Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/600849
69 FALL 2015 / CINEMONTAGE both mono (optical) and four- track stereo (magnetic) formats. Selecting a quiet love scene between James Dean and Natalie Wood, Gitt isolates the four unique stereo tracks that exist on one piece of film and explains what each brings to the final mix of music, effects and dialogue. The fourth, and thinnest, track contains only a background of chirping crickets that comes into play toward the end of the scene. The sound in this film is not exceptional, but in his dissection, Gitt allows the audience to "see" the sounds in various configurations. It must have been a big job for Rebel sound editor Carl Mahakian (uncredited), but it continues to bother Gitt that while car radios in 1955 were all mono, the music coming from Dean's car radio is an audio anachronism because it is stereophonic — de rigueur for the era. The triadic relationships among business (money and law), invention (science and engineering) and artistry (filmmaking craft) is an underlying theme of Century of Sound, although this is implied through examples, not stated directly. For nearly 50 years, the two major companies, Western Electric and RCA, licensed their original track negative recording and playback systems on a non-exclusive basis. In general, studios elected to license one or the other. In a few cases, a producer might license both. Each company housed extensive research and development departments, sales teams and maintenance technicians. Each also had different, often highly demanding specifications for lab processing, as well as theatrical projection and loudspeaker systems. It was customary to "brand" a film with its sound system, including the corporate logo, as "RCA Sound Recording" or "Western Electric Recording." As might be expected in the early days of sound, patent wars and suits were common, including an especially bitter battle between the German cartel Tobis-Klangfilm, which controlled the European rights to sound-on-film technology, and Western Electric and RCA, which aligned against Klangfilm. The multitude of sound types challenged directors, editors, recordists, mixers, cinematographers, laboratories, theatre owners and projectionists. Executives made final decisions about which format and equipment to use, generally in consultation with heads of post- production, but always based on the economics of running their studios. Especially powerful was Douglas Shearer, head of MGM's sound department, who, with John Hilliard in 1938, developed theatre speakers; their "Shearer Horn System" became a standard for many years. Western Electric incorporated it into its Mirrophonic Sound System to provide better sound quality in theatres that could afford to re-equip. Thousands of exhibitors had older equipment still performing well and settled instead for less-expensive "equalization," in which an engineer sat in a theatre auditorium with a set of variable tone controls. When he was satisfied that the best results had been obtained from a sample reel, the frequency correction was measured and built into the theatre's amplifier system. Shearer, winner of multiple Academy Awards, began MGM's sound department in 1927 and was the director of its technical research until his retirement in 1968. The three main executives at 20th Century-Fox concerned with sound were Earl I. Sponable, Edmund H. Hansen (both in the 1930s), and Carl W. Faulkner (who became head of the sound department by the 1950s); Loren Grignon was also very involved in sound and stereo sound research for the studio. Over the years, each studio had its own mix of formats, and editors who had to make sense MGM Sound Department Head Douglas Shearer (brother of MGM star Norma Shearer), right, watches a technician adjusting sound equipment, circa 1930s.