PhonoMultimedia are examples of recorded sound combined with different types of images - magic lantern slides, postcards, book illustrations, moving pictures on film and television productions.

Magic lantern shows with period phonograph recordings have been created as examples of what could have been seen and heard by audiences at the turn of the twentieth century.

Other PhonoMultimedia (e.g., books, postcards, sheet music) have been created accompanied by period phonograph recordings.

The earliest moving picture with 'sound' is in this gallery (the Edison Kinetophonographic movie that combined sound and film made by W.K.L. Dickson in late 1894/1895)

Several examples of early moving pictures which have been colorized and period phonograph recordings added.

Two PBS Mini-Documentaries related to the phonograph can be watched.

 

Select a PhonoMultimedia presentation from below or use the PhonoMultimedia Table of Contents.

Magic Lantern Shows Accompanied by Period Phonograph Recordings

In the early 1890's the Phonograph and the magic lantern provided multi-media entertainment to paying audiences. The following have been recreated using magic lantern stories and cylinder phonograph records.

 

Adventures of a Cyclist - A Magic Lantern Presentation accompanied by The Edison Concert Band playing Ye Ancients March, Edison Gold Moulded Record No. 8946 (1905).

Adventures of Mr. Snapshot - A Magic Lantern Presentation accompanied by The Edison Military Band performing American Students’ Waltzes, Edison Record No. 8740 (1904)

America - A Magic Lantern Presentation with artwork by Joseph Boggs Beale and accompanied by The Indestructible Military Band performing The Star Spangled Banner and America, Indestructible Record No. 3943 (1908)

Annie's Treat - A Magic Lantern Presentation accompanied by an 1896 Regina music box playing The Nightingale Song.

Are Mr. and Mrs. Snapshot at Home? - A Magic Lantern Presentation accompanied by brown wax cylinder recording of Nanon Waltz, circa 1891-1893.

Break the News to Mother - A Magic Lantern Presentation accompanied by J.W. Myers singing Break the News to Mother, Columbia Records.

A Christmas Carol - A Magic Lantern Presentation using Newton & Co. Slides (1884) of Charles Dicken's story accompanied by “The Carol Singers” performing "God rest you, merry gentlemen" on Edison Blue Amberol Record No. 3346 (1917)

The Cyclists' Elopement - A Magic Lantern Presentation illustrated by Bamforth & Co., (1897) accompanied by Peaceful Henry played by The Edison Concert Band, Edison Gold Moulded Record No. 8562 (1903).

Peaceful Henry - Edison Record No. 8562 Release Notes:The Edison Phonograph Monthly 1903; Sheet Music, Dealer Program

 

A similiar 8-panel cartoon titled "On the Wrong Tack - A Story of a Bicycle Elopement and How it Succeeded" by F. M. Howarth was in an 1894 Puck magazine.

Panel 1 from "On the Wrong Tack, Puck, 1894

 

Another 12-panel elopement cartoon titled "A Blessing in Disguise - The Story of a Successful Bicycle Elopement" by F. M. Howarth was in an 1898 Puck magazine.

Panel 2 from "A Blessing in Disguise, Puck, 1898

Killarney - A Magic Lantern Presentation accompanied by Miss Marie Narelle singing Killarney, Edison Gold Moulded Record No. 9081 (1905).

Killarney - Edison Record No. 9081 Release Notes:The Edison Phonograph Monthly; Humourous Incident; Miss Marie Narelle; Killarney painting by French artist Alphonse Dousseau, 1830.

Nursery Rhymes - A Magic Lantern Presentation Illustrated by W. Butcher & Sons, London (ca. 1910) accompanied by Thousand-and-One Nights Waltz played by the Edison Concert Band (1908)

Moving Pictures Accompanied by Period Phonograph Recordings

Snowball Fight in Lyon, France 1897 - This Lumière brothers film has been upscaled, colorized with AI added frames to enhance smoothness and facial expressions. This Phonographia version has used that version and accompanied it with Snow Queen performed by the Indestructible Military Band (1909)

The Phonoscope for February 1898 in their section New Films for "Screen Machines" announced that "Macguire & Baucus" was marketing "SNOW BALLING." According to The Thomas A. Edison Papers the Macguire & Baucus "company entered the motion picture business in 1894. During the period August-October 1894 it acquired the exclusive rights to sell and exhibit Edison's kinetoscopes and kinetoscope films in Europe, Mexico and South America, the West Indies, Australia, Burma, Ceylon, and India." "On December 7, 1897, Edison brought suit against the company for infringement of his motion picture patents."

In that same edition of The Phonoscope an article with pictures featured the London office of Macquire & Baucus, Ltd. noting they "have long been sole agents for Great Britain, her colonies and the United States for the Lumiere photographic films, perforated to American (standard) gauge. As every well-informed exhibitor knows, these Lumiere films are justly celebrated."

Workers Exit the Lumière Factory in Lyon, France 1895 - A Lumière brothers film upscaled, colorized and accompanied by Everybody Works But Father sung by Bob Roberts, Edison Records (1905)

Geraldine Farrar as Marguerite singing "The Jewel Song" in The World and Its Woman, 1919 film accompanied by Farrar's 1913 Victor Record No. 88147 of Marguerite's aria the "Jewel Song" from Gounod's Faust. (1 min 33 sec).

Other Phonographia Multi-Media

Happy Birthday Song for Friends of the Phonograph a.k.a. The Anniversary of your Birth Song

 

Happy New Year - Auld Lang Syne - Phonograph ephemera accompanied by Auld Lang Syne performed by the Mediaeval Baebes, 2014

Hello or Ahoy? - "Halloo!" "Hello" and Edison

The Phonograph and Santa - An excerpt from Thomas A. Edison’s 1905 moving picture “The Night Before Christmas” accompanied by Gene Autry’s 1953 record “Up on the Housetop.”

 

Ring Out the Bells for Christmas - Phonograph ephemera accompanied by Ring Out the Bells for Christmas, Edison Record No. 9806 (1907)

The Song of Mr. Phonograph - 2016 original version by ©Nick Jester and ©2020 Phonographia

Uncle Josh and the Lightning Rod Agent - Uncle Josh's encounter with a Lightning Rod Agent from his 1905 book Uncle Josh's Punkin Centre Stories by Cal Stewart, "The Talking Machine Story Teller."

Uncle Josh on a Bicycle - Uncle Josh's rides a bicycle for the first time from his 1905 book Uncle Josh's Punkin Centre Stories by Cal Stewart, "The Talking Machine Story Teller."

A Christmas Carol - A dramatized presentation featuring illustrations from "A Christmas Carol" print editions (1844–1915) and the recording of “The Awakening of Scrooge” on Edison Amberol Record No. 12378 (1911) performed by Bransby Williams as Ebenezer Scrooge as he awakens on Christmas Day.

W.K.L. Dickson Greets Friends of the Phonograph - William Dickson moving hat from one hand to another, Edison Studio, May 1891 Courtesy Library of Congress

On December 7, 1877 Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph at the New York City offices of the nation’s leading technical weekly publication, “Scientific American.” This video features that event and the fame it brought to Edison (2:14 excerpted from the 2015 PBS American Experience “Edison.”)

 

Miscellaneous PhonoMultimedia

 

Uncle Sam and Kaiser Bill - Motion toy phonograph attachment, National Toy Co., 1919

 

Submarine Attack" A "Talking" Book, The Talking Book Corporation, Emerson Records 1919

 

The Moment the Guns Fell Silent - WW1 Armistice Interpretation (Sound Installation) by Coda to Coda, 2018

 

Talking Photos "Speak for Themselves"

 

Anita Stewart - Hitch Your Wagon to the Stars

Edison Kinetoscope Parlor 1896, The Phonoscope