Tri-Ergon
The Tri-Ergon sound-on-film system was developed from around 1919 by three German inventors, Josef Engl (1893–1942), Joseph Massolle (1889–1957), and Hans Vogt (1890–1979).
For a time Tri-Ergon successfully blocked all American attempts to show their sound films in Germany and other European countries, until a loose cartel was formed under an agreement in Paris in 1930.
[9] The first public showing of Tri-Ergon sound films took place in the Alhambra (Kino) [de] at 68 Kurfürstendamm, Berlin on 17 September 1922.
[10] It was an adaptation for the screen of a 1903 one-act play In de Jonge Jan [nl] by Dutch author Herman Heijermans who lived in Berlin from 1907 to 1911.
In order to continue developing their process, the inventors sold their patent to Swiss financial backers in St. Gallen who formed Tri-Ergon AG in Zürich, Switzerland.
[5] Ufa's first sound film using the Tri-Ergon system, the 20-minute short Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (1925) [de] ('The Match Girl'), was directed by Guido Bagier.
[18] Only one significant German film was shown in Ufa first-run cinemas in Berlin during this whole time the agreement was in effect: Joe May's silent The Farmer from Texas.
On 5 March 1927 Alfred Hugenberg's industrial Hugenberg-Gruppe took over Ufa and, as part of their initial cost-cutting measures, closed down the Tri-Ergon department.
[25] At the 1927 Baden-Baden festival of contemporary chamber-music, pioneering sound films with original scores by leading avant-garde composers were shown at special 'Film and Music' sessions.
[28] Some of them were shown at the first public showing of sound films in Austria on 8 June 1928 at the cinema in the Urania, Vienna, a public educational institute and observatory (see also Urania-Kino (de)) They included:[29] In September 1928 Walter Ruttman's full-length Stätten von deutscher Arbeit and Kultur was shown in the Vienna Urania cinema, along with Hans Moser als Wiener Dienstmann (1928), starring the Viennese comic actor Hans Moser.
[33] Reviewers of the Radio Exhibition screenings were impressed by the reproduction of natural sounds, such as street noises, marching soldiers, hammering machines, steam ships and zoo animals.
Free of dialogue, the film's only sound segment occurs when the tenor Richard Tauber sings the title song on the soundtrack (00:32).
[42] The main competitor of Tobis was the Klangfilm syndicate, a partnership formed in early 1929 between the electrical manufacturers Siemens & Halske, AEG, and Polyphon-Werke A.G. (who sold Polydor records).
[44] Although Tobis-Klangfilm's preparations were complete by the spring of 1929, Warner Bros. was still technically far ahead and in May 1929 tried to present The Singing Fool in Germany, a Part-Talkie with Al Jolson in a follow-up to The Jazz Singer.
Ufa's first major sound film, Melody of the Heart, was released in December 1929, followed in April 1930 by The Blue Angel with Dietrich and Emil Jannings, and music by Friedrich Hollaender; and in September that year The Three from the Filling Station with Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch and songs by the Comedian Harmonists.
In the summer of 1929 General Electric (GE) acquired a part interest in AEG, one of the companies making up the original Klangfilm AG syndicate.
On 22 July 1930, at a conference in Paris, France, RCA, ERPI, and Tobis-Klangfilm formed a loose cartel to divide the world into three regions for selling sound recording and reproducing apparatus.
ERPI and RCA acquired exclusive rights to sell their own recording and reproduction equipment, and distribute films in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and the Soviet Union.
Royalties collected in the United Kingdom were split, 25 percent going to Tobis-Klangfilm, who also acquired similar exclusive rights in Central Europe and Scandinavia.
Fox then separately sued (as test cases) Altoona Publix Theatres Inc., which leased and operated the projection equipment from RCA;[9] and Paramount for infringement of the "double printing" method.
During a series of legal tussles Fox at first won his lawsuit on appeal and then lost it after an unusual reversal of decision by the US Supreme Court in October 1934 not to review the case.
[51] Although this brought a swift end to the sound film wars between various competing US and European (Dutch, German, and Swiss) interests, it also meant that the original Tri-Ergon system was never formally adopted in the United States.
As a result, William Fox's own American Tri-Ergon Corporation failed to collect an estimated $100 million in licensing fees.
Another conference was held in Paris during February 1932, but Tobis-Klangfilm demanded extra royalty fees, and American companies began withholding payments.
Adolf Hitler called on Reichstag members to vote for the Enabling Act on 24 March 1933, completing his rise to power from 1919 through the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 to Chancellor ('Reichskanzler') of the German Reich.
[53] Cautio was personally set up in 1929 by Max Winkler, its sole owner and shareholder, as a front company for the secret transfer of funds from the NSDAP regime.
After two weeks' discussion all parties signed the new 1932 Paris accord on 18 March 1936 which included payment of royalties in the local currency where the film was being shown.
[57] A subsidiary, Tri-Ergon Musik AG of Berlin, made commercial phonograph records for the German, French, Swedish and Danish markets from about 1928 to 1932.
