The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. As the first feature-length motion picture with not only a synchronized recorded music score, but also lip-synchronous singing and speech in several isolated sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and the decline of the silent film era - wikipedia

The premiere was screened on October 6, 1927, at Warner Bros.' flagship theatre in New York City. So it's the 90th anniversary Friday October 6, 2017.

Directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, the film, featuring six songs performed by Al Jolson, is based on a play of the same name by Samson Raphaelson, adapted from one of his short stories, "The Day of Atonement".

The film depicts the fictional story of Jakie Rabinowitz, a young man who defies the traditions of his devout Jewish family. After singing popular tunes in a beer garden he is punished by his father, a hazzan (cantor), prompting Jakie to run away from home.

Some years later, now calling himself Jack Robin, he has become a talented jazz singer. He attempts to build a career as an entertainer but his professional ambitions ultimately come into conflict with the demands of his home and heritage.

Above is one of many alternative posters—this one designed for theaters charging 25 cents; the image of Jack, in a suggestive nightrobe, carrying Mary does appear in the film. It appears shortly after Jack sees Mary perform for the first time.

Darryl F. Zanuck won an Honorary Academy Award for producing the film; Alfred A. Cohn was nominated for Best Writing (Adaptation) at the 1st Academy Awards. In 1996, The Jazz Singer was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" motion pictures. In 1998, the film was chosen in voting conducted by the American Film Institute as one of the best American films of all time, ranking at number ninety.

The premiere was set for October 6, 1927, at Warner Bros.' flagship theater in New York City; it was chosen to coincide with Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday around which much of the movie's plot revolves. The buildup to the premiere was tense. Besides Warner Bros.' precarious financial position, the physical presentation of the film itself was remarkably complex:

None of the four Warner brothers were able to attend: Sam Warner among them, the strongest advocate for Vitaphone, had died the previous day of pneumonia, and the surviving brothers had returned to California for his funeral.

Critical reaction was generally, though far from universally, positive. ''New York Times'' critic Mordaunt Hall, reviewing the film's premiere, declared that