Oskar Makes a Noise: Movie Movie - The History of World Cinema

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29/8/1903: Oskar Makes a Noise

Oskar Messter

Oskar Messter’s apparatus for presenting talking pictures was a sound-on-disc system which was called the Biophon-Tonbilder der Specht when it was first demonstrated at the Apollo Theatre in Berlin on 29^th August 1903. On 7^th November 1902, nine months before Messter’s successful unveiling of his invention, Léon Gaumont had shown sound films using a projector linked to a gramophone.

Messter and Gaumont both took out patents on their respective inventions and entered into an agreement to refrain from supplying sound films in each others’ country. The apparatus for projecting the films was subsequently sold as a common concern under the name Gaumont-Messter Chronophon-Biophon. Messter even had plans to develop a joint company to gain a global monopoly on sound films, but his plans never came to fruition. However, his sound films proved to be a resounding success in Germany and, for a few years, Messter devoted almost all his attention to the production of sound films, which had a much higher market value than silent films. By 1913, Messter had sold 500 Biophon projection machines to cinema managers, as well as supplying his own circuit of cinemas.

At first, Biophon films were shown in music halls, but the development of these sound films contributed to the establishment of permanent cinemas from 1905. Cabaret acts and comedians featured in these films included Otto Reutter, Robert Steidl and Gustav Schönwald, but their content was not confined entirely to light entertainment: one of Messter’s first Biophon films featured the tenor Siegmund Lieban singing the prologue from the opera Bajazzo.

By 1907 sound films accounted for 83% of Messter’s company’s entire turnover, and by 1908 this had risen to 90%. However, competitors soon began to move in on such a lucrative market and Messter quickly found himself swamped by competition. Alfred Duskes produced the Cinephon, German Mutoskop und Biograph marketed the Ton Biograph developed by Karl Geyer, Guido Seeber produced the Seeberophon. Soon, the country had a dozen different sound processes competing for a share of the suddenly overcrowded market, which led to a massive drop in prices to around 1.00 mark – the same price as for a silent film, but with more than double the production costs. [ADD]

(Sources: The International Film Industry: A Historical Dictionary. Contributors: Anthony Slide - author. Publisher: Greenwood Press. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1989.

A Second Life: German Cinema's First Decades. Contributors: Thomas Elsaesser - editor, Michael Wedel - editor. Publisher: Amsterdam University Press. Place of Publication: Amsterdam. Publication Year: 1996. Page Number: 56.)