On This Day: The Film ‘The Jazz Singer’ is Released

On Oct. 6, 1927, “The Jazz Singer” debuted; it was the first full-length film to feature the voices of its actors.

You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet
On October 6, 1927, the curtain rose in the Warner Brothers New York Theater, and the members of the audience heard the voice of one of their favorite actors.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin' yet,” Al Jolson called to the orchestra in the movie, “The Jazz Singer.”
During the 88-minute film, Jolson captivated the audience in his role as Jakie Rabinowitz, singing six tunes and speaking for several minutes. It was the first time synchronized sound with singing and dialogue had been used in a full-length film, and it was a hit.

The Early Sound of the film industry
When Thomas Edison conceived of moving pictures, he always planned there to be sound as well. Inventors spent the next few decades searching for a technology to synchronize sound with image. Meanwhile, the era of the silent film was in full swing.
In 1925, Warner Bros. recorded a film with music and sound effects, “Don Juan,” using a system called the Vitaphone. The studio released it in 1926 along with a series of shorts with sound. Studio executive Jack Warner remained unconvinced of the technology’s promise: “They fail to take into account the international language of the silent pictures, and the unconscious share of each onlooker in creating the play, the action, the plot and the imagined dialogue for himself.”
Nevertheless, the studio chose to produce a second film with a recorded soundtrack. Although Jolson was only hired to sing for the film, many considered his improvised speaking parts, which comprised fewer than 300 words, the reason the movie was such a smash. Although it wasn’t the first time sound was synchronized with film, nor was it the first film with speaking throughout—that came a year later—“The Jazz Singer” broke new ground with the way it captured the attention of the movie industry and got producers to focus on sound in films.

The Story of Jazz Singer
Descended from five generations of cantors, Jakie Rabinowitz decides to break with tradition and funnel his singing talent into a career in show business. He loves jazz music and is inexplicably drawn to the stage.
After fighting with his father over this choice, Rabinowitz leaves home, changes his name to Jack Robin and quickly becomes very successful. However, he misses his family, who has disowned him. When his father is on his deathbed, he offers to accept Jakie back into the family if he will sing as cantor.
Variety dubs the film “the best thing Vitaphone has ever put on the screen.” In 1927, it received one of the first-ever Academy Awards for being a “pioneer talking picture.” However, while they loved the technology that brought them Jolson’s voice, some early audiences were lukewarm on the sappy story of “The Jazz Singer.”

Al Johnson
Born Asa Yoelson in Lithuania on May 26, 1886, Al Jolson was brought to the United States at an early age. His father, a cantor in a local synagogue, discouraged Jolson’s love of the entertainment industry, which blossomed early. To his family’s chagrin, Jolson and his brother began performing in vaudeville shows.

Jolson changed his name and began performing in blackface in minstrel shows in his twenties. By 1911, his larger-than-life personality drew audiences who would pay to see him in whatever stage production he appeared. From 1912 to 1930, Jolson also worked as a recording artist; 23 of his 85 recorded songs were considered hits.

After meeting Jolson, playwright Samson Raphaelson wrote a play about the performer’s life entitled, “Day of Atonement.” It was adapted into a screenplay and later made into “The Jazz Singer.” Despite the fact that Jolson was the inspiration for the main character, he was not the first choice for the role. He was offered it after another actor declined.

by Jennifer Ferris