That crunch of boots in snow is a leather pouch of cornstarch, and the sickening bone snap is frozen romaine lettuce. This episode explores the life and legacy of Jack Donovan Foley, who began at Universal Studios in 1914 amid the shouting, hammering chaos of silent film sets. When Warner Bros. released Don Juan and The Jazz Singer, Universal faced disaster with Show Boat, a silent musical already shot. The studio asked for employees with radio experience, and Foley, drawing on the live sound effects tradition of radio drama, projected the footage in a studio and performed footsteps, doors, and fabric live to a single continuous track.

We explain why primitive carbon microphones hidden in flower pots captured only voices, why the international dubbing boom made Foley's methods an industry standard for music and effects tracks, and why real  ...