Lee De Forest Movies

A dainty combination of music and grace.

For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who...

Follow the bouncing ball sing-along

Early sound film featuring comedian Eddie Cantor.

A dainty combination of Music and Grace.

British music hall entertainer Dick Henderson sings "I Love Her All the More" and trills out a resounding ode to his beloved in this early sound...

In his career, De Wolf Hopper recited Ernest Lawrence Thayer's "Casey at the Bat" thousands of times. Here, wearing a tuxedo, he emerges from behind...

A song scene of a vaudeville act starring Tommy Lorne as a shopkeeper with a daughter vying for his attention while he is attempting to serve two...

Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake sing snappy songs.

Vaudeville stars Weber and Fields perform their famous pool hall routine in a short film produced in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process.

A dog gets ready for dinner as the story takes us into a sing-a-long with "My Old Kentucky Home". The first sound cartoon ever produced.

Spanish dancer Conchita Piquer performs in a short film produced in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process.

The first colored talking picture ever made.

Short introductory film demonstrating the novel sound-synchronized film technology, the "Phonofilm".

'Billy Merson, the great Nottingham-born music hall performer, presents one of his signature numbers. The film clearly captures Merson's comic...

A selection of images (a dog barking, a baby crying, and a musical scene), initially shown in silence, and then repeated with Phonofilm accompanying...

Early music video.

Blake plays his "Fantasy on Swanee River" (two takes of same piece, in different styles). The highest notes failed to record in this seminal...

The first presidential film with sound recording.