|
|
|
|
The First
Full-Length Hollywood Talkie:
The Jazz Singer, 1927 |
|
|
|
Excerpt
from "The Jazz Singer"
from "Hollywood and the Stars:
The Immortal Jolson"
1963
Narrator: Joseph Cotten
|
The first scene of "The Jazz Singer" that included sound
was filmed and recorded in a studio in Los Angeles in
mid-August, 1927. Al Jolson is playing the role of Jack
Robin and is singing the song "Dirty Hands, Dirt Face"
to a crowd in a San Francisco cafe.
As it was during his
performances in real life, the audience applauds
thunderously. Jolson's character shouts out, "Wait a minute. Wait a
minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet. You ain't heard
nothin' yet. You wanna hear 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie'? All
right, hold on, hold on. Lou, listen. Play 'Toot, Toot,
Tootsie!' Three choruses, ya understand, and on the
third chorus, I whistle. Now give it to 'em hot and
heavy."
No dialogue was
supposed to be spoken in the film, but Jolson's
adlibbing convinced producer Sam Warner to include it, along with a scene of Jolson's character
speaking to his mother (see below.)
|
|
|
|
|
In April 1926, the Vitaphone Corporation was created as
a joint venture between Warner Brothers and Western
Electric. This venture produced the Vitaphone process,
i.e. one of "sound-on-disk." This process was used initially to
create films with sounds of both the most popular
vaudevillians and other current performers, as well as
to provide musical scores for feature-length, silent
movies.
In August of the same
year, Al Jolson, George Jessel
(read more about Jolson, Jessel, and Eddie Cantor by
using the Jessel link provided here), and a number of other
performers signed contracts to appear in short films
("shorts") for Vitaphone. During the first week in
September, Jolson went to the studio where they filmed
him in "Al Jolson in
a Plantation Act," a short nine-minute film in
which he
comes out of a cabin (in blackface) and sings three songs,
including "April Showers."
Jolson had heard about
a Samson Raphaelson story that had been made into a
play--the story had been named "The Day of Atonement,"
but the play had been renamed "The Jazz Singer." Jolson
was interested in this play, and being friendly with the
Warner family, he made his interest known to Sam
Warner who owned the screen rights to the story.
|
|
|
Earlier in 1925, two producers
in the Sam H. Harris office took a option on "The Jazz
Singer," hoping to feature George Jessel in it. Jessel and the
play "The Jazz Singer" had its premiere in Connecticut in July
1925. The play "The Jazz Singer" ran a full season on Broadway
during the 1926-7 season before going on tour. |
|
|
Jolson was not the film studio's
first choice to play the lead in "The Jazz Singer."
They had offered it to both George Jessel, who had
unsuccessfully tried to negotiate some sort of agreement to do the film. The film was also offered to
Eddie Cantor, but he also turned it down. This was fortuitous for Jolson, as
the film's audience was very
excited to see Jolson in the title role.
"The Jazz Singer" had its world premiere on October 6, 1927.
It was the first full-length Hollywood feature film in which
dialogue was spoken as part of the film's action. The majority
of the film, however, is filled with vocal musical numbers and
accompaniment that is synchronized with the sound. The film
has a musical score, as well as musical sound effects and
title/subtitle cards which are used throughout the entire film.
The co-founder
of the Warner studios, Sam Warner, passed away age the age of
forty, just one day before the world premiere of "The Jazz
Singer" in New York City.
|
|
Al Jolson as Jakie Rabinowitz
(Jack Robin) and
his screen mother Sara (Eugenie Besserer.) |
|
|
Jakie, his mother Sara and
his father Cantor Rabinowitz,
as played by versatile actor Warner Oland. |
Now for the plot of
"The Jazz Singer." Jakie's father, Cantor
Rabinowitz, is troubled and upset because his son Jakie
has no desire to carry on the family's traditions and
heritage. For five generations, the Rabinowitzs have
been Cantors in the synagogue, but his son Jakie would
rather sing jazz and ragtime songs. Jakie's mother
senses this.
Thirteen-year old Jakie is to
supposed sing "Kol Nidre"
at the Orchard Street synagogue in place of his father on the eve of Yom Kippur, but he does not show up for services.
Where can he be?
An Orthodox and
powerful man named Yudelson, from the neighborhood
where the Rabinowitzs live, hears Jakie singing at a bar-cafe and drags Jakie
by the ear back
home to his parents. Jakie tells his mother that he
wants to be on stage, but Cantor Rabinowitz, angered by
what has transpired, prepares to
whip young Jakie with his belt. Jakie says that he will run
away if he is whipped--he is and he does. While his
father is at the synagogue, Jakie sneaks back home to
retrieve a photo of his mother, then runs away. |
|
|
|
After a few years on his
own, he is no longer Jakie Rabinowitz, but further
escaping his Jewish roots, he changes his name to Jack
Robin.
This night he will sing
the song "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face" at Coffee Dan's, a
nightspot in San Francisco. He also will sing "Toot, Toot, Tootsie..."
In the audience is Mary
Dale, a vaudeville dancer. She recognizes Jack's ability
to move people with his singing of jazz songs.
Cantor Yosef Rosenblatt
appears in "The Jazz Singer". Jack hears him give a
concert of sacred Jewish songs and is moved by it.
Over the years that Jack is
away from home, he writes home to his parents, telling
them of his successes, but still he and his father do
not see "eye-to-eye."
|
|
Jack Robins performs. |
|
|
Jakie in blackface, with film
love interest
Mary Dale, as played by May McAvoy. |
Jack becomes very fond
of Mary Dale, but discovers that she has been offered a part
in a Broadway show and will be leaving. Of course, Jack
is very unhappy about this.
Soon Jack too is offered a
part in a Broadway show. It is the autumn of 1927, and he
returns to New York City. He decides to pay a visit to
his parents' home, as this will be Cantor Rabinowitz's
sixtieth birthday. He visits the family home and finds
his mother alone; she is so very happy to see him. He sits
down at the piano and talks to his mother, promising to
buy her a pink dress and other presents. He plays the
piano and sings "Blue Skies" to her.
However, Cantor
Rabinowitz soon arrives home and is upset to hear Jack
singing jazz songs in their home. Again they get into an argument
about his singing jazz songs, about his being a "jazz
singer" instead of becoming a cantor, and once again
Jack leaves them. |
|
|
|
Two weeks later, and one night before
Jack is to open on Broadway, Cantor Rabinowitz becomes very ill.
The next sundown happens to be the evening of Yom Kippur. The
question is asked, "Who will take
Cantor Rabinowitz's place at the synagogue?" Mother Sara has
faith in her son Jakie: "If Jakie knew his father was so sick
- he would come." Yudelson then looks for Jakie, hoping to
convince him to return home and take his father's place at the
synagogue for Yom Kippur. He finds Jakie during a backstage
rehearsal, and he implores him: "Tomorrow, the Day of
Atonement - they want you should sing in the synagogue, Jakie."
Jack responds: "But my father - he doesn't want me to sing,
does he?" Yudelson tells Jakie that his father is gravely
ill and that his father, the Cantor, cannot perform on
the eve of Yom Kippur, the most sacred of holy days. Yudleson
wants Jakie to take over for his father: "But Jakie, your
singing would be like sunshine to your Papa...Jakie, remember
--- a son's a son no matter if his Papa throws him
out a hundred times!"
This proves to be a great dilemma for
Jakie. This request forces him to make a terribly difficult
choice--does he goes on
opening night, or does he become dutiful to his father and
sing "Kol Nidre" at the synagogue during Yom Kippur?
Jack is bewildered--he has waited for this show business
break for years, and now he is being asked to give it up. Jack
feels Yudelson's words even more when he says, "Would you be the first
Rabinowitz in five generations to fail your God?"
|
|
|
The next afternoon is the dress rehearsal for the show. Back on
the Lower East Side, on the eve of Yom Kippur, Yudelson tells
the Jewish elders that they have no Cantor on Yom Kippur, the
Day of Atonement.
Meanwhile, Cantor Rabinowitz is very sick and is seen lying in
his bed. He tells his wife that he cannot perform at the
synagogue on Yom Kippur eve.
He says to her, "My heart is breaking, Mama. I cannot sing. My son
came to me in my dreams - - he sang Kol Nidre so beautifully.
If he would only sing like that tonight - surely he would be
forgiven." |
Jakie Rabinowitz, the Cantor's son, sings
"Kol Nidre"
at the synagogue in place of his ill father. |
|
|
|
Yudelson tells Jack that he must sing
tonight. Jack says that he hasn't sung Kol Nidre since he was
a small boy. He is reassured by Yudelson that he can never
forget what he learned as a child. His mother leaves the
ultimate decision up to him. The show producer tells him
that he would be a fool to give up this big chance to become a
Broadway star. When the curtain
is about to go up, the audience is told that there would be no
performance that evening. This one time, Jack returns to
sing in his father's place at the synagogue, becoming
Jakie Rabinowitz once again. The opening night for the
Broadway show is cancelled and Jackie sings "Kol Nidre"
in the synagogue. From his bed,
his father listens
to Jakie lead the Yom Kippur congregation and sing "Kol Nidre." Cantor
Rabinowitz believes his son has returned to his roots, so to
speak, and he forgives him. His last
words are, "Mamma, we have our son again." In a
super-imposed image, we see the spirit of Jack's father at his
side in the synagogue. Mary describes Jack perfectly: "- a
jazz singer - singing to his God." |
Yudelson returns to
the theater with Mrs. Rabinowitz, once again to implore her
Jakie to take his father's place that evening at the
synagogue. Jack realizes that he has a very big decision to
make. "It's a choice between giving up the
biggest chance of my life --and breaking my mother's heart - -I
have no right to do either." Mary repeats the words that
Jack once said to her. She asks, "Were you lying when you said your career came before
everything?"
► |
|
|
The Broadway
show opens the next day; Jack Robin
sings his beloved jazz songs in the opening theatre performance,
which occurs the day after
his father's death.
In the final scene of the
film we can see Yudelson and Jakie's mother seated in the
front row (Mary Dale is standing in the wings), beaming with pride.
She weeps with joy. In blackface, her son Jakie sings the
song "My Mammy" to her:
I'm, I'm a comin'! Sorry I made you wait.
I'm, I'm comin'! I hope and pray I'm not late.
Mammy! Mammy!
I'd walk a million miles for one of your smiles!
My Mammy!
|
Jack Robin onstage sings "My
Mammy" to his audience,
as well as to his mother who is sitting in the front row. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|