The film is 1 hour and 29 minutes long. At 17 minutes and 25 seconds into it, all of it silent thus far, even in its apparent musical sequences, Jolson, as Jacob "Jakie" Rabinowitz, singing under the stage name Jack Robin, speaks words that Jolson (born Asa Yoelson) tended to say in his stage act: "Wait a minute, wait a minute: You ain't heard nothin' yet, folks!" He then sings the 1st song heard in a sound film, Gus Kahn's "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye)."
It is often called "the first sound film" or "the first talking picture." It isn't -- Jolson himself had sung in a much shorter film the year before -- but it is the 1st feature-length motion picture with a synchronized recorded music score, and the 1st feature-length motion picture with lip-synchronous speech and singing.
It is often called "the first sound film" or "the first talking picture." It isn't -- Jolson himself had sung in a much shorter film the year before -- but it is the 1st feature-length motion picture with a synchronized recorded music score, and the 1st feature-length motion picture with lip-synchronous speech and singing.
The film's scenes of Jolson, singing Southern songs in blackface, have been parodied and, retroactively, critically assailed. The Southern songs in question are "My Mammy" and "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" (a steamboat named for the Confederate General). But the film also includes Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead; "Yahrzeit Licht," Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies," and, as mentioned, "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye)."
Jolson died in 1950, at the age of 64, already a relic of a bygone age, and no longer an exemplar of Jewish success in America. His death came shortly after he had recorded one last hit song. It was a song from his era, first recorded in 1927. But it would be best known in a 1960 version by Elvis Presley: "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" Yes, Jolson did the spoken-word part in the middle, too, although the words are a little different. As would be said later, Asa Yoelson did have soul.
Bobby Gordon, who played Jakie as a boy, went on to become a renowned director under the name Robert Gordon, and died in 1990, as the last surviving castmember of The Jazz Singer.
Remakes of The Jazz Singer have been done in 1952 with Danny Thomas, in 1959 with Jerry Lewis (who brought back one of Jolson's songs, "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody," in 1956 and had a hit with it), and in 1980 with Neil Diamond.
Talking pictures was an idea whose time had come. On February 24, 1926, a film version of Giacomo Puccini’s opera La Bohème premiered, starring John Gilbert and Lillian Gish. The fact that a silent film had been made of an opera appears to suggest that the Roaring Twenties didn't understand the concept of irony.
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October 6, 1927 was a Thursday. There was only one sporting event of any consequence on the day, but it was of rather large consequence. It was Game 2 of the World Series, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The New York Yankees scored 3 runs in the 2nd inning and 3 more in the 8th, and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-2. Babe Ruth went 0-for-3, but drew a walk and got a run home on a sacrifice fly. Lou Gehrig went 1-for-3 with a walk. George Pipgras was the winning pitcher. The Yankees went on to sweep the Series in 4 straight.
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