“How Movies Got Sound” –
Bill Waggener
Joseph Tykocinski Tykociner was the first research professor on the faculty of the University of Illinois. On June 9, 1922, in one of the physics labs, he demonstrated the first successful attempt at placing a sound track on the edge of movie film so that the dialogue would be accurately timed with the actors’ speech: sound on film.In 1937, Bill’s father, Robert Nagle Waggener, began working in Tykociner’s lab as a chemistry student, which developed into a full-time position in the electrical engineering department. Although Tykociner retired officially in 1946, he continued to work in his lab until his death in 1969. While Bill was in Junior High School and Senior High School, he spent many after-school hours in the EE labs and knew all of the faculty and PhD students as well as Tykociner, himself.
Bill Waggener grew up in Urbana, Illinois, where dinner discussions often centered on electrons, capacitors, resistors, and voltage vs. amperage vs. resistance. Bill attended Pomona College for his undergraduate degree in music with minors in zoology and mathematics, followed by a secondary teaching credential and a MS in music at the Claremont Graduate School, which launched his teaching career in the Pomona Unified School District. The science bug still lived on, however, so he earned a MS in vertebrated zoology and ecology at Cal Poly – Pomona. After 21 years in the PUSD, he moved to Mt. San Antonio College for the next 29 years, during which he earned his PhD in physiology at UC Riverside. He retired officially in 2003 but couldn’t quit altogether until 2014. Bill is highly valued member and leader of the University Club.
