Movietonen.
/ˈmuːvɪtəʊn/, U.S. /ˈmuviˌtoʊn/ Now historical.
A proprietary name for: a system for recording sound on a film negative, formerly used chiefly in making newsreels; a film made using this system. Also used allusively of the very formal style of presentation characteristic of newsreels produced by the Movietone Company. Usually attributive. Cf. phonofilm n., Vitaphone n.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > cinematography > filming > special techniques > [noun] > specific sound techniques
Vitaphone1926
Movietone1927
playback1952
optical sound1960
Foley1973
walla1984
1927 N.Y. Times 25 Feb. 25/1 Commercial production of motion pictures with music or voice photographed on the film will begin next Monday, the Fox Case studios announced yesterday, following a demonstration of the Movietone process at the Harris Theatre.
1927 Daily Express 27 Aug. 1/3 The ‘movietone’ is an invention with the same technical basis as the ‘phonofilm’.
1927 G. B. Shaw Platform & Pulpit (1962) 178 I am an actual real animal; I am not the latest movietone illusion.
1940 A. M. Lindbergh Let. 28 Dec. in War within & Without (1980) 156 I don't know how you feel after our excursion into the shellacked, unreal world of radio and Movietone but I feel slightly prostituted.
1969 Listener 23 Jan. 123/2 A reading from the Old Testament about the death of Moses delivered in a hushed movietone voice.
1996 Sci. Amer. Feb. 121/2 Then, voilà..the new Movietone system from Western Electric, incorporating the amplifying power of the audion.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1927