The Golden Age of Indianapolis Theaters

13. Sound Moves in with a Vengeance

13 SoundMovesin withaVengeance Sound movies made their first appearance in Indianapolis at the Circle nearly fourteen months before anybody else in the area tried it. It was highly publicized, of course, with advertisements proclaiming that “Vitaphone [a device installed on the theater’s stage that played recorded discs] will thrill Indianapolis.” The process had been introduced nationally just a few months earlier, and Indianapolis was one of only a few cities utilizing it. First National film studios had become a part of the Vitaphone owner, Warner Brothers, by this time. What the Circle audience saw that first day (March 6, 1927) were short film segments. The first one contained remarks about the significance of the moment from the president of the Motion Picture Distributors and Producers of America. The spokesman was Hoosier Will Hays. Indianapolis Star reviewer Vilas Boyle observed: “The voice is clear and easily understandable with each syllable perfectly enunciated.” Three musical film segments followed. First there was Ray Smeck, playing selections on guitar, ukulele, and banjo. Next came Metropolitan Opera tenor Giovanni Martinelli, singing an aria from I Pagliacci. The third and last segment was “black face singing comedian” Al Jolson with three popular songs, accompanied by “his well known mannerisms.” The reviewer concluded that these presentations “are enough to convince even the most skeptical that the Vitaphone marks a huge jump forward for the motion picture industry.” The Circle was not ready yet to drastically alter its traditional format. The feature that historic week was a humorous silent film, McFadden’s Flats, with music 127 provided by the concert orchestra. The following week, organist Dessa Byrd was back with her customary appearance. These early Vitaphone film shorts, which in subsequent weeks would feature the popular Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians , Vincent Lopez and his orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra , were temporarily shelved after three months to make room for the popular summer orchestra syncopation season onstage. During the summer of 1927, the Circle booked visiting orchestras every week. The concert orchestra took a summer hiatus, and the organ supplied music for the silent film features. Musical groups included Isham Jones and his Brunswick recording orchestra, Ted Lewis and his merry musical clowns, and Waring’s Pennsylvanians. Surprisingly, Vitaphone sound segments were not listed again until late October. The winter season (1927–28) combined the traditional with the new element. Features were still silent and were teamed again with the concert orchestra. Stage shows continued, frequently with local talent, along with organ solos by Dessa Byrd and at least one Vitaphone presentation. In February 1928, the Circle added another first to its list. It offered the public a feature film with partial sound. The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, played one week with the concert orchestra still in use. The feature contained four talking and singing sequences. Audiences were impressed, and six showings a day were offered. The theater still was the only one in Indianapolis with sound film capacity at this time. That competitive edge was about to disappear, however, thanks to the Apollo. Fred Dolle and Associates of Louisville, Kentucky, took over management of the Apollo in April. Dolle closed the theater for five days for redecorating and to install not only Vitaphone but also Movietone, a competing sound system owned by Fox Film studios. Rather than the disc system provided by Vitaphone, Movietone photographed sound waves on film celluloid, a technique that would become a generally accepted sound system. The Apollo reopened with a partial talkie titled Tenderloin, starring Dolores Costello. It was a melodrama set in the criminal underworld. The theater continued booking both partial sound film features and musical segments by Vitaphone and newsreels by Movietone. In May it showed the highly publicized Jazz Singer, but it really got the public’s attention when it showed the screen’s first all-talkie movie, Lights of New York, billed as Vitaphone’s “supreme achievement.” Leslie Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion calls it “a backstage gangster drama notable for little except its continuous nasal chatter.” Certainly not everyone in Indianapolis was ready to give up on silent films. The Sanders Theater in Fountain Square promoted itself as the “home of silent pictures with no squawkies here.” Vincennes native Buck Jones, who was a leading silent star in westerns, was quoted as saying he “didn’t think talkies would [3.145.151.141] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 05:48 GMT...