producer please help the pore
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound , especially with no spoken dialogue . The silent film era lasted from 1895 to 1936 . In silent films for entertainment , the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures , mime and title cards which contain a written indication of the plot or key dialogue . The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself , but because of the technical challenges involved , synchronized dialogue was only made practical in the late 1920s with the perfection of the Audion amplifier tube and the introduction of the ___MASK27___ system . During silent films , a pianist , theatre organist , or , in large cities , even a small orchestra would often play music to accompany the films . Pianists and organists would either play from sheet music or improvise ; an orchestra would play from sheet music . Melpomene (" to sing " or " the one that is melodious "), initially the ___MASK17___ of Chorus , she then became the ___MASK17___ of Tragedy , for which she is best known now . Her name was derived from the Greek verb melpô or melpomai meaning " to celebrate with dance and song ." She is often represented with a tragic mask and wearing the cothurnus , boots traditionally worn by tragic actors . Often , she also holds a knife or club in one hand and the tragic mask in the other . Please Help the Pore ( also known as Please Help the Poor ) is a 1912 American silent short drama starring William Garwood , Riley Chamberlin , Mignon Anderson and Marie Eline . The ___MASK37___ ( later the Thanhouser Film Corporation ) was one of the first motion picture studios , founded in 1909 by Edwin Thanhouser , his wife Gertrude and his brother - in - law Lloyd Lonergan . It operated in New York City until 1918 , producing over a thousand films . William Davis Garwood , Jr . ( April 28 , 1884  December 28 , 1950 ) was an American stage and film actor and director of the early silent film era in the 1910s . Marie Eline ( February 27 , 1902  January 3 , 1981 ) was an American silent film child actress and sister of Grace Eline . Nicknamed " The Thanhouser Kid " she began acting for the ___MASK37___ in New Rochelle , New York at the age of eight and starred in exactly one - hundred films between 1910 and 1914 . Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance . The term comes from a Greek word meaning " action " ( Classical Greek : , " drama "), which is derived from " to do " ( Classical Greek : , " drao "). The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy . They are symbols of the ancient Greek Muses , Thalia , and Melpomene . Thalia was the ___MASK17___ of comedy ( the laughing face ), while Melpomene was the ___MASK17___ of tragedy ( the weeping face ). Considered as a genre of poetry in general , the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle ' s " Poetics " ( c . 335 BCE ) the earliest work of dramatic theory .