96 Years Ago
The June 20, 1929 Colorado Transcript announced that the Gem Theatre was installing equipment that would allow them to show “Talkies.” The first movie with sound would be shown on Friday June 21st: The Donovan Affair.
The article explained that, in addition to the work of installing the “talking equipment,” the theater manager had to work on the acoustics of the theater. He installed 600 yards of draperies on the walls to deaden sound and do away with echoes. He was still working to overcome spots in the theater where the sound didn’t carry. The theater planned to continue offering a special low price on Thursday evenings, with silent movies costing 10-25 cents and talkies costing 15-30 cents, “which is considerably lower than most theaters which are running the high class of pictures shown at the Gem.”
The following week’s Transcript reported that Golden movie fans greeted their first Talkie enthusiastically, and that the acoustics were perfect!
I had hoped to provide a link to the movie, so we could all recreate that magical Golden “first Talkie” experience, but the only print I could find online lacked the dialog. With a little more research, I learned that the soundtrack had been lost, so now only the video portion of the film is left.
