Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894)

The earliest extant sound film. 'William K.L. Dickson' (qv) stands in the background next to a huge sound pickup horn connected to a 'Thomas Edison' (qv) phonograph recorder. As he plays a violin, two men dance in the foreground. This film was made to demonstrate a new 'Thomas Edison' (qv) machine, the Kinetophone. These machines were Kinetoscope peepshow viewers mated with 'Thomas Edison' (qv) wax cylinder phonographs. But the Kinetophone never caught on and this film was never released. The film still exists, but the phonograph soundtrack has been lost.