Australia's first De Forest phonofilm

A royal visit to Australia early in 1927 provided an excellent opportunity to produce the first Australian motion picture with viable sound-on-film.

The (English) Duke and Duchess of York came to the country late in March 1927, with the main objective of opening Federal Parliament in the new Federal capital of Canberra. While here they also visited all state capital cities and some country towns and areas.

In mid-1925, De Forest Phonofilms (Australia) Limited was incorporated, with the object of producing motion pictures with sound-on-film using the process devised and patented by the American inventor Dr. Lee de Forest. The general manager of De Forest Phonofilms (Australia) was Stanley William Hawkins, a retired army captain who had set himself up in business in Sydney after World War 1.

The camera, microphones, mixing panels, and other electronics that would enable the taking of phonofilms arrived in Sydney on 17 March 1927 on board the City of Yokohama, from New York, giving Hawkins and company just over a week before the arrival of the Duke and Duchess to learn how to use them to record sound along with images. They had on their staff Harry West Jones, a De Forest engineer who had been in Australia since September 1926, and who had helped to set up their studios, and who would now get the camera and sound recording gear in working order.

The reception of the Duke and Duchess of York at Farm Cove, Sydney

The Duke and Duchess of York arrived in Sydney Harbour aboard the Royal Navy battle-cruiser H.M.S. Renown on the morning of Saturday, 26 March 1927. They were taken by Royal barge from the Renown, which was moored in the harbour, to a landing pontoon specially set up at Farm Cove. There was much formality to their reception to Australia, some being done on the Renown, some on the pontoon, and some after they had finally stepped on to land.

The photograph below shows the scene at Farm Cove as the reception took place. On the right is the pontoon; in the centre is an arbour (or welcome arch), through which is a gangway, whose railings can be seen, that links the pontoon to a ramp that leads to terra firma. Beyond the gangway and ramp is an open area next to the rotunda (or pavilion), seen on the left. The arbour, gangway, ramp, and rotunda are all seen in the phonofilm. All of the welcoming ceremony captured on the film takes place in the area between the arbour and the rotunda.

N.S.W. welcomes the Royal visitors

Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia

The aerial view below shows the reception area in the middle of the image between the ramp and the rotunda. The western end of the pontoon and the gangway and ramp are on the right, and the rotunda is immediately to the left of the group of aldermen.

Aerial view of reception area on land

Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia

At some time before 7 March 1927 Hawkins applied to film at the landing, and on this date was given permission to do so along with an allocation of space in the reserve set aside for cinemato­graphers near the south-western corner of the rotunda. This reserve area can be seen in the aerial view above, where the cameramen are indicated.

The original plan for the reception by the Lord Mayor of Sydney was to have him deliver his address of welcome inside the rotunda, but on 7 March it was decided that the address be instead made on its steps. The main motivation for this change was that the public, cinematographers, and still photographers would get a better view, with more light, outside rather than in.

The whole scene where the Lord Mayor's reception took place is shown in the photograph below. This was taken from the pontoon at the time the Duke had gone to inspect the Naval Guard of Honour (which is to the right of the scene in the image). In the foreground are the gangway and ramp, on which are standing the Duchess and the Governor of New South Wales, Dudley de Chair; the arbour partially frames the view; in the middle distance are the aldermen of the City of Sydney with the rotunda behind them; through the rotunda's arches can be seen steps (now called the Fleet Steps) leading up to the road by which the royal entourage would leave; and on the right is the cameramen's reserve, in which cinecameras can be seen, including that of De Forest Phonofilms which is the leftmost one, with the prominent tripod leg to the right of the Duchess. (Walter H.B. Sully, who was operating the camera, is unfortunately hidden by the camera next to him.)

The Duchess of York and NSW Governor de Chair

Image courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales

In the photograph below the Lord Mayor of Sydney, John Harold Mostyn, on the left, is reading his address of welcome to the Duke and Duchess, who are facing him. (The back of the Duchess' head is in the centre of the image.) The aldermen of Sydney, some standing on the steps of the rotunda, are at the rear of the scene. A microphone can be seen on the right above the Governor's cocked hat. This microphone is briefly seen in the film at the time the party climb the steps to the rotunda. The position of the Phonofilms camera was to the right of this scene, and pointing such that the Lord Mayor and the Duke and Duchess, viewed from the side, are in centre frame. (The alderman with his head bowed, to the left of the microphone, is seen in the foreground in the film when the Duke reads his reply speech.)

The Lord Mayor welcomes the Royal visitors to Sydney

Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia

Given that the Phonofilms camera is not far away, and it was expected that the welcome speeches would be made on the rotunda steps, this microphone must be the one used by Phonofilms in their attempt to capture the speeches.

But it would have been awkward for the Duke and Lord Mayor to move through the group of aldermen and mount the narrow steps of the rotunda, so their speeches took place on the ground, further from the microphone than had been planned, and their voices were too faint to be intelligible above the considerable background noise. (A newspaper commentator reported that the Lord Mayor's voice "was lost in the great crowd".)

Did Hawkins and co. try to move their microphone closer to the action? One report stated: "Men with cameras and the new phono-film were neither meek nor lowly, and had to be spoken to by the M.C.'s." Various still photographers are seen in the background when the Duke reads his reply, and they have moved outside the boundary railing of their reserve to be closer to their subject. Maybe a Phonofilms operator attempted to get the microphone nearer the speakers and was told to get back.

Descriptions of the scenes in the film

1. The film opens with a long-shot of H.M.S. Renown moored in Sydney Harbour, seen through a binocular outline mask. This is silent.
2. The following shot is again of the Renown but without the masking, and appears to have been filmed from a building in the city. The camera then pans to the right (i.e. eastwards) up the harbour, and then down to film Farm Cove. This was not shot at the time of the royal landing because there is little activity seen in Farm Cove, but the landing pontoon and rotunda are visible. This is also silent.
3. The next scene is a pan back and forth showing some of the crowd near the arbour, followed by the Duke of York first stepping on Australian soil. With the Governor-General and the Governor of New South Wales, he walked under the arbour from the gangway down the ramp on to land. His first duty at this point was to inspect the Naval Guard of Honour which was ranged along the shoreline (and can be seen in the top two photos above). The camera pointing is such that he appears on the far left of the image, and then moves out of frame; but the Phonofilms camera could not follow him because of the other cinematographers immediately to the left who would have blocked the view. The music of the National Anthem of the time, "God Save the King", is heard on the soundtrack.
4. The Duchess of York waited at the top of the ramp (with, amongst others, the Prime Minister, Stanley Melbourne Bruce), and when the Duke finished his inspection, the Duchess descended the ramp to be with him. At this time someone in the cameramen's reserve shouted "Three cheers for the Duchess!", which is heard on the soundtrack. It seems highly likely that it was one of the Phonofilms people who gave the call, knowing it would be picked up by the microphone nearby. The Duke and Duchess then crossed the space between the ramp and the rotunda, where they were met by the Lord Mayor, Town Clerk, and aldermen of Sydney. As well as the "three cheers" call and responses, crowd noise is on the soundtrack.
5. The Lord Mayor's address of welcome is not on the film, and the next shot is of the Duke's reply. On the soundtrack, there is a noticeable change in the background noise, and the voice that is heard is obviously not the Duke's, because it has an Australian accent! It has to be concluded that the originally-recorded Duke's words were not sufficiently discernible on the film, so were dubbed later. The synchronisation of this dubbed speech with the Duke's mouth movements often looks good, but at the end of his speech the dubbed words come out in a rush and do not match the Duke's mouth. What happened? Was the whole speech not filmed?
6. The Duke and Duchess then mounted the 4 steps to enter the rotunda. In this shot the microphone is seen in the foreground.
7. Having passed through the rotunda, there was a climb of over 100 steps to the road where the cars were waiting to take them on the Royal Progress through some of the streets of Sydney.
8. View of Royal Progress along streets. People on roof of building on left of image. Music on soundtrack.
9. Long-shot of NSW Government House.

The Duke's reply to the address of welcome

Following is the text of the Duke's reply, taken from a newspaper report. It nearly matches the speech dubbed on the film.

"My Lord Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Duchess and I most sincerely thank you for your address and good wishes. We do not feel we come to you as strangers, for my brother, the Prince of Wales, and the King and Queen before him have made too good friends with the people of Sydney for that.

Anyone must feel moved on reaching Australia for the first time; how much more must it affect us when our arrival is marked by such a welcome from your citizens, from the Royal Australian Navy, and from those who came to meet us in your beautiful harbour? Of that harbour I can only say that we have heard much, but never in terms which fully described the beauties which we saw to-day from the deck of H.M.S. Renown. The city is indeed fortunate in having such a glorious approach.

Once more may I repeat how deeply we appreciate your reception of us, and we hope that Sydney, the Lord Mayor, and her citizens may long continue to flourish and prosper."

Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia

The photograph on the left is of a frame from the original phonofilm; it is taken from the fifth scene. Note the variable-density soundtrack, the grey strip with horizontal lines, to the left of the frame image. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia have two access copies of this phonofilm, one on 35 mm film and the other on DVD. Unfortunately, each of these copies is damaged. The 35 mm film version has a modern variable-area soundtrack on the left side, and because this soundtrack is wider than the original variable-density soundtrack, part of it obscures the left edge of the image: approximately 10 % of the image area is lost. The DVD version is far worse: starting with this cropped image, portions of the top and bottom have been removed to achieve an aspect ratio of 1.4:1, with the result that about a quarter of the image is gone! The original phonofilm sound recorder was positioned above the camera proper, so that the soundtrack is recorded on the film (longitudinally) behind the corresponding image. (And for projection, the sound pick-up is above the image projector.) In the standard modern system, the soundtrack is ahead of the image. It is not known if the position of the soundtrack on the NFSA's copies of the phonofilm has been shifted relative to the image so that when shown on modern equipment the sound is correctly synchronised with the image.

H.M.S. Renown Marine Band at Taronga Park, Sydney

On the afternoon of the following day, Sunday, 27 March 1927, the marine band of the H.M.S. Renown played a concert in the bandstand at Taronga Park, on the north side of Sydney Harbour. The De Forest Phonofilms team was there, and filmed, with sound, some of the performance of the band.

No microphone is obviously visible in the scenes of the band playing: was it intentionally hidden from the camera's view?

In the modern copy of the film, where the behind variable-density soundtrack has been replaced with an ahead variable-area one, the sound is not synchronised with the picture. Did this occur during the conversion from the old to the current, standard sound-on-film format? If the original film could be viewed on a projector fitted with a contemporary De Forest sound head, would it also be out of sync? Whatever the case, the synchronisation of the modern copy can be corrected.

Screenings of these films

The first time the two films described above were shown was on 6 April 1927 at the opening of De Forest Phonofilms' new studios in the old tramway powerhouse building at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney.

The film made at the landing ceremony does not appear to have been shown publicly, probably because the Duke's speech was inaudible and because the dubbed version is easily seen (and heard) to be a deception. The film made of the Renown band, however, may have been shown at Melbourne's Majestic Theatre as part of a season of phonofilm supports in July and August 1927.

A combination of the two films - the welcoming ceremony and the Renown band scenes, both of which were long believed lost - was discovered in the British Film Institute's collection in March 2004 by British film researcher Tony Fletcher, with the assistance of David Pierce of the BFI.

Other Australian phonofilms

There is a single mention of a phonofilm taken during the afternoon of Tuesday, 29 March 1927 at the Sydney Cricket Ground at the exhibition given by school children to the Duke and Duchess of York. No further detail is given, so it is not known exactly what was filmed.

At the official opening of the new De Forest Phonofilms studios at Rushcutters Bay, Sydney on Thursday, 6 April 1927 the speech of Herbert Edward Pratten, Federal Minister for Trade and Customs, was phonofilmed. This speech was broadcast on Sydney radio station 2FC. The radio programmes for the day also listed, for three-quarters of an hour later, "a reproduction of Mr. Pratten's speech, which will be broadcast as the film is shown in synchronisation": did Phonofilms really manage to develop and print the film in that interval, and then show it, with the sound being put to air?! (It was, apparently, "the intention of the De Forest Phonofilm Company to cement into the walls of the studio" a copy of the film of Pratten's speech. If this did take place the film was not reported found when the building was demolished.)

The phonofilm made at the opening of Federal Parliament House at Canberra is treated separately.