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Two Turntables and a Microphone (2006)

, funnier version of my dissertation I became interested in this subject because I thought it was funny, because the electrical reproducers used in cinemas in the late 1920s look like all-in-one 1970s DJ consoles. The object of this radically minimised version of the main text is to stimulate your interest.

The market for such equipment was slow to take off in the UK, as the traditional clockwork acoustic gramophone was loud enough for the home, so Brunswick, an established record company based in the US, developed a two-turntable machine for use in dancehalls, theatres and cinemas. The manager of the Theatre De Luxe had replaced his orchestra with one man and a Panatrope, but rather than just playing records over the films, the operator, a skilled musician called Reginald Johnson, recognised the full potential of the new machine, developing a new technique of musical presentation in the summer of 1927. The Panatrope and its imitators sold well, and there was enthusiasm in the exhibition sector for Phototone and other synchronisers like Electrocord, mostly because they were so much cheaper than the American equipment, but ultimately there was only so much small British companies with relatively primitive technology could do to compete with Hollywood’s giants.

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