RKO, 1930: Murray Spivack, sound man extraordinaire, with a special sound effects apparatus. Spivack had been a music recording mixer among other things, when his innovative sound effects work on King Kong (1933) launched the modern concept (though not with the phrase we use now) of sound design for movies. We can speculate that this hand-made mechanical prop was built to be recorded for comic effect: Cranking it would initiate a rapid succession of toilet plungers hitting the floor. We can imagine the sound as a kind of “ka-poketa-ka-poketa” mechanism heard (perhaps as an ancient car engine) in a cartoon or a comic short film. - Bison Archives and HollywoodHistoricPhotos.com