Historic moment as Harrogate's incredibly 'overlooked cinema pioneer' is finally to be recognised
An overlooked cinema pioneer is to finally receive a plaque from Harrogate Civic Society to celebrate the day he invented ‘talking pictures’ before The Jazz Singer.
On April 28, 1921 a large audience gathered in the Royal Hall to see what is now understood to have been the world's earliest synchronisation of sound with silent films – six years before the The Jazz Singer opened in New York and ended the era of silent movies and ushered in the birth of the “talkies”.
It was all thanks to the genius of Harrogate-based inventor Claude Hamilton Verity, who lived and had his workshop at 9 East Park Road in the early 1920s.
Originally from Leeds, where he was a successful businessman, Verity’s invention of the "Veritiphone" in Harrogate was the world's first successful, sustained synchronisation of sound with film.
Importantly, it came six years before Warner Bros and Al Jolson made cinema history – in theory – with the launch of part-talkie musical drama film The Jazz Singer in 1927 which was a world box office smash.
Hitherto unheralded, the achievement of the game-changing Claude Hamilton Verity 1880-1949 is to be marked on September 17, 2025 with the unveiling of a brown plaque at the original address of his workshop.
This significant moment is the result of efforts by Harrogate Civic Society and the Harrogate Film Society which are both keen to redress the historical imbalance created almost a century ago with the development of the much better funded "Vitaphone" system in the United States.
With the support of Harrogate estate agents Verity Frearson and the Verity family, next month’s tribute in Harrogate to the “forgotten man of cinema” will include a celebration at Everyman Cinema afterwards.
There will also be a a mini-exhibition about the life of Claude Hamilton Verity in the West Park Centre in Harrogate.