Marion Talley

Feature-length compilation of 1920s newsreel footage, with commentary about news, sports, lifestyles, and historical figures.

This short was released in connection with the 20th anniversary of Warner Brothers' first exhibition of the Vitaphone sound-on-film process on 6 August 1926. The film highlights Thomas A. Edison and Alexander Graham Bell's efforts that contributed to sound movies and acknowledges the work of Lee De Forest. Brief excerpts from the August 1926 exhibition follow. Clips are then shown from a number of Warner Brothers features, four from the 1920s, the remainder from 1946/47.

An eccentric musical family is kept in order by a talented daughter with modest ambitions.

Marion Talley (soprano) and Beniamino Gigli (tenor) of the Metropoitan Opera Company sing "Verranno a te sull'aura" (Borne on the Signing Breeze) from Act I of Lucia di Lammermoor in Vitaphone #499.

Metropolitan Opera star Marion Talley sings "Caro Nome" from Verdi's opera Rigoletto in a short film made in the Vitaphone process and shown before the feature Don Juan on 6 August 1926 at Warner's Theater in New York City.