From acclaimed author Scott Eyman comes the fascinating story of how the transition from silent films to ‘talkies’ transformed Hollywood.

It was the end of an era. It was a turbulent, colorful, and altogether remarkable period, four short years in which America’s most popular industry reinvented itself.

Here is the epic story of the transition from silent films to talkies, that moment when movies were totally transformed and the American public cemented its love affair with Hollywood. As Scott Eyman demonstrates in his fascinating account of this exciting era, it was a time when fortunes, careers, and lives were made and lost, when the American film industry came fully into its own.

In this mixture of cultural and social history that is both scholarly and vastly entertaining, Eyman dispels the myths and gives us the missing chapter in the history of Hollywood, the ribbon of dreams by which America conquered the world.

"The Speed of Sound is the epic story of the transition from silent films to talkies, a turbulent time in Hollywood history. Myth has it that it happened overnight, that Al Jolson said a few words in The Jazz Singer and the talkies were born, that stars with weak or inappropriate voices either killed themselves or went into seclusion, that the movie industry simply refitted itself and went on with business. The truth, however, is more involved--not to mention sinister, colorful, and entertaining. Certainly sound marked the end of moviemaking as its first creators had known it; their careers and those of many others who had been celebrated during Hollywood's silent era were over. But as Scott Eyman demonstrates in his fascinating account, it was also a time when the American film industry came fully into its own, and when the American film-going public truly succeumbed to Hollywood's bewitching spell"--Page 4 of cover.

“Eyman tells this story with wit and skill, detailing a surprisingly overlooked but crucial period in Hollywood history.”