After the Silents: Hollywood Film Music in the Early Sound Era, 1926-1934

        Many believe Max Steiner's score for King Kong (1933) was the first important attempt at integrating background music into sound film, but a closer look at the industry's early sound era (1926–1934) reveals a more extended & fascinating story. Viewing more than two hundred films from the period, Michael Slowik launches the first comprehensive study of a long-neglected phase in Hollywood's initial development, recasting the history of film sound & its relationship to the "Golden Age" of film music (1935–1950).  
        Slowik follows filmmakers' shifting combinations of sound & image, recapturing the volatility of this era & the variety of film music strategies that were tested, abandoned, & kept. He explores early film music experiments & accompaniment practices in opera, melodrama, musicals, radio, & silent films & discusses the impact of the advent of synchronized dialogue. He concludes with a reassessment of King Kong & its groundbreaking approach to film music, challenging the film's place & importance in the timeline of sound achievement.     
        Michael Slowik is assistant professor of television, film, & new media at San Diego State University. His work appears in Cinema Journal; American Music; The Journal of American Culture; Journal of Popular Film & Television; Music, Sound, & the Moving Image; Nineteenth-Century Theatre & Film; & Quarterly Review of Film & Video.