ABSTRACT
The conventional wisdom has always been that talkies evolved out of silent films, but sound actually grew up alongside silents. The initially half-witted hybrid thrived in spite of itself, expanding voraciously and choking off the more fragile strain. Talkies were not an evolution, but a mutation, a different art form entirely; as a result, an art form was eliminated and hundreds of careers were extinguished. Major directors were ruined, great stars plummeted.
