mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
It was 79 years ago today, on October 6, 1927, that Warner Brothers released The Jazz Singer. It was, famously, the first “talking picture” — featuring about ten minutes of dialogue, much of it improvised — and while it enjoyed only middling returns at the box office, it marked a revolution (and many said at the time, a step backward) in the way films were made.
Though sync-sound dialogue was initially considered by many to be a passing fad (as innovations like 3D and Cinerama proved to be in later years), and masters of silent filmmaking technique like F.W. Murnau and King Vidor, whose stylish camera movements would be stifled by the bulky sound-proofing that sync-sound filming required be placed around the camera, certainly wished it were a fad that would pass, sync-sound wasn’t about to go gently into that good night.
Though the transition from silents to talkies wouldn’t take place overnight — the last silent studio picture was released in 1935 — after Jazz Singer, the handwriting was on the wall. Happy birthday, talkies!
According to www.mentalfloss.com, “The Jazz Singer” was the first motion picture with sound.
In January 1914, the premiere in New York City of the “Photo-Drama of Creation,” (during the era of silent movies) where an audience of 5,000 gathered at The Temple, a building on West 63rd Street. The “Photo-Drama of Creation” was a combination motion picture and slide presentation, synchronized with musical recordings and phonograph-record talks. It was about eight hours in length and was presented in four parts.
This was thirteen years before “The Jazz Singer,” in 1927.
According to someone, somewhere, the Parisien Lauset patented the first motion picture with sound on August 11, 1906.
[From ]
This was twenty-one years before “The Jazz Singer,” in 1927.
Personally, I would’ve thought that Mentalfloss.com would do a little fact-checking BEFORE publishing.
posted by j on 10-6-2006 at 3:29 pm
Hi J,
Thanks for your comments and the added info. I never claimed that “Jazz Singer” was the first motion pic to be accompanied by sound — only that it was the first sync-dialogue “talkie.”
posted by Ransom on 10-6-2006 at 10:01 pm