ballyhoo appeared to cynics as much noise about another abortive gimmick; the more impartial may have detected something different in the tone of the event, since the likes of Mischa Elman and Giovanni Martinelli were not normally associated with cheap stunts. Neither was Will Hays, and his presence indicated as much as anything that the occasion might be exceptional. And so it was, to the extent that Vitaphone's opening night marks the true beginning of the sound era.

Richard Barrios, A Song In The Dark The Birth Of The Musical Film









TCM will celebrate the 80th anniversary of this event on July 2, 2006, with an airing of the Vitaphone shorts that originally premiered on the August 6, 1926 program

12:15 AM Don Juan (1926) In this silent film, the legendary lover fights to survive intrigue in the court of the Borgias. Cast: John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Warner Oland. Dir: Alan Crosland. BW-167 mins, TV-G

WILL HAYS-INTRO TO VITAPHONE (1926) BW-4 mins,

OVERTURE: TANNHAUSER (1926) BW-10 mins,

MISCHA ELMAN: HUMORESQUE (1926) BW-0 mins,

ROY SMECK: HIS PASTIMES (1926) BW-8 mins,

MARION TALLEY: CARO NOME (1926) BW-7 mins,

ZIMBALIST AND BAUER: KREUTZER SONATA (1926) BW-9 mins,

GIOVANNI MARTINELLI: VESTI LA GIUBBA (1926) BW-4 mins,

ANNA CASE: LA FIESTA (1926) BW-10 mins,

3:15 AM Better 'Ole, The (1926) In this silent film, friends face misadventures during World War I Cast: Sydney Chaplin, Doris Hill, Harold Goodwin. Dir: Charles Reisner. BW-95 mins, TV-PG