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Line 7: Some of the people filmed included vaudevillians [[Joe Weber (vaudevillian)\|Joe Weber]] and [[Lew Fields]], [[Eva Puck]] and [[Sammy White (actor)\|Sammy White]], [[Eddie Cantor]], [[Ben Bernie]], [[Oscar Levant]], [[Phil Baker (comedian)\|Phil Baker]], [[Roy Smeck]], [[jazz]] musicians [[Noble Sissle]] and [[Eubie Blake]], "[[all-female band\|all-girl]]" bandleader Helen Lewis, harmonicist [[Borrah Minnevitch]], [[Nikita Balieff]]'s company [[La Chauve-Souris]], opera singers [[Eva Leoni]], [[Abbie Mitchell]], and [[Marie Rappold]], [[Broadway theater\|Broadway]] stars [[Helen Menken]] and [[Fannie Ward]], folklorist [[Charles Ross Taggart]], [[Copla (music)\|copla]] singer [[Concha Piquer]], and politicians [[Calvin Coolidge]], [[Robert M. La Follette, Sr.\|Robert La Follette]], [[Al Smith]], and [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]. Smith and Roosevelt were filmed during the [[1924 Democratic National Convention]], held June 24 to July 9 at [[Madison Square Garden]] in New York City. Coolidge became the first U. S. President to appear in a [[sound film\|sound motion picture]] when DeForest filmed him at the [[White House]] on 11 August 1924. In November 1922, De Forest founded the De Forest Phonofilm Corporation with studios at 314 East 48th Street in New York City, ~~but~~in the Candlor Building in space sublet from Frank A. Tichenor. However, DeForest was unable to interest any of the major [[Hollywood]] [[film studios\|movie studios]] in his invention.<ref>[http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/elizabeth-armstrong-mrs-reed/the-educational-screen-volume-23-24-hci/page-3-the-educational-screen-volume-23-24-hci.shtml ''The Educational Screen'' (January 1944), Chapter 12, Now They Must Talk by Arthur Edwin Krows]</ref> [[File:Phonofilm1.jpg\|thumb\|right\|225px\|alt=All-text advertisement from the Strand Theater, giving dates, times, and performers' names. At the top, a tagline reads, "$10,000 reward paid to any person who finds a phonograph or similar device used in the phonofilms." The accompanying promotional text describes the slate of sound pictures as "the sensation of the century...Amazing! Astounding! Unbelievable".\|Newspaper ad for Phonofilm shorts shown at the [[Mark Strand Theatre\|Strand Theatre]] in New York City, December 9–10, 1925]] Line 15: DeForest was forced to show these films in independent theaters such as the Rivoli, since Hollywood movie studios controlled all major U.S. movie theater chains at the time. De Forest's decision to film primarily short films (one reel), not [[feature film]]s, due to lack of Hollywood investment, limited the appeal of his process. All or part of the [[Paramount Pictures]] features ''[[Bella Donna (1923 film)\|Bella Donna]]'' (premiered 1 April 1923) and ''[[The Covered Wagon]]'' (premiered 16 March 1923) were reportedly filmed with Phonofilm as an experiment, but, if so, were only shown this way at the premiere engagements, also at the Rivoli Theater in New York City. "Siegfried", the first part of the [[Fritz Lang]] film ''[[Die Nibelungen]]'' (1924) had a Phonofilm soundtrack, but only at the New York City premiere at the [[Century Theatre]] on 23 August 1925. One of the few two-reel films made by DeForest in the Phonofilm process was ''[[Love's Old Sweet Song (1923 film)\|Love's Old Sweet Song]]'' (1923), starring [[Louis Wolheim]], [[Donald Gallaher]], and the 20-year-old [[Una Merkel]]. DeForest kept to one-reel films because he was unable to solve the problem of reel changes—and the disruption in sound which would occur—when a projectionist in a movie theater changed reels. ==Development of Phonofilm== Line 44: ==Phonofilm in the UK== In 1926, the owner of a chain of cinemas in the UK, M. B. Schlesinger, acquired the UK rights to Phonofilm.<ref>[http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/elizabeth-armstrong-mrs-reed/the-educational-screen-volume-23-24-hci/page-3-the-educational-screen-volume-23-24-hci.shtml ''The Educational Screen'' (January 1944), Chapter 12, ~~Motion~~Now ~~Pictures-Not~~They ~~For~~Must ~~Theatres~~Talk by Arthur Edwin Krows]</ref> DeForest and Schlesinger filmed short films of British [[music hall]] performers such as [[Marie Lloyd\|Marie Lloyd Jr.]] and [[Billy Merson]] -- along with famous stage actors such as [[Sybil Thorndike]] reading excerpts of works by [[William Shakespeare\|Shakespeare]], [[George Bernard Shaw\|Shaw]], and [[Charles Dickens\|Dickens]] -- from September 1926 to May 1929. (In July 1925, ''The Gentleman'', a comedy short directed by William J. Elliott in Phonofilm, was the first sound-on-film production made in England.) On 4 October 1926, Phonofilm made its UK premiere with a program of short films presented at the [[Empire, Leicester Square\|Empire Cinema]] in London, including a short film with [[Sidney Bernstein]] welcoming Phonofilm to the UK. According to the [[British Film Institute]] website, the UK division of DeForest Phonofilm was taken over in August 1928 by British Talking Pictures and its subsidiary British Sound Film Productions which was formed in September 1928.