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The Case:
A New Jersey man was antiquing in Pennsylvania when he bought a collection of photos, letters and scrapbooks that belonged to a man named Eugene Lauste. The seller said Lauste, a relative, played an important role in early filmmaking.
Most compelling in this collection was a rolled strip of film with small images on the right and odd zebra stripes on the left.
In the scrapbook he also found an article from 1928 featuring a photo of a similar film strip with the caption, “The First Talking Picture: A section of a talking picture made in 1913 by Eugene Lauste.”
Could this film be a piece of the first talking picture? History Detectives delves into the early world of movie making, consulting with film historians, experts and technicians, to find the answer.
Lauste Film Images
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