{"product_id":"9783032328151","title":"The Coming of Sound to the Australian Cinema, 1924- 1937 Hollywood’s Talkie War Down Under","description":"\u003ch1\u003eThe Coming of Sound to the Australian Cinema, 1924- 1937\u003c\/h1\u003e\u003ch2\u003eHollywood’s Talkie War Down Under\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBrian Yecies\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cb\u003ePerforming Arts \/ Film \/ General\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book examines how the wiring of Australian cinemas for sound became tangled with questions of technological expertise, labor, and the politics of a significant media industry in flux. The story runs from 1924 to 1937 and draws on the trade and popular press, patent records, corporate filings, and the personal histories of the people who performed the work. It opens in the mid-1920s, when the Australian De Forest Phonofilms franchise gathered a cohort of skilled workers and laid a foundation for local innovation. When the Hollywood-backed conglomerates Western Electric and RCA, along with rival Pacent, moved to convert major urban theaters in Australia’s capital cities across 1928 and 1929, their push toward ruthless standardization met unexpected resistance. More than sixty-five locally developed sound systems answered the challenge. Raycophone, Australtone, Markophone, and Auditone were among the most prominent, built by inventors, engineers, theater showmen, and entrepreneurs drawn from radio and numerous other industrial fields. The wiring and servicing of Australia’s nearly 1,500 cinemas became a fiercely contested frontier in Hollywood’s global campaign. The stakes ran well beyond the machinery, reaching into national and cultural identity and the question of who would control a converging ecosystem of film, radio, and recorded sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBrian Yecies \u003c\/strong\u003eis Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong, where he teaches and researches Austral-Asia’s creative industries. His work ranges from the history of film exhibition, cultural policy, and Chinese digital media through to the global expansion of South Korea’s transmedia industries and blockchain solutions for digital art. Organizations including the Australian Research Council, the Academy of Korean Studies, and the Korea Foundation have supported his work with major competitive grants, enabling him to produce over 100 publications. His book \u003cem\u003eSouth Korea’s Webtooniverse and the Digital Comic Revolution\u003c\/em\u003e (2021) – co-authored with Aegyung Shim, offers an in-depth study of a major, globally oriented Asian-born digital media platform and its role in the broader transformation of East Asian media.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublication Date: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e10 December 2026\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePublisher: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSpringer Nature Switzerland\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eImprint: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePalgrave Macmillan\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eISBN-13: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e9783032328151\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFormat: \u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHardback\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e","brand":"Springer Nature Switzerland","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50806370959500,"sku":"9783032328151","price":125.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/fh90cf-fv.myshopify.com\/products\/9783032328151","provider":"Late Knight Books and Services, LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}