Ah, the movies! What would we do without them? They entertain us, and they educate us. They allow us to go into make-believe worlds where anything is possible; where sometimes the boy does get the girl and right prevails, where men can fly and outer space has been conquered, and where the good guys wear white hats.
The first movies were only moving pictures. There was no sound. Captions on the screen told viewers what the actors were saying and music, played by a locally hired piano player, accompanied the film to set the mood (sweet melodies for love scenes and crashing chords for dramatic moments).
Those silent movies could never compete with the elaborate extravaganzas of movies today, but in their day they were considered magical and absolutely amazing. People had never seen anything like it before in their lives. Oh, they had radios, but they had NEVER seen a moving picture.
The silent film era didn't last along in the overall scheme of things — just about a decade — but it made an impact on the world that is still being felt today. Silent film technology opened the door to other, better, more modern technologies that are used to make modern-day movies. The silent film era is sometimes referred to as the "Age of the Silver Screen."
Film makers didn't have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the age of "talkies." The idea of moving pictures and synchronized sound had always been dreamed of. It just took a while for the technology needed to catch up and make the dream a reality. The first "talkie" was "The Jazz Singer," starring Al Jolson, which was released in 1927.
Silent film made as great as or maybe a greater than impact on the world as the advent of the personal computer.
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