The decision to add Movietone and Vitaphone to the product lines of Fox and Warners in 1927 was viewed as a curio (like color and stereoscopy) which might boost a program. Synchronized sound could also save money for theaters by replacing presentation acts and orchestras with "electrical" facsimiles. Winfield Sheehan and Harry Warner expected these short films to succeed in small towns but not necessarily in big cities, where the simulacra would compete with the real thing. An audience's first exposure to a sound film might have been in one of four forms in 1927: a synchronized musical score added to a feature; a talking short, with music and patter recorded by opera, vaudeville, and radio personalities; the synch sound newsreel; or sound prevue trailers. The idea of a normal feature film with spoken dialogue was considered a possibility but not taken seriously. Thomas Edison, though out of touch with the industry, spoke a common prejudice:
No, I don't think the talking moving picture will ever be successful in the
United States. Americans prefer silent drama. They are accustomed to the
moving picture as it is and they will never get enthusiastic over any voices
being mingled in.
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