Movie Theatres - The Importance of Sound

Directional microphones were developed, which could be aimed at the actor whose voice wanted to record and not pick up so many extraneous sounds. The addition of sound also radically changed the kind of films hollywood was producing. An estimated 20 thousand american musicians lost their jobs to talking pictures. Silent comedy relied heavily on the visual humor of slapstick. When sound came in, slapstick became passe, and verbal comedy ruled the screens. Charles chaplain continued to make films into the ound era, now they had music and sound effects and even dialogue for the other characters.