Second Post- Chapter 1: The Jazz Singer and Commentary

Regarded as the first ‘talkie’, October 1927 Warner Bros-produced The Jazz Singer set the stage for films with synchronized dialogue. Films of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were silent, as producing sound to match with action on screen needed technology not yet invented. Live musicians would be hired to play in theaters screening silent films to add the synchronized sound effect (Beverly Boy Productions). Sam Warner, one of five Warner brothers, believed sound paired with image would be cinemas’ future.

Sound technology in The Jazz Singer set the stage for the Fox Movietone News synchronized sound reels. The Fox newsreels ran from 1927 to 1963, with sound involving Charles Lindbergh’s takeoff in his transatlantic flight from New York to Paris on May 20^th, 1927, as the first reel by Fox Movietone. A Vitaphone system, relying on a phonograph and key frame for sound synchronization, was not consistently successful. Humans had low error perception in matching sound and action in the frames. The new sound-on-film (SOF) technology, allowing the sound for a picture to be recorded on the same film strip as the picture, originated from two New York inventors named Ted Case and Earl Sponable. The first SOF camera, Field Outfit Number One, weighed 1,500 pounds and required three individuals to move. Young women riding fire engines, goats munching on laundry, and bubbling streams were a few of the first scenes re-presented to the public using SOF technology (Fox Movietone News).

The original SOF process, known as the DeForest Phonofilm, was patented by Lee De Forest in 1919. DeForest is attributed for expanding on SOF work conducted by Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt in 1914 and on the Tri-Ergon process in 1919. Sound was recorded as parallel lines on the film, with the lines “photographically [recording] electrical waveforms from a microphone” (DeForestRadio.com). The waveforms translated back to sound waves during movie projection. The Phonofilm system allowed synchronized sound to be recorded directly onto a film and would serve as the basis for the Vitatone and Fox Movietone systems.

Fox Film Corporation acquired Tri-Egon, and Warner Bros wired more than 150 theaters across the U.S. for sound. The Jazz Singer featured Al Jolson, an actor whose lines of synchronized dialogue riveted audiences. Clapping is heard in the film before Jolson begins singing. The audience was more fascinated by Jolson’s remarks before and after his singing than listening to the songs! Jolson sings and plays on the piano the 1922 hit “Toot, Toot, Tootsie.”  He charms his mother with the song, and the wordplay between him and his mother about moving to the Bronx and buying her dresses piqued audience interest. Jolson, as Jack Robin, ran away from his father after he beats him for singing in a saloon. Jack’s father, who was a cantor at the synagogue, desired Jack to sing in the synagogue. Jack changed his name from Jakie and took up jazz music instead, culminating in a performance on Broadway. His first performance on Broadway was quick, as he had to sing in his ill father’s place at the synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur. The film concludes with Jack and his father sharing a touching scene before the father dies (Britannica). The Jazz Singer was not the first all-spoken film, but the interactions between Jolson and his character’s mother led to the film’s acknowledgement as a talkie.

Jolson’s performance marked the first time an actor spoke on film. By 1929, three-fourths of Hollywood films produced had synchronized sound, and by 1930, no more silent films would be produced (Beverly Boy Productions). Films like The Jazz Singer inspired the dialogue, music, and sound effects seen in film today.