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The Jazz Singer was the first feature film shot with spoken words as well as music on the sound track. |
New York has long been a center of excellence in the performing and visual arts, and has been host to many of the greatest achievements and innovations of stage and screen.
One such achievement was the premiere of the film “The Jazz Singer” in Times Square, New York City on October 6, 1927. The Jazz Singer was the first full-length motion picture to feature synchronized, spoken dialogue on the soundtrack.
The film depicts the story of a young man from New York’s Lower East Side who defies his old-fashioned Jewish family by becoming a popular entertainer. In the end he must find a way to reconcile his professional ambitions with the traditions of his family and faith.
Prior to the premiere of The Jazz Singer, there was a booming industry in silent films dating back to the turn of the century. Despite the name, however, these films were seldom truly silent; they were often accompanied by musicians in the theater or by music that was played on record players.
A breakthrough came in 1926 when a sound recording system, called Vitaphone, was invented that allowed an actor’s dialogue to be recorded onto a phonograph disc at the same time it was spoken on the set. Made in 1927 using the Vitaphone technology, The Jazz Singer was the first feature film shot with spoken words as well as music on the sound track. The premiere of the Jazz Singer is considered a turning point in the history of the cinema; it heralded the dawn of talking films and the decline of the silent film era.
At the premiere of The Jazz Singer, audiences in New York City where thrilled when they saw leading man Al Jolson appear on the big screen and say the immortal words, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” Attendees recalled that when Jolson and his co-star began speaking their dialogue, “the audience became hysterical.”
The Jazz Singer has received many accolades since its New York premiere. It was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Engineering Effects Oscars, and producer Darryl F. Zanuck won a Special Academy Award for his work on the film. In 1996, it was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry of "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" motion pictures. It was later chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the best American films of all time.
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