Modern Americans think that the movies learned to talk in 1927 when Al Jolson opened his mouth in THE JAZZ SINGER, but sound pictures had a much longer history. Edison envisaged combining the phonograph with motion pictures even before they had been perfected and there is a test sequence from 1895. By the time this 'phonoscene' had been made, Alice Guy had been directing a series of them and there was a series in production in Germany, too. Yet true synchronization remained a problem, what with records wearing out and film breaking until the perfection of sound on film itself.
Invariably, these phonoscenes were bits of music hall acts. This is one of them, and it shows a family getting ready to go on a picnic. It's astonishing because of its age, but given the difficulties of exhibiting these works, it would be a short-lived false dawn.