The earliest extant sound film.
William K.L. Dickson stands in the background next to a huge sound pickup horn connected to a
Thomas Edison phonograph recorder. As he plays a violin, two men dance in the foreground. This film was made to demonstrate a new
Thomas Edison machine, the Kinetophone. These machines were Kinetoscope peepshow viewers mated with
Thomas Edison wax cylinder phonographs. But the Kinetophone never caught on and this film was never released. The film still exists, but the phonograph soundtrack has been lost.
—Steven W. Siferd <ssiferd@aol.com>