Cinema Audio Society to Host Art of Sound Salon at 52nd Awards

The Cinema Audio Society will host an exhibition and demonstration of early sound devices at the upcoming CAS Awards on February 20 at the historic Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

"It is with great pleasure that we are able to bring to our awards event the only surviving Edison Kinetophone circa 1894," said CAS President Mark Ulano, "this was the first serious commercial product that represented the merging of film and sound. Additionally there will be the rare demonstration of an original Bergmann edition of an Edison tinfoil phonograph." Ulano continued, "We are extremely grateful to The Antique Phonograph Society for generously making this exhibition possible. These special devices reconnect our community with the early history of our art form and we are delighted to share this with our attendees as well as the broader community of sound professionals and media".

The Kinetophone was an early attempt by Edison and Dickson to create a sound-film system. It was a Kinetoscope whose modified cabinet included an accompanying cylinder phonograph. There was no attempt at synchronization. The viewer listened through tubes to a phonograph concealed in the cabinet and performing approximately appropriate music or other sound.

Even as Edison followed his dream of securing the popularity of the Kinetoscope by adding sound to its allure, many in the field were beginning to suspect that film projection was the next step that should be pursued. When Norman Raff communicated his customers' interest in such a system to Edison, the great inventor summarily rejected the notion. "No, if we make this screen machine that you are asking for, it will spoil everything. We are making these peep show machines and selling a lot of them at a good profit. If we put out a screen machine there will be a use for maybe about ten of them in the whole United States. With that many SCREEN MACHINES you could show the pictures to everybody in the country-and then it would be done. Let's not kill the goose that lays the golden egg."

The exhibition and demonstration will open at 4:00 PM in the Biltmore Business Center and will remain open thru the cocktail hour until dinner begins at 6:30 PM. You do not need to be attending the CAS Awards to view this one-of-a-kind exhibition.

The Antique Phonograph Society provides outreach to communities, collectors and those interested in learning more about the history of recorded sound and the means to listen to it. The APS engages in and shares original research, in both published form and at collector events. They are a public charity that relies upon tax-deductible donations to continue to provide services and research in this important area of sound and film history.

The 52nd CAS Awards dinner will honor Doc Kane with the CAS Career Achievement Award and Jay Roach with the CAS Filmmaker Award. During the dinner the CAS will also honor Outstanding Achievements in Sound Mixing in six categories: Motion Pictures, Animated Motion Pictures, Television Movies and Mini- Series, Television Series-One Hour, Television Series-Half Hour, Television-Non-Fiction, Variety or Music Series or Specials. The winners of the CAS Technical Achievement Awards for Production and Post-Production will also be announced at the dinner as will the winner of the CAS Student Recognition Award.

The Cinema Audio Society, a philanthropic, non-profit organization, was formed in 1964 for the purpose of sharing information with Sound Professionals in the Motion Picture and Television Industry.

On the evening of the Awards the Cinema Audio Society website will be updated in real time as the winners are announced. http://www.cinemaaudiosociety.org/

To post a comment, you must register and login.