cinelog.org

And you thought “big sound” was a modern innovation.

 

Pictured above are two Bell Laboratories technicians, showing off one of the sixteen horned speakers that was utilized during a series stereophonic sound demonstrations held in the late 1930’s. Initially used to showcase musical performances, the technology was adapted to motion pictures for the 1937 Universal film “One Hundred Men and A Girl” and commercially introduced with Disney’s “Fantasia” (via Fantasound) in 1940. While stereo sound was quickly adopted by studios, especially for big budget musicals, theatres were somewhat slower to pick up on the technology as a standard amenity, with many chains and locations holding out until the mid 1970’s; the arrival of blockbuster films finally forcing the issue. Interestingly enough, multiplexes, despite being billed as the “modernization” of film exhibition, were often the last to convert.