Projecting Sounds of Modernity: The Rise of the Local ‘Talkie’ Technology in the Australian Cinema, 1924–1932

Abstract

This article analyses the distinct local responses to the coming of sound to the Australian cinema and examines the reactions to the American modernisation of the motion picture industry. The story documents how sound technology was promoted by the trade press, inventors, and the American electrical companies, each with a different agenda. The most active Australian sound systems and companies are discussed and located within the context of modernity. Film Weekly and Everyones, Australia's two major film industry trade magazines at the time, promoted the coming of sound as a technology battle—a ‘Talkie War’. Hollywood film distributors were portrayed as military victors in a ‘war’ to wire Australia with American technology. It is hoped to offer a richer and more complex understanding of the rise and development of sound technology by presenting new research on this, a largely unknown aspect of Australian film history.