I'm sure many of you know that the practice of lip synching began with
the first "talkies". It was necessary to be able first to have a good
music sound track (miking and recording was still very primitive), so
they prerecorded the music, orchestra, singers and all. Secondly, or
maybe even, primarily, the musical numbers had (and still must today) to
"synch" perfectly in order to shoot the material from different angles
or "setups" after which the editor could select the best shots for
his/her final continuity.

A wonderful sendup of this was in the MGM movie, "Singing in the Rain"
when Debbie Reynolds was behind a curtain to sub for a "singing"
actress who'd made the transition from the silent films to the talkies,
but had a horrible voice.

As far as union pay, the actors were paid by the Screen Actors' Guild
while the musicians were paid (after sound stage prerecording) by the
Musicians' Union.

Rod Stephens
\Steven Smolian wrote:

>> What would be really interesting is to watch the Actors' union and the
>> Musicians' union battle over which group would represent them and which
>> wage scale they should be paid!
>
>
> And played
>
> Steve Smolian
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "steven c" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 7:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Poor sounding concert halls.
>
>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lou Judson" <[log in to unmask]>
>>
>>> Thanks Steven - as if I didn't know! MY point was imagining an entire
>>> orchestra being mimed by all 104 or so actors, and how to get them to
>>> know when to play what note.. just a silly thought.
>>>
>>
>> Steven C. Barr
>> (who read that Whiteman gave Bing a violin with rubber strings to
>> "play"...)
>>
>>
>> --
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>>
>