A tenet of the "evening's entertainment" concept of the movies was that the program had to be varied and diverting. Short subjects acted as a buffer, a curtain-raiser to prepare the audience for the feature that followed. Another important function of the one- or two-reel productions of the classic period was to ensure that the program as a whole would appeal to an audience diversified by age, gender, education, and general interest. Some viewers would like sports more than fashion shows, some would prefer travelogues to cartoons. Sound added to the novelty value of shorts, opened up a new world of verbal comedy, and provided filmmakers with a laboratory in which the new technology could be tested and fine-tuned.

Short Subjects

Vitaphone maintained the substantial lead it had established for its sound...