Reading Juddery’s description of the coming of sound in cinema, it sounds like it was just chaos and panic on the industry side of the screen.  Actors’ careers were ending, screenwriters and directors did not know what they were doing, studios did not know how to handle the technology or their physical studios.  It kind of sounds like one big nightmare for the studios and actors that were finally starting to get comfortable with how the industry was to be run.

The fact that some actors had such difficulty making the shift to acting in talkies is one that surprises me.  Considering how today actors go back and forth between theater and screen, how people like professional athletes and rappers can appear in movies all the time and pull off acting, and considering that the silent film actors appeared to be so talented, it is hard to imagine some actors having to simply retire as a result of the technological shift.  I understand that there would be practices and methods to their acting that would need to change, but I guess I just kind of feel (maybe ignorantly) that if they were talented enough actors, who could in theory go back and forth between stage and screen, that the addition of sound and dialogue scenes would not be career enders.

The only concept that makes this huge downfall of many silent era stars seem plausible is the idea that fans had an idea/image of who these actors were, and to hear a voice that does not match that idea would be very jarring.  Today many fans base their likes and interests in films and actors based on what they hear about the actors and directors in the tabloids.  There persona and their careers are undeniably linked.  To suddenly add a brand new component to an actors persona (i.e. their voice) would definitely have a dramatic effect on their fans’ perception of them and inevitably their career.