He Stopped His Salary and Pawned His Wife's Jewelry — on Movies With Sound (1927)

October 6th, 1927. The smallest big studio bets everything on a needle on a record. Harry Warner stops his salary. Pawns his wife's jewelry. Moves smaller. $422,000. Two theatres. Opening night. Vitaphone: sound on discs, twenty-five records a show, a needle synced to the projector. The stock climbs $21 to $132. 99 years later, the bet reads obvious only because it won. So what would you pawn? Same Day, Different Century — a new day in history, every day. New videos daily.