Now we're talkin!

Are you ready for a new lesson on Motion Picture History boys and girls? Can you say "talky"?

And so it goes ....the silent movie had reached its hey day by the late 1920s only to be replaced by the "talkies" (a.k.a. sound films). The first movie to be sinchronized with sound was in 1926. According to Wikipedia :

Don Juan (1926) is a Warner Brothers film, directed by Alan Crosland. It was the first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack, though it has no spoken dialogue. The production, which premiered in New York City on August 6, 1926, stars John Barrymore as the hand-kissing womanizer (the number of kisses in the film set a record).

The first feature length movie to synchronize dialogue and thus presented as the first "talky" was in fact The Jazz Singer
According to this website about Talking Motion Pictures:

"The Jazz Singer" triggered the talking-picture revolution. Based on Alfred Cohn's story "The Day of Atonement," and Samson Raphaelson's popular Broadway play of the same name, the film starred Al Jolson as a Jewish boy who attempts to become a Broadway star. Even though "The Jazz Singer" was not the first film to use sound, it proved to be the first one to use spoken dialogue as part of the dramatic action. The combination of Jolson, America's most popular singer, and the new medium of sound helped to produce a profit of $3.5 million, causing Warner Bros. to begin its rule as one of Hollywood's top studios. When Warners Bros follow-up sound films, such as "The Lights of New York" also became box-office hits, the rest of Hollywood switched to sound with startling speed, hoping to adapt to the new technology. A year after its release, Hollywood recognized the importance of "The Jazz Singer" with regard to motion picture history by honoring the film with a special Academy Award.

The following clips are from the original movie The Jazz Singer






On that note we will end this lesson. Next blog will pick up with a brief history of the Academy Awards as it coincides with the advent of the talkies.