The Dickson Experimental Sound Film

[@bergermichael1988]

Man, I miss the days when MTV only played music.

[@nachtmahrsmusic1590]

+Fox Fine Those were glorious days that have been long forgotten.

[@Dicker296]

Epic days, indeed

[@0_oEverKind]

Have you been alive during these times?

[@CutieRingoJoy]

Same

[@CutieRingoJoy]

I don’t know why it’s still called mtv cause it’s called music television but it’s not even music anymore in that channel

[@weewaa13]

All early films are beautiful and mysterious and creepy to me. I get chills, sometimes tears in my eyes, I don’t know why

[@brunette2235]

This scares me a lot and I don't know why, but it really does

[@chrish.4686]

Well, the WeeWaa13, the people in the movie are in graves now, so yes, it's sad and humbling. Life is fleeting.

[@Zombie81212]

If you get creeped out by stuff like this you should watch little Judy Garland’s first performance in the Big Revue. Look up “Gumm sisters big revue” and it’ll show up

[@superpokemonbros.9441]

Yo same

[@Domino13334]

i am watching a 124 years old Video on a 4K TV

[@ricarleite]

Even their grandchildren are dead by now.

[@2idiot2animate28]

@@ricarleite Could be... if they had And if they had Could be alive on this day

[@TheAndromeda24]

Makes you feel kind of like an alien, no?😁😁👽👽

[@roshinparameswaran4817]

The beauty of the internet

[@frisco21]

Joking aside, this also is perhaps the first motion picture of two men dancing.

[@arfansthename]

haha

[@atomlightstone]

At the time it was common for men to dance and it didn't mean they were gay

[@jyetherington9438]

Henry Herreman just shows how far toxic masculinity has grown since then :3

[@efenty6235]

@@jyetherington9438 if saw your pussyboy face i wouldn't care about the two years in the mental hospital and i wouldn't be crying about it in a bathroom like a bitch either libtard

[@Deadwhacks62]

@@efenty6235 your proving his point

[@frankprovasek5394]

You can't say "this experiment failed because they didn't understand synchronization of sound and film." They certainly understood it, and the experiment didn't "fail" as it proved the concept of sound pictures. But there was no way to do anything with it at the time. Duplicate movie prints could be easily made at the time, but wax cylinder recordings had to be made one at a time. To make a film with the image and sound recorded at the same time, a new movie would have to filmed with each wax cylinder -- which would wear out after about 12 playings. And the sound from a cylinder phonograph could be heard by a few people in a room at home, not in a theater.. It took some 30 years for the vacuum tube amplifier, microphone, loudspeaker, and photocell - where sound could be turned into light, making an optical soundtrack, which during projection the light is turned back into sound. Or the Vitaphone system by Warner Bros which used flat phonograph records which could be stamped out in duplicate, and the turntable and film projector linked to a single electric motor -- before sound films could be shown in a theatre.

[@johngillespie3994]

Thanks...you answered my question that I asked why it took so long to perfect movies with sound or talkies.

[@Lucius1958]

Edison did revisit the Kinetophone project years later, around 1912: he used a softer, more sensitive wax blank, and a recording horn that was off camera. The cylinder recordings were then pressed in celluloid for durability; and a mechanical amplifying system devised by Daniel Higham was used for playback in theaters. A signaling system was set up between the projectionist and the phonograph operator, to ensure proper synchronization. Some of these films can be found here on YT: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIKoeqCwZ7Vreck

[@bobshitburger5496]

In case you people didnt know, male on male dancing was common at the time, amd no one saw anything strange in it

[@jyetherington9438]

bob shitburger oh how far society has grown with toxic masculinity and all :3

[@greenwar2468]

@@jyetherington9438 what ?

[@2idiot2animate28]

@BladeCast i did educate myself blade...

[@manchiststechnicolourarchi5606]

@@jyetherington9438 can you like go over to the trans/gay meme videos and leave alone here, to just enjoy an old video? christ.

[@jyetherington9438]

@@manchiststechnicolourarchi5606 no :)

[@CHAS1422]

World's first music video? Awesome! 119 years ago. Just a drop in the bucket of time.

[@zachsingh1]

127 years ago

[@see_less_haze]

@@zachsingh1 128 years ago

[@v5hr1ke]

129 years ago

[@CHAS1422]

I first heard this song in 1976 and they stuck in my mind, "Time keeps on ticking into the future", from 'Fly Like an Eagle' the Steve Miller Band. I can't believe its been 10 years since I made that comment.@@v5hr1ke

[@Jax_00f]

130 years ago

[@Zizumia]

Amazing how you can repair something that has been broken for over 100 years.

[@baldmessi123]

You still alive man

[@kencharles1136]

​@baldmessi123 I'm curious too. Saw another comment that was 14 years old .

[@yesibot.2051]

@@kencharles1136 And I’m barely watching this. I was watching Mexican films from the golden era and wondered how all this came about 🤔

[@christinahamilton7676]

Lyrics: (Are the rest of you ready? Go ahead.) **violin noises**

[@binglebongled1ngledangle]

At 1:09 you can see one of the men laughing. It’s such a crazy thing to see, you almost never see that in such old footage.

[@davids8449]

Yes funny thing I was looking at that myself....... Hopefully they would be too old to take part in WW1

[@Kennephone]

@@davids8449 they would have been, they look like they're in their 30s (although is hard to tell for sure), which means they would be in their 50s when wwi started, and the average life expectancy was about 50, and yes, I know it's skewed by infant mortality and extreme poverty, but even then, it was lower for everyone due to lack of modern medicine, so they probably would have been too old.

[@TheSeriousPain]

How primitive we were back then... *Looking at comments. And how primitive many of us still are.

[@secundusytp4517]

We were so primitive back then we had 100 member philharmonic symphonies and empires that spanned the entire globe. Now we have Lil Pump and bomb thousands of innocents to get a tiny piece of land in the Middle East. How primitive indeed.

[@manchiststechnicolourarchi5606]

@BladeCast what tech? some screens, that engulf entire peoples lives, cause huge mental health problems, suicide rates etc? the tech that powers the endless advancement of killing and war in the world? The tech that is making us focus on some distance desert planet instead of fixing our own? Grow up.

[@joramtorres2511]

this aged perfectly

[@w.a.a.]

A cinema landmark! The first instance of a sound film, showing the concept existed at its infancy. The idea even predated Edison - he got it from Muybridge in 1888. Thank you!

[@RRaquello]

The guy who sneaks on at the end didn't think anyone would see him, but 127 years later he's still being caught.

[@Mbiggz]

Still sounds better than a kid's mic on Xbox live

[@darthzach]

The male romance was way more edgy and daring than it was in Brokeback Mountain, simply given the period. The way that they dance, the expression in their faces, they know that their love was not meant to be.

[@Frankblueeyes]

Hahaha!

[@1370802]

I am 13 years late to this comment, but here I go. You may be right, but it may also just be two straight guys. At the time, many people believed homosexuality wasn’t real, therefore men were not afraid of being perceived as homosexual. There are photographs of the time period of men sitting on other men’s laps, men hugging eachother from behind, etc.

[@nineinchthread]

​@@1370802shame how men feel afraid to now

[@bobcurry5784]

It was strictly a male world then where males dominated. Men formed male fraternities, smoked cigars together, bonded tightly together, had portraits made together. They were not uptight about being perceived as gay as men today are. Had there been a lady present the day they made this film she would have likely danced with a man. As it was there was not a woman present so two of Edison's assistants agreed to dance together to get the film made. It was just an 'experiment,' anyway, never intended for public release.

[@madcat789]

The plot: Man plays Violin The Subplot: The secret sexual tension between two heterosexual males.

[@rickuache9682]

this just made my whole night lols

[@madcat789]

@@rickuache9682 I am the Night.

[@PrDrAbbud]

In the early 20ties of XXth century, it was often dancing in same-sex couples. Yes, I agree with you: the plot is the violin playing, subplot is a dance with two-men couple. This is not gay couple at all.

[@madcat789]

@@PrDrAbbud Look buddy it was a joke I made seven years ago. It just flew right over your head.

[@madcat789]

@DavidProductions Neat. Don't care but neat. Good luck to you Mr. Production man, and a Merry Christmas.

[@mrprotheroe4981]

And history changed for ever

[@thechuckjosechannel.2702]

The song played by the violinist is from an operetta by Robert planquette.

[@Jeff-gi6dh]

Remarkable! What a lot of work went into this brief film!

[@JayZx777]

Can you believe it? We are watching some people who probably died at least 80 years ago.

[@davidschultz1562]

And were probably born about 150 years ago.

[@botmexicanpatriot]

@@davidschultz1562 And by that time, there could be probably people that were born in 1700

[@2idiot2animate28]

@@botmexicanpatriot In very late The 18th century

[@nullname0]

If they were 19 years old when this was recorded, and then lived to the 110s they would of died in the early 1980s, so at least died 30 years ago

[@scronch_]

@@nullname0 very bold estimate

[@marioarias1899]

I love the fact that it's a "sound film" yet Edison was like: Nah that's not enough. Put two dudes dancing together, holding each other tightly.

[@SkylerBaird]

Absolutely stunning! For being the first try I cannot believe the quality of the video or sound.

[@forgottenauthors1604]

I didn't expect to hear "Les cloches de Corneville" by Planquette in such an old recording! Very interesting! Thank you!

[@SA-gt8lx]

Even this youtube video is very old.

[@Kennephone]

The cylinder sounds remarkably good for 1895, probably cause it wasn't played more than a few times back then, and when it was restored, it was probably played on a lighter weight electrical, or maybe even laser pickup. I like how they had the recording horn and violinist in shot, probably so they could better sychronize the start of the sound with the start of the film.

[@tremorsfan]

127 years ago somebody's voice was caught asking if everybody was ready.

[@pikariocraftf2802]

Found out about this in a game called "West of Loathing" where a guy mentions "Woah you haven't seen the new Dickson's experimental sound film yet? its amazing!" >"Whats it about?" "Well there's two guys dancing and a third guy plays violin into this HUGE cone.. and you can actually HEAR the violin! its great! and then eventually a fourth guy walks in." >"And what does he do?" "Nothing, thats where it ends" >"Sounds pretty avant-garde"

[@quantumleap359]

The clip ended before Dick Clark asked the two dancers how they rated the song. They allegedly remarked, "It had a good beat and was easy to dance to".

[@jennalee5967]

a shame the technology didnt catch on at the time. We could of had recorded sound video of historical events/famous figures from the 1890s-early 1900s

[@JeanPierre-s1r]

Imagine video footage from the medieval era... It would've been awesome to see.

[@alainrheault6579]

The first version of Brokeback Mountains !! for sure 😉 But about the competences of violonist (Mister Dickson)....🤣🤣🤣

[@TadeodeWiesent7]

Grabación de audio realizada en "Fritangas Records" ("Deep Fry Records"). ¡Maravilloso! 👍👍👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🌷🌷🌷🌻🌻🌻🌹🌹🌹💐💐💐

[@yaboimaxwell9031]

Men dancing were not uncommon then. But gosh, they really are bad at it.

[@AB-bt9eb]

I saw on a documentary that this was supposed to be two men dancing in a documentary that was intentionally supposed to be about homosexuality.

[@ericd7709]

+dalekman tardis ??? Looks pretty good to me, given the music has a standing start and no beat - the fiddler isn't great at rhythm and the camera is hand-cranked. Since you are an expert, can you name the dance - seems to be a 1-2-3-tap, but it's not bachata ! Symmetrical embrace might imply it's not a lead-and-follow dance ?

[@yaboimaxwell9031]

I'm not saying I'm an expert, it just looks like they would fall over any moment.

[@DannyCD]

You idiots, it's so blatantly obvious that they are on a really small stage (probably made for the camera shot) and they're trying not to fall off it. This was an experimental film so they didn't take it as seriously. At least that's my theory on it.

[@ОльгаБ-ш2э]

​@@ericd7709 This dance is a waltz, of course.

[@skunktheshrink]

Thank you for sharing this.

[@alainrheault6579]

Thanks you Mister Dickson and Mister Edison for this sharing !!! This little film demonstrates we was not so differents between our great great parents with us !!! Do you know this first sounded film (1894) is contemporary of the debuts of Charles Chaplin, in a London music hall ?? At 5 years !!! 😉

[@Pro-Deo]

0:58 guy says "More time" 1:02 guy says "What are you lookin for" Would have been cool if he had recorded but just stayed quiet. He might have been able to hear the voices that always and can only come through on audio from one of the other realms..

[@SPEGAN777]

so so great! what a treasure - thanks for posting!

[@Pepperroni_McRoni]

The perfect Mtv music video

[@themrproamateur]

Gotta say, pretty impressive FPS for being so old

[@triple7marc]

Same FPS as we use today, although soon after this was filmed Edison and Dickson reverted back to less FPS as they were much cheaper to produce.

[@jasonfenton8250]

@@triple7marc I thought it was that we switched cameras. This and other Edison experiments were shot with an electric powered camera in his studio dubbed "the black mariah" while Lumiere and others used more mobile, but slower, hand cranked caneras.

[@itsoldandidontlikeit]

I am extremely late, but the clicking sound was due to the cylinder (basically the microphone) being broken. You can see so in a slide midway through the video that says this. It was fixed at 1:46 (or it at least sounds much better).

[@kencharles1136]

Not really that late. Your comment is 6 years old

[@mr.dikkens]

only 10.000 views for something so insightfull. It's a shame not manny people realize how amazing film and sound are, and how far we are now.

[@kencharles1136]

It's at quarter of a million views now.

[@Josh-le6lu]

Wow! that's pretty clear for such an old film!

[@hayn10]

beautiful

[@mszeppelin95]

The greatest love story ever recorded.

[@atomlightstone]

At the time men dancing together were common and it didn't mean they were like mods

[@antonk78]

Всё они прекрасно понимали в синхронизации. Они смотрели наперёд - главное записать, а синхронизировать можно и потом.

[@cellytron]

0:58 for the speech

[@uranrising]

Brilliant work,especially getting rid of the clicks. The music is "from the light opera The Chimes of Normandy by Jean Robert Planquette" apparently. Could hear all the words, right from "What happened to......" I wonder how they decided on what to record, both senses? The words are legible but they didn't exactly make it easy.

[@martybarz]

Pure cinema. No bs.

[@shimmerajakazoid8472]

They must've been so happy when it worked

[@EmmetEarwax]

Yes, it was providential that the broken cylinder was preserved. Both motion pictures AND phonographs were in their infancy. Trying to synchronize sound & picture was a trrying process. Watch "Singing in the Rain" for a hilarious story of the business, the part on trying to film "Dueling Cavaliers"

[@kencharles1136]

Whoa, this comment is 12 years old 😳

[@georgeklavins1175]

world's first GIF with sound - better quality than most I've seen lately

[@AnthonyAvery]

I love the dancing !

[@SatchmoSings]

@fatcatbeauty You're absolutely correct; we can all handily see how it is rotating, getting all the sound down!

[@AemiliaJacobus]

This is Disney's idea of gay representation.

[@drav1dan]

It is ... it is ... the movie, "Ye Olde Brokebacke Mountaine"!

[@TylerMcNamer]

This deserves a remix!

[@alexqatsi]

actually, it would have been a variable frame rate, as cameras at the time were generally hand cranked. thereby, the speed of the operator's cranking would dictate the frame rate, slowing and speeding up. according to wikipedia, walter murch calculated the average frame rate to be about 40 fps, yet at a running time of 17 seconds it seems to be closer to an average of 37.5 fps.

[@No-oneInParticular]

This is ace :) Very interesting.

[@_John_Tyree_]

Did these subjects have any idea that they were making profound history and that it would still be seen in the year 2018...?

[@kencharles1136]

Now its 2024

[@doddsino]

Two thumbs from me, definately better than any of the garbage Ang Lee has made.

[@clairedesanmateo]

Mans been playing 40 hrs everyday

[@GTAtrailerOfficial]

vevo's first video

[@cyyxc]

Very nice!

[@dubutora-7806]

ITS SO CREEPY SIR . . . .😢

[@anameillneverremember]

Man how did you get the sound but the library of Congress video has no sound

[@efenty6235]

that beat is kinda lit doe

[@lindajgaeta8935]

OH MY! READY FOR MTV!

[@kornol]

@najl33zz421 i agree that the first sentence must be "what happened to bessie?" although the 'b' sounds distorted and therefore one can make up 'w' out of it. but the next sentence sounds more like: "is the rest of you IN HERE" or "is the rest of you in IT"

[@davids8449]

Much better then today's pop so called music

[@Kennephone]

Unironically true

[@jamil1356]

dudes rock

[@aMarinedaughter]

I like the format that you used for this presentation very much!. Isn't it amazing that sound motion pictures were not developed,or wanted by the public, until 40 years later? I don't believe this is a "gay movie". Straight men and women used to touch people of the same sex and that included dancing with the same sex when there wasn't anyone else of the opposite sex to dance with. People didn't have TV or internet to entertain them and singing and dancing were a common past time.

[@eternalmayhem1789]

Pretty amazing stuff. Thanks for the up, belowline.

[@TheMusicalStylingsofBrentBunn]

Art in motion.

[@drav1dan]

It is the movie, "Ye Olde Brokebacke Mountaine"!

[@LuvvyDuck]

I love this stuff.

[@janskorpil8831]

Super

[@SatchmoSings]

Edison tried to do "sound on set" which, with a wax cylinder would have been virtually impossible; it didn't occur to him or Dickson to just film the scene and then created the sound to the photographed picture as was done HERE in about 1914: watch?v=a7cF0nw5S-g Easily amplified with the Victor Auxetophone (no electronics involved) this could have been a real reality.

[@giri.goyo_yt]

Love this. Cheers, belowline.

[@Nostalgico80]

I wanna see it on MTV, now XD !

[@Kornspel]

Thank you for sharing this.

[@hiranpinel9898]

muito bom, histórico... mesmo aí coube uma boa ideia...

[@edema1921]

are they... you know??

[@Rasupubegasu]

Dang it has been 130 years.

[@rweerakkody4565]

good show really good show edison was s o brainy thanks to that present to him that animation toy. then eh bore the idea of recording motion. perfect simply wondeful.

[@ThEDarKMasterBlack]

I Have Nightmares With This Song, :( Excuse Me, My English Is Not Good, But i Speak Spañish (Im Venezuelan xD) Thanks Of Lot For This Video, Is A Diamond Of The History

[@rayvega3163]

Woo! At least it as the recording so I can hear it.

[@yasu3japan]

1:03 right before the video starts, I can hear the iPhone video "pop" sound...

[@billsykes2977]

Yasu Toshi It is iphone-9.It eas very popular in that time.

[@FVDaudio]

Thanks !!

[@BOK602]

Where can one hear the full three-minute audio recording?

[@jacknkeziah1686]

Who remembers this?

[@megagamingteen]

When i showed my mom this she said why are there two men dancing together

[@iheardasong6335]

That violin playing sounds like the windmill from once upon a time in the west

[@fatcatbeauty]

how do you know that cone shaped thing on the left isnt the wax cylinder?

[@gettosee1]

wow amazing!

[@mr10tomidnight]

So thats why they call the 1890's the gay nineties.

[@marcusatiusvirilis7723]

lol

[@alainrheault6579]

You're right to said that !!!

[@2idiot2animate28]

Men dancing was common back then, and it wasnt homosexuality so... But i liked that joke tho man!!

[@ezhash7493]

I believe the clicking was from the shoes

[@davids8449]

I wonder if that was the complete film as a chap seems to be entering from the left

[@foryoutube7504]

Seems like the sound was recorded seperate, and pasted together with the footage

[@smurfthumper]

This is where I fish for upvotes by posting "Still a better love story than Twilight."

[@atomlightstone]

Male dancers were common back then and it didn't guarantee they were mods

[@pilargomezcrego6900]

Para una primera grabación sonora filmaron dos hombres bailando ... el verdadero espíritu masculino.

[@SarimFaruque]

_Top Ten K-pop Dancers_