The Movie The Jazz Singer

Quick Facts The movie The Jazz Singer was produced in 1927 and mostly played in theaters in It was the first full length movie with synchronized segments of talking of talking and singing. The production of the movie cost approximately $422,000 and made approximately $3,900,000. – In 2005 dollars, that would be an approximate profit of $126 million dollars. The movie won 3 Oscar Awards including Writing Adapted Screenplay, Engineering Effects, and a Special Award for Production. – The Jazz Singer was not allowed to compete in the Best Picture category because the Academy decided that it would be unfair to all the silent films of the year.

Screen Adaptation and Controversy The movie The Jazz Singer was based on a short story by Samuel Raphaelson in 1917 called the Day of Atonement which was published in 1922 in Everybody’s Magazine. Raphaelson wrote the short story after seeing Al Jolson perform in a Broadway play and based it loosely on Al Jolson’s life. The short story was converted into a play, which did not have any singing. Originally the movie was to star George Jessel, who played the main character on Broadway, but was later replaced by Al Jolson for $75,000 after negotiations with Jessel fell apart. Although they were friends prior to the movie, this created a rift between the two similar stars.

Introduction of Talking into Movies Although there had been a few “short” films with synchronized talking or singing, The Jazz Singer is considered to be the first full lenth “talkie”. The Jazz Singer relied on a new technology called Vitaphone in which a synchronized record was played with the movie. Prior to this, movies had live music played during the show and dialogue printed on the screen during the movie. Over 1,000 films and shorts were produced with Vitaphone. However, it was eventually replaced because errors in projecting often led to the sound getting out of synch with the movie.

Contemporary Critical Reception Critics at the time generally liked the story and performance by Al Jolson. African American and Jewish newspapers generally praised the work. – According to Lisa Silberman Brenner, “the Jewish press was noting with pride that Jewish performers were adopting aspects of African American music.” At the premiere, the audience became “hysterical” after the singing and dialogue scenes and broke out in chants of “Jolson! Jolson! Jolson!” The Los Angeles Times gave the following headline: "'Jazz Singer' Scores a Hit— Vitaphone and Al Jolson Responsible, Picture Itself Second Rate."

Effects on Movie Marketing Aside from its effects on talking pictures, The Jazz Singer had a big effect on movie marketing. Warner Brothers changed its marketing system from charging a flat rental to movie theaters to taking a percentage of the ticket sales. They reduced the percentage they took the longer the movie house kept the movie showing. Finally, they also required the movies to be shown for an entire week at a time, not split weeks as they had been before. These changes still apply to movies today.

Legacy Three different versions of The Jazz Singer have been made. The movie was first parodied by a Warner Brothers cartoon called I Love to Singa starring Owl Jolson. In 1991 an episode of the Simpsons was made called Like Father, Like Clown in which Krusty the Clown plays the Al Jolson role. In 1996, Congress selected The Jazz Singer for preservation in the U.S. Library of Congress’s National Film Registry of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically” significant motion pictures. In 1998, The Jazz Singer was votes as the 90 th best motion picture of all time by the American Film Institute.