The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical drama directed by Alan Crosland and starring Al Jolson. Its synchronized singing and brief spoken dialogue helped popularize sound in feature films.

Vitaphone: A sound-on-disc system that synchronized phonograph recordings with motion pictures. Warner Bros. used Vitaphone to synchronize the film’s songs and dialogue.
The Jazz Singer (1925 play): A Broadway drama by Samson Raphaelson about a young Jewish man pursuing a career as a popular singer. Raphaelson’s play supplied the film’s story and central conflict.
The Broadway Melody: A 1929 American musical film directed by Harry Beaumont and released with synchronized dialogue and songs. It exemplifies the sound-era feature musicals that followed The Jazz Singer.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute”: A spoken line delivered by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer during a musical performance. The line became the film’s most famous demonstration of synchronized speech.
Sound film: A motion picture whose soundtrack is synchronized with its images. The film became a landmark in the transition from silent pictures to synchronized sound.
Samson Raphaelson: An American playwright and screenwriter whose works include the play and screenplay for The Jazz Singer. He adapted his Broadway play into the film’s screenplay.
Lights of New York: A 1928 American crime film, widely recognized as the first all-talking feature. It shows how quickly feature filmmaking moved beyond The Jazz Singer’s hybrid format.
“My Mammy”: A popular song written by Walter Donaldson and Joe Young, featured in The Jazz Singer. Jolson’s performance of the song anchors the film’s climactic musical sequence.
Sound-on-disc: A film sound system that plays recorded audio from a disc synchronized with the projected image. Vitaphone’s disc-based method supplied the film’s synchronized soundtrack.
Alan Crosland: An American film director active during the silent and early sound eras. Crosland directed the film and managed its blend of silent scenes and sound sequences.

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