The coming of sound to film was an event whose importance can hardly be overestimated; sound transformed not only the Hollywood film industry but all of world cinema as well. As economic and film historian Douglas Gomery explains, the business of film became not only bigger but much more complex. As sound spread its power, the talkies became an agent of economic and social change through the globe, extending America's reach in ways that had never before been imaginable. This is an essential work for anyone interested in early film, film history and economics, and the history of the American media.

Douglas Gomery, one of the leading economic historians of film, is Professor in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. Among his books are The Media in America and (as coauthor) Who Owns theMedia?

Acknowledgments, Photographs, Preface: The Research Question, the Method, and the Data, 1. A Preview: Order and Profit, Not Chaos, 2. The Preconditions for Innovation, 3. The Warner Bros. Innovate Sound, 4. William Fox Innovates Sound, 5. Warners' Blockbuster: The Singing Fool, 6. Paramount and Loew's Wait, and Then Make Their Deal, 7. The Rise of RKO: The Failure of All Others, 8. The Diffusion of Sound in the United States, 9. Diffusion of Sound Throughout the World, 10. The Formation of the Studio System:Merger Mania, 11. Mopping up the Loose Ends, 12. The Coming of Sound: A Reinterpretation, Endnotes, Index