Joseph Guzman
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Emeritus faculty member Lawrence Benaquist talked about his four part series of film showings and discussions on the coming of sound to Keene which has been happening at the Keene Public Library. Each of his talks revolve around the coming of sound to Keene. Last week to help convey his message and to teach about the history of sound, he showed a film called “The Singing Fool” which was Al Jolson’s second sound film done for Warner Brothers Studio. This was important, Benaquist stated in an email, because it had some synchronized singing numbers and audio tracks for dialogue.
This week was focused on a different film, a melodrama called “The Trespasser” which was Gloria Swanson’s first debut on the big screen before bigger films like “Sunset Boulevard” and “Sadie Thompson.”
Benaquist described the film series, saying, “‘1929: Sound Comes to Keene.’ This is a presentation of four films which were shown in the three Keene movie theaters that year, which were among the earliest sound films shown at the theaters in the city. At the beginning of 1929, all the films were silent; months later, virtually all the films were sound, and an entire art form had disappeared.” […] ‘The Trespasser,’ Gloria Swanson’s first sound film, this got her an Oscar nomination. I explained the early sound recording techniques, the primitive nature of the microphones, and the rapidity with which the technology was changing. This film was shown on December 17 and 18, 1929, at the Scenic theater which used to be across the street from the Colonial Theater.”
Benaquist shared his insight into the other two other discussions taking place after the Commencement Ceremony has finished. “There are two more films in this series: on May 15 we will screen ‘Broadway Melody,’ an excellent 1929 sound musical film, which shows the first use of post-synchronization in movies,” Benaquist said. “On May 22 we will end the series with the 1929 sound comedy, ‘The Cocoanuts,’ the Marx Brothers first film. [It] was so popular in Keene, that the Scenic Theater scheduled it to be brought back to their theater two more times that year.” Benaquist mentioned his biggest takeaway from the event was that, “I think what people learned was the relationship between technology and art, and how quickly an art form can be lost. I also think they left with an appreciation of the real quality of these early sound films, and in a broader sense, the value of popular culture.”
Joseph Guzman can be contacted at
Jguzman@kscequinox.com
