In 1926-7 the public did accept sound film, and the film industry responded-both to the invention and to the public’s obvious taste for its results-with astonishing speed.

How is it, one must wonder, that an audience apparently very comfortable with the sophisticated Hollywood-style “silent” film could, almost overnight, shift the focus of its attention? How could it be that an entire industry, including participants whose involvement with filmmaking was more artistic than commercial, in a flash embraced an idea that for years it had scornfully dismissed? For quite a long time the sound film had been unsuccessfully clamoring for the public’s attention; why did it so suddenly not just enter into but take over the industry’s mainstream? The answers to all these questions can be distilled down to a single word: timing.