WHAT HAPPENED TO MUSIC AND SILENT FILMS IN THE UNITED STATES?
In the USA, it is generally acknowledged that one MAX WINKLER was the first to catalogue music for the silent film. Winkler was a clerk in the Carl Fischer store in New York. During 1912, the demands on the Carl Fischer music store for music to accompany films became so great that Winkler began losing sleep over the matter. “FILMS IN REVIEW”: (Max Winkler interview) “One day, after I had gone home from work I could not fall asleep. The hundreds and thousands of titles, the MOUNTAINS of music that Fischers has stored and catalogued kept going through my mind! There was music – surely to fit ANY given situation in ANY picture – if we could only think of a way to let all these orchestra leaders, pianists and organists know what we had! If we could use our knowledge and experience not when it was too late, but much EARLIER, before they ever had to sit down and play, we would be able to sell them music – not by the film! Not by the ton…….! But by the TRAINLOAD!! That thought suddenly el
