The Kinetophone: A Fact! A Reality!

In 1913, the Thomas Edison Company made talking pictures using a sound-on-cylinder system called The Kinetophone. These pioneering sound movies were shown in theatres for about a year, and featured vaudeville acts, comedy sketches, dramatic scenes and musical performances. Only 8 of the 200 Kinetophone films made survive in both film and cylinder elements, and these have now been digitally restored and synchronized by the Library of Congress, and are presented here for the first time in 105 years. The Films (all 1913): The Edison Kinetophone, Musical Blacksmiths, Nursery Favorites, The Deaf Mute, The Edison Minstrels, The Five Bachelors, The Old Guard, and Jack's Joke. Bonus: "So Amazingly Perfect They Are Really Weird" (2018), mini-documentary on the Kinetophone films' history, technology and their restoration; The Politician (1913), a Kinetophone film whose sound cylinder is still lost, presented here with a musical score by Ben Model. Region 0.