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1926 Films
The following is an overview of 1926 in film, including significant events, a list of films released, and notable births and deaths. Top-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1926 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events *February – The oldest surviving animated feature film is released in the Weimar Republic, directed by Lotte Reiniger. It is called '' The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' (''Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed''). *August 5 – Warner Brothers debuts the first Vitaphone film, '' Don Juan''. The Vitaphone system uses multiple rpm gramophone records developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and Western Electric to play back music and sound effects synchronized with film. *August 23 – Rudolph Valentino, whose film '' The Son of the Sheik'' was currently playing, dies at the age of 31 in New York. Riots occur at the funeral parlor as thousands of people try to see his body. *October 7 – Warner Brothers release the second Vitapho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Better 'Ole (1926 Film)
''The Better 'Ole'' is a 1926 American synchronized sound World War I comedy drama film. Released by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., this film is the second full-length film to utilize the Vitaphone sound-on-disc process, two months after the first Vitaphone feature ''Don Juan (1926 film), Don Juan''; with no audible dialogue, the film does have a synchronized musical score and sound effects. This film was also the second onscreen adaptation of the 1917 Edwardian musical comedy, musical ''The Better 'Ole'' by Bruce Bairnsfather and Arthur Elliot. Charlie Chaplin's eldest brother Sydney Chaplin played the main lead as Old Bill (comics), Old Bill in perhaps his best-known film today. This film is also believed by many to have the first spoken word of dialog, ''"coffee"'', although there are those who disagree. At one point during the film, Harold Goodwin (American actor), Harold Goodwin's character whispers a word to Sydney Chaplin which is also faintly heard. This was discovered by t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battleship Potemkin
'' Battleship Potemkin'' (, ), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent epic film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship ''Potemkin'' rebelled against their officers. In 1958, the film was voted on Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. ''Battleship Potemkin'' is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. In the most recent ''Sight and Sound'' critics' poll in 2022, it was voted the fifty-fourth-greatest film of all time, and it had been placed in the top 10 in many previous editions. Plot The film is set in June 1905; the protagonists of the film are the members of the crew of the ''Potemkin'', a battleship of the Imperial Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet. Eisenstein divided the plot into five acts, each with its own title: Act I: Men and Maggots The scene begins with two sailors, Matyushenko and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sydney Chaplin
Sydney John Chaplin (; 16 March 1885 – 16 April 1965) was an English actor. Chaplin was the elder half-brother of actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin and in later life, served as his business manager. Through their mother Hannah, they were older half-brothers to the younger Wheeler Dryden, who grew up separately with his father in England and was not told about his half-brothers until 1915. Dryden later immigrated to the United States, joining the Chaplins in Hollywood. Sydney Chaplin was also a half-uncle of actor Sydney Chaplin (1926–2009), who was named after him. Early life Sydney John Hill was born in London to the unmarried 19-year-old Hannah Hill, who was a music hall entertainer. She claimed the boy's father was Sydney Hawkes, but his father's identity was never verified. Hannah was of Romanichal heritage. A year later, his mother married Charles Chaplin Sr., and the latter became his legal guardian. Sydney's surname was changed to Chaplin. Hannah and Charl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudolph Valentino
Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor who starred in several well-known silent films including ''The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921 film), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'', ''The Sheik (film), The Sheik'' (both 1921), ''Blood and Sand (1922 film), Blood and Sand'' (1922), ''The Eagle (1925 film), The Eagle'' (1925), and ''The Son of the Sheik'' (1926). Valentino was a sex symbol of the 1920s, known in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood as the "Latin lover, Latin Lover" (a title invented for him by Hollywood moguls), the "Great Lover", or simply Valentino. His early death at the age of 31 caused mass hysteria among his fans, further cementing his place in early cinematic history as a cultural film icon. Early life Childhood and emigration Valentino was born in Castellaneta, Apulia, Italy and name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Electric
Western Electric Co., Inc. was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that operated from 1869 to 1996. A subsidiary of the AT&T Corporation for most of its lifespan, Western Electric was the primary manufacturer, supplier, and purchasing agent for all telephone equipment for the Bell System from 1881 until 1984, when Breakup of the Bell System, the Bell System was dismantled. Because the Bell System had a near-total monopoly over telephone service in the United States for much of the 20th century, Western Electric's equipment was widespread across the country. The company was responsible for many technological innovations, as well as developments in industrial management. History 19th century In 1856, George Shawk, a craftsman and telegraph maker, purchased an electrical engineering business in Cleveland, Ohio. In January 1869, Shawk had partnered with Enos M. Barton in the former Western Union repair shop of Cleveland, to manufacture burglar alarms, fire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several laboratories in the United States and around the world. As a former subsidiary of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), Bell Labs and its researchers have been credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the photovoltaic cell, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, the Unix operating system, and the programming languages B (programming language), B, C (programming language), C, C++, S (programming language), S, SNOBOL, AWK, AMPL, and others, throughout the 20th century. Eleven Nobel Prizes and five Turing Awards have been awarded for work completed at Bell Laboratories. Bell Labs had its origin in the complex corporate organization of the Bell System telepho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gramophone Record
A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near the outside edge and ends near the center of the disc. The stored sound information is made audible by playing the record on a phonograph (or "gramophone", "turntable", or "record player"). Records have been produced in different formats with playing times ranging from a few minutes to around 30 minutes per side. For about half a century, the discs were commonly made from shellac and these records typically ran at a rotational speed of 78 rpm, giving it the nickname "78s" ("seventy-eights"). After the 1940s, "vinyl" records made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) became standard replacing the old 78s and remain so to this day; they have since been produced in various sizes and speeds, most commonly 7-inch discs pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National Pictures, First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone is the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one that was widely used and commercially successful. The soundtrack is not printed on the film, but issued separately on Gramophone record, phonograph records. The discs, recorded at Revolutions per minute, rpm (a speed first used for this system) and typically in diameter, are played on a turntable physically coupled to the projector motor while the film is projected. Its frequency response is 4300 Hz. Many early sound film, talkies, such as ''The Jazz Singer'' (1927), used the Vitaphone system. The name "Vitaphone" derived from the Latin and Greek words, respectively, for "living" and "sound". The "Vitaphone" trademark was later associated with cartoons and other short subjects that had sound-on-film, optica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Founded on April 4, 1923, by four brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner, the company established itself as a leader in the American film industry before diversifying into animation, television, and video games. It is one of the " Big Five" major American film studios and a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The company is known for its film studio division, the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, which includes Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, Castle Rock Entertainment and the Warner Bros. Television Group. Bugs Bunny, a character created for the ''Looney Tunes'' series, is the company's official mascot. History Founding The company's name originated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Adventures Of Prince Achmed
''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' () is a 1926 German animated fairytale film, written and directed by Lotte Reiniger. Since two earlier Quirino Cristiani films are lost, it is the oldest surviving animated feature film. The plot is based on elements from several ''One Thousand and One Nights'' stories, such as "Aladdin," "Ahmed and Paribanou", and " The Ebony Horse". ''Prince Achmed'' features a silhouette animation technique that Reiniger invented by manipulating cardboard cutouts and thin sheets of lead under a camera, similar to Wayang shadow puppets. The original prints featured color tinting. Reiniger also used the first form of a multiplane camera in making the film, one of the most important devices in pre-digital animation. Several famous avant-garde animators worked on ''Prince Achmed'', among them Walter Ruttmann, Berthold Bartosch, and Carl Koch. (an extract from ) Plot An African sorcerer conjures up a flying horse, which he shows to the Caliph. When the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lotte Reiniger
Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (2 June 1899 – 19 June 1981) was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her best known films are ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'', from 1926, the oldest surviving feature-length animated film, and ''Papageno'' (1935). Reiniger is also noted for having devised, from 1923 to 1926, the first form of a multiplane camera, (an extract from ) one of the most important devices in pre digital animation. Reiniger worked on more than 40 films throughout her career. Biography Early life Lotte Reiniger was born in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin on 2 June 1899 to Carl Reiniger and Eleonore Lina Wilhelmine Rakette. Here, she studied at Waldeschule, Charlottenburger Waldschule, the first open-air school, where she learned the art of scherenschnitte, the German art of silhouette, inspired by the ancient Chinese art of paper cutting and Shadow play, silhouette puppetry. As a child, she became fascinated with this Chinese a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
