Jazz Singer, The, is a 1927 motion picture credited with ending the silent era in movies and starting talking pictures. Although the movie was silent for much of its length, the popular American entertainer Al Jolson sang and spoke in four scenes. The film used Vitaphone, a system of synchronous sound, in which the sound from a mechanically recorded disc was mechanically synchronized with the film strip.
The Jazz Singer was released by Warner Bros. studio. The film was not the first talking motion picture, but it was the first to succeed at the box office. Within a year, silent movies were obsolete in Hollywood as motion-picture studios frantically converted to sound.
The Jazz Singer concerns the son of a Jewish cantor (religious singer) who breaks with his Orthodox Jewish family to pursue a career in show business. The sentimental story was a showcase for Jolson, who sang several songs identified with him. They include “Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo’ Bye)” and “My Mammy.” The sound portion of the movie also contains Jolson’s famous line “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” The film was remade in 1953, starring Danny Thomas, and again in 1980, starring Neil Diamond.
See also Motion picture (The movies talk) .
