SamuZai
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My Joke Deciphering Promise

By the end of my next video, you WILL understand this joke. OK, by the end of this post (I can't leave you hanging).

As Hollywood began to adopt sound recording, it wasn't just like they synced up a record player with the video (though that was basically what they did in "The Jazz Singer). Two common, and competing, forms of sound recording were optical sound — they coded visual versions of the sound onto the film strip.

One, variable area, basically looks like a waveform you see today. Variable density looks like thick and thin strips of lines. So as these became ubiquitous terms in Hollywood, the slang arose accordingly.

Is there anything better than old, incredibly obscure jokes? These, to me, are the details that make history interesting. Battle formations and Generals' names cause me to instantly zone out, but the revelation of human character peeking through the veil of defunct technologies and archival magazines is always delightful.

Comments

😂👍

Derek Wright

Nailed it - October 1928!

Phil Edwards

Oh that’s interesting 🤔. When was that article written? Late 1920’s I take it?

Derek Wright


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