The Voice of the Theatre

It's fair to say that I'm about as far as you can get from what you'd call a hifi enthusiast. In fact, I'm known for not being able differentiate between AM and FM sound.

But that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the lettering from this vintage movie theater speaker:


Googling the name Altec and the phrase "voice of the theatre" turned up this ad, lots of images of the speakers, and a good number of them for sale:


The company was started by the same Western Electric engineers who developed the first commercially successful motion picture sound system in 1927 (source). It sounds as though they started making these horn-type speakers during or just after World War II. Custom versions of this type of speaker were used at Woodstock.

So there's something I've always taken for granted (movie sound) and never knew any details about. You never know where the stuff in a basement will lead.