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A 2 day sale of wonderful collectibles from Ron Hutchinson was held on Saturday October 5th, & Sunday October 6th, 2019. Project member Patrick Picking flew from Detroit, Michigan to Newark, New Jersey, and then rented a car to travel the rest of the way to Piscataway, NJ to attend. It was hard to see so many of Ron's things go, but they went to like minded collectors of the Vitaphone Project. Ron's wife Judy, son Jared, and daughter Heather were all there to run the sale. Ron had a nicely organized selection of hundreds of 78s on the shelves to go. Other items were old record players, sheet music, hundreds of books, movie posters, magazines, CDs, DVDs, and more. Refreshments and vintage background tunes are were played for all who came.

Note that no Vitaphone discs were sold. The approximately 400 Vitaphone discs Ron owned were already moved to another location where they will be well cared for.

Ron is included beginning at the 3:37 mark. Watch the full 2019 memorial video here: https://www.facebook.com/tcmtv/videos/784405835360767/

Here is the description of this film from The First Hollywood Sound Shorts, 1926-1931 by Edwin M. Bradley: The Barber Shop Chord, with Marty martel, Vitaphone 3640, 1 reel. T. Directors: Tenny Wright, Sid Silvers. Copyrighted November 25, 1929. Reviews: V. November 13, 1929; MPN, November 30, 1929. Songs: "The Barber Shop Chord," "Oh! What I Know About Love," "It's a Fast Life and a Hot One." Comment: "Entertaining short with an idea... Carries the novel comedy angle of a barber shop serving a song of dance with the customer's order as desired."

• As mentioned in our last issue, Ron Hutchinson's approximately 400 discs have been moved from Ron's house by Sherwin Dunner and Joe Lauro. For the time being they are being kept by Joe in a safe place until a permanent home is found.
• A collector in Illinois wrote to say he owns a pawn shop, and his girlfriend bought two Vitaphone discs at a garage sale and wanted to know about them. The films they are from were both directed by Murray Roth, who directed many Vitaphone shorts. The two discs are:
  • #789 (made in NYC) - Beau Night - © June 12, 1929 - Murray Roth (director); El Brendel & Flo Bert.
  • #2870 - Artistic Mimicry - © March 20, 1929 - Murray Roth (director); Bruce Bowers.
  He said he will keep them, and they have been added to our database for future use if needed.
• The Senior Curator at the Detroit Historical Society wrote to say he found three Vitaphone discs in their collection. Their descriptions are:
  • Sound Track Phonograph Record: 16"; was played simultaneously with the Fox movie "The River"; copyright 1929; pressed by Victor Talking Machine Co., reel 7; has been played four times according to a check-off on record; groove runs from inside out; recorded on one side only. In wooden box.
  • Sound Track Phonograph Record: 16", was played simultaneously with Paramount Pictures "Makers of Melody"; latest copyright 1929; pressed by Victor Talking Machine Co., has been played 17 times according to chart on record: groove runs from inside out; recorded on one side only; for reel 2-3. In wooden box.
  • Sound Track Phonograph Record: 16"; was played simultaneously with movie "Three Passions" (St. George Productions); latest copyright 1928; recorded and pressed by the Victor Talking Machine Co., reels 2-3; has been played 8 times according to check-off on record; groove runs from from inside out; recorded on both sides; name of company making film has been scratched off. In wooded box.

• A woman in the Netherlands wrote to say she found a disc for reel 14 of Rio Rita (1929), in her grandfathers items. He passed away in 1950, so this record has been hidden away since then. The full version of Rio Rita was 142 minutes before it was edited down to 104 minutes in 1932. At 10 minutes a disc, with this being disc #14, it's probably from the pre-1932 edited version that exists today and is shown on TCM.

  Read more about Rio Rita here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Rita_(1929_film).

When movies began to talk, hundreds of theaters needed to be converted to the new Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. It was an expensive task, and many small theaters couldn't afford the costs to convert their theaters again to the new sound-on-film system when the Vitaphone process became outdated during the depression. Here are some photos of Vitaphone equipped theaters - what they looked like then, and how they changed over the years. The last picture of each theater will take you to Google Maps, so you can see what the sites look like now, as well as the surrounding area. Hover your mouse over each picture for a description. A link to the history of each theater from CinemaTreasures.org is found below each group of pictures.

Read more about the Warners' Theater in New York City here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8915

Read more about the Winter Garden Theater in New York City here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/839

Read more about the Warners Hollywood Theater here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/18

Read more about the Oxford Theater in Oxford, Michigan, here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/15030

Read more about the Midland Theater in Hutchinson, Kansas, here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/56909

Read more about the Vita-Temple Theater in Toledo, Ohio, here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/15673

Read more about the Coliseum Theater in Ketchikan, Alaska, here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/57932

Read more about the Orpheum Theater in Livingston, Montana, here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/39927

Read more about the Capitol Theater in Ilion, New York, here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/23620

PEOPLE

• ERIC GRAYSON "Looking to borrow/buy Vitaphone materials on King of the Kongo (mislabeled Congo on the labels). We currently have a deal with Library of Congress and are restoring most of this from 35mm or original camera negative. We still need sound for Chap 1 (all), Chap 2 (all), Chap 3 (all), Chap 4 (r1), Chap 7 (r1), Chap 8 (r1), Chap 9 (r2). We have complete sound for Chap 5,6,10. If you have these or know someone who does, this is your chance to get a few $ (not a lot) and credit on the Blu-ray when it comes out." Can anyone help Eric with finding these discs?

  Read more about Eric's progress on King of the Kongo, and other fascinating stories, here: https://www.drfilm.net/blog/

When films began to talk, they began to sing, and play music too. Sheet music for the songs people were hearing on the big screen became very popular. Above is a sampling of the Vitaphone sheet music from various films of 1929. Each of these songs were released as individual pieces of sheet music. This Witmark Theme Song Dance Folio collected the pieces and put them together into one book. Several issues followed this first issue. While not listing all of the sheet music, I have included all of the photos of the Vitaphone stars of 1929 included in this 46 page book.

With the help of Ron Hutchinson's wife Judy, we were able to transfer his Soundcloud account to Patrick Picking. Ron was a frequent uploader of Vitaphone discs to Soundcloud. This transfer will allow the continuation of our Vitaphone Project channel. You can listen to the 654 tracks he uploaded - Vitaphone discs and other songs from that period - here: https://soundcloud.com/vitaphone/

The Vitaphone Project's Facebook Group now boasts 3,094 members and has multiple new posts every day. In addition to film clips, stills, posters and discoveries, the site also announces new DVD releases and inquiries from its members. With the ending (or postponement) of The Vitaphone News website, the FaceBook page is the best source of current and up-to-date information on anything Vitaphone Project related.

Join us at this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vitaphoneproject/

• Current cost to restore a sound-on-disk 10 minute one reel short at UCLA is ~$15,000 (deductible)
• Donors receive their own personal copy of the restoration on DVD and on-screen credit.
• The Project's soundtrack disk database currently contains over 6,000 disks, primarily held by private collectors.
• There are over 250 Vitaphone shorts (plus over 75 MGM shorts) currently available on DVD through Warner Archive.
• Between 1926 and 1930, there were approximately 1500 sound-on-disk Vitaphone shorts and features produced by Warner Bros and First National.
• There are about 320 1926-30 Vitaphone shorts for which picture (film) survive but for which accompanying soundtrack disks are still missing.
• Warner Bros abandoned direct-to-disk sound recordings around March, 1930 and moved to the industry standard of optical sound recording and editing.
• To date, the Project has not found soundtrack disks issued by Warner Bros after late 1932.

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VITAPHONE NEWS	ISSN 1066-5951
Corresponding Secretary & Editor: Database: Web Page Designer: FaceBook Page Administrator: SoundCloud Page Administrator:	Patrick Picking	patrick@picking.com patrick@vitaphoneproject.com
Co-Founders:	Ron Hutchinson
	David Goldenberg
	Sherwin Dunner	sherwindunner@yahoo.com
	John Newton	newtonjj2@aol.com
	Vince Giordano	vincegiordano@optonline.net
Vitaphone Project Web Page:	http://www.vitaphoneproject.com
Vitaphone Project SoundCloud Page:	https://soundcloud.com/vitaphone
Jeff Cohen's "Vitaphone Varieties" Site:	http://vitaphone.blogspot.com
Leonard Maltin's Site:	http://www.leonardmaltin.com
Talkie King:	http://talkieking.blogspot.com
Nitrateville:	http://www.nitrateville.com
	"The Vitaphone Project"
	OVERSEAS PROJECT EMMISSARIES UK: Malcolm Billingsley AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND: Paul Brennan SCANDANAVIA: Jonas Nordin	ptb@bigpond.net.au - http://www.ptbscreen.com.au