Betty Boop curiosity

[Osi Osgood]

I just received a new, rare Betty Boop film for my collection, and even a nice sepia tone, on color film stock. OK, the really neat thing is that it has some of the original leader on it, which says, "A Paramount Talk-cartoon" and on the top of the frame, it states, "Track and Disk". This cartoon was released in 1931, so I am wondering if this might be referring to a transcription disk, as many films were still being released for about five years or so, to silent theaters not equipped for sound, so they could sync the disk with the film and therefore, have a "sound presentation" in they're silent theater. Your thoughts?

[Ed Gordon]

1931-32 Talkartoons: Give Us More Betty!

Small change of plans. We’ll hold off on the last Screen Songs of the season until after dealing with the Talkartoons, then find an appropriate place to drop them in. Well into the 1931-32 season, it was becoming clear that Betty Boop was the star of the Talkartoon series, I wonder how much of a surprise this was to Max and Dave. I’d like to imagine that they were not displeased. But the past was not entirely abandoned, with Koko appearing occasionally as a sidekick, and Bimbo continuing to appear semi-regularly, although also generally reduced from star to sidekick status.

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.ph...us-more-betty/

Talkartoons is a series of 42 animated cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1932.

For the Fleischer brothers, the transition to sound was relatively easy. With the new contract with Paramount Pictures, and without the burden of Red Seal Pictures and Alfred Weiss, Max Fleischer was free to experiment with new, bold ideas. First he changed the name of the Ko-Ko Song Cartunes series to Screen Songs. Although the Screen Songs were successful, Fleischer felt that it wasn't enough; Walt Disney also seemed to gain a great amount of fame through his sound cartoons as well. He decided to work with his brother, Dave on a new series of cartoons where the characters did more than just simply dance to the music of the "bouncing ball". The name for the new series was to be Talkartoons. When the idea was pitched to Paramount, they leaped at the opportunity.

The Talkartoons started out as one-shot cartoons. The first entry in the series was Noah's Lark, released on October 26, 1929. Although a Fleischer cartoon, it appeared to be patterned after the Aesop's Film Fables of Paul Terry. In it, a Farmer Al Falfa-esque Noah allows the animals of his ark to visit Luna Park. When he brings them back into the ship, the weight is so heavy that it sinks. In the end, Noah chases topless mermaids throughout the ocean waters. Lark has very few gray tones, due to employing the paper-cutout animation process utilized in the Screen Songs produced during the same time and the earlier Fleischer silent works. It also included copyright-free songs, mostly utilized from old 78-rpm's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talkartoons

[Maurice Leakey]

The Western Electric Vitaphone sound-on-disc system was introduced to cinemas around 1926.
Vitaphone - Wikipedia

But is was largely replaced by the RCA Photophone system using optical sound tracks on the film itself.
RCA Photophone - Wikipedia

Eventually, the sound on film system completely replaced the earlier sound-on-disc system. Initially, the sound on film prints could be shipped with discs to supply the cinemas who had invested in the earlier system.

[Osi Osgood]

Interestingly, Max Fleischer was one of the first to actually employ the sound on disc system, even doing his first synchronized cartoon in 1926, two years before Disney's " Steamboat Willie", though Max doesn't get credit for that.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

I forget the exact year that Vitaphone disc stopped being produced, but for contract reasons they were available for most titles up until the mid 1930’s even though disc sound was all but gone by the early 1930’s.

[Brian Fretwell]

I heard that the discs had a very limited life, not many plays before they wore out due to the high tracking weight of the pick-up arm, so I'm sure the studios were glad to get rid of them and the need to supply replacement discs.

[Mitchell Dvoskin]

Yes, Vitaphone disc had a limited number of recommended plays before the weight of the tone arm caused sufficient damage to the grooves to affect the signal to noise ratio to an unacceptable limit. The discs were 33 1/3 speed and played from the inside outward. There was an arrow etched into the record to indicate exactly where to place the needle for perfect sync.

Apparently WB felt that 20 plays were ok, Paramount felt that 40 plays were ok.

The disc from the trailer to The Singing Fool, Al Jolsen's 2nd sound film:



The disc from Reel 6 of Wheel Of Life:



Unrelated, in Auburn NY the county museum is located in the Victorian mansion that one belonged to Theodore Case, the man who invented sound on film and partnered with Fox for Movietone News, years before the RCA soundtracks. He left his estate to the county where his laboratories, workshop and soundstage buildings are located behind the house. While the laboratories/workshops/soundstage are not generally open to the public, I asked and they opened it up for me to wonder around. I knew more about what was back there than the museum personnel. Case eventually sold his interest in the joint venture to Fox outright. Unfortunately, his sound heads were located on top of the projector head and RCA's under the projector head, and since the world went with RCA Case is now all but forgotten.



Yes, I have pictures of inside the workshops and his sound stage, but they are not easily accessible at the moment.

[Osi Osgood]

What a wonderful bit of history lesson here! The unexpected is always the best

[Maurice Leakey]

Another point to add regarding playing of the sound discs.
It was recommended that the steel needles be only used once.