Merging audio with visual entertainment

From the beginning of cinema, experimental attempts were made to help merge audio and visual entertainment. Productions like Don Juan in 1926 featured sound effects but no dialogue. When The Jazz Singer spoke in 1927, the talking picture revolution took hold of Hollywood.

At first, movies were recorded in Vitaphone - a sound-on-disc that recorded all audio onto a phonographic record, then syncing that up with real-time projection. Then, in the 1920s, sound-on-film became the industry standard.