The Jazz Singer - 1st feature length talkie

The Jazz Singer - 1st feature length talkie
10/06/1927 AD released

The first feature-length motion picture with not only a synchronized recorded music score but also lip-synchronous singing and speech in several isolated sequences.

Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and ended the silent film era, although there were still a few silent films after its release. It was produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system

In keeping with the film's theme of a conflict within a Jewish family, the film premiered after sunset on the eve of the Yom Kippur holiday.[30] The buildup to the premiere was tense. Besides Warner Bros.' precarious financial position, the physical presentation of the film itself was remarkably complex:

Each of Jolson's musical numbers was mounted on a separate reel with a separate accompanying sound disc. Even though the film was only eighty-nine minutes long...there were fifteen reels and fifteen discs to manage, and the projectionist had to be able to thread the film and cue up the Vitaphone records very quickly. The least stumble, hesitation, or human error would result in public and financial humiliation for the company.

None of the four Warner brothers were able to attend: Sam Warner—among them, the strongest advocate for Vitaphone—had died the previous day of pneumonia, and the surviving brothers had returned to California for his funeral.

New York City, NY

Lattitude: 40.7128° N
Longitude: 74.006° W
Region: North America

Modern Day United States

Events in 1927 MORE