90TH ANNIVERSARY OF VITAPHONE
TCM, 6:00 a.m. ET
Vitaphone was the experimental system, employed by Warner Bros. and sister studio First National, that brought sound to movies by sound-on-disc system, as developed by Bell Telephone Laboratories and General Electric. Today, to honor the 90th anniversary of Vitaphone, TCM presents a 24-hour salute, presenting many short films for the first time. Film fans should warm up their DVRs. The action starts at 6 a.m. ET with 1934’s Paree, Paree, an early short starring Bob Hope, and includes 1927’s seminal The Jazz Singer, the full-length Al Jolson movie including synchronized-sound musical sequences, at 6 p.m. ET. But watch for other treats and rarities as well, including 1937’s Cab Calloway in Hi-De-Ho, an eye-opener (and ear-opener) for those who think music videos began with MTV, at 2:45 p.m. ET; Calloway again, as well as the dancing Nicholas Brothers and singer Adelaide Hall, in 1935’s An All-Colored Vaudeville Show at 4:37 p.m. ET; and, in prime time, 1929’s My Bag O’ Trix, starring the incomparably weird upright-bass “virtuoso” Trixie Friganza, at 9:18 p.m. ET, and 1929’s Lambchops (pictured) at 9:45 p.m. ET, featuring a vaudeville team named George Burns and Gracie Allen five years before they starred on radio, and and more than two decades before they starred on TV.