Silent cinema and Buster Keaton

Silent cinema and Buster Keaton

Postby rbelis » Wed Nov 26, 2008 8:20 am

Silent Films

The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, synchronized dialogue was only made possible in the late 1920s with the introduction of the Vitaphone system. After The Jazz Singer in 1927, "talkies" became more and more commonplace and within a decade silent films essentially disappeared. The silent film era is sometimes referred to as the "Age of the Silver Screen".

Buster Keaton was one of the most famous actors in Silent Films. He was born on October 4th 1895 in Piqua, Kansas. His parents were stage comedians and they were very successful especially with the renowned magician Harry Houdini. At one time the Keaton family was at a hotel and Keaton fell down a full flight of stairs and surprisingly he was unharmed and Houdini said 'Some Buster!' and the name stuck.
rbelis
 

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