Yesterday we looked at one of the earliest sound films made in 1908 by Thomas Edison’s company. The next big step forward in sound film was made by Dr. Lee De Forest in 1923/24, one of radio’s (then called ‘wireless’) great pioneers. ( I can’t go into the details of De Forest life and work–there are just too many of them–but I urge you to read this remarkable Wikipedia entry on his life.) The above home-made video tells, in just over five minutes, how Edison’s Kinetescope sound-film device worked and how De Forests vast improvement in the process came into being–as well as providing a relatively straight forward explanation of De Forest’s innovative sound-on-film technique. For mysterious reasons De Forests invention appeared not to interest Hollywood and he was deprived of any of the soon-to-be riches that Warner’s Vitaphone and Fox’s Movietone processes soon reaped. Below I’ve posted a short clip reel of various acts that De Forest filmed and then screened in independent theaters in 1924. Visible are Ben Bernie and his Orchestra, Eddie Cantor and, yes, that’s George Bernard Shaw standing with admirably erect posture and a dangerously provocative beard…