This 1926 image shows crowds posing outside Warner's Theatre in New York for the 1926 opening of John Barrymore in "Don Juan." This silent film's synchronized score led directly to the breakthrough talkie, "The Jazz Singer," the following year. For every clever man who invents a labor-saving machine, it seems a crowd of angry men rises up to destroy it. In the 1930s, silent films were being replaced by Âtalkies, and musicians who played in movie theaters across the country were losing work. So their union launched a smear campaign. It took out ads calling the music canned and urged people to insist on the live variety. (AP Photo)
