Historic Vitaphone films from 1926-1929
Premier for Don Juan starring John Barrymore in 1926
From 1926-1929 Vitaphone and the Warner Bros. has made some very high historical important films in film history. Today Warner Bros. and Vitaphone is mostly known for making the first feature length talkie (talking, sound picture) The Jazz Singer in 1927 starring one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived, but today he is hardly heard of Al Jolson.
Don Juan (1926)
Don Juan is the first film on this list starring John Barrymore. In 1926 Warner Bros. wasn't a major film corporation like it was in the 1930's-today so they started experimenting with the Vitaphone sound on a phonographic 16 inch record to be a major film corporation. When Warner Bros. first started working with Vitaphone they did not have any interest in talking pictures at that time, Warner Bros just cared to put sound effects and a soundtrack on there movies. At that time the movie corporations thought that talking pictures will never make it, but they was all proved wrong in 1929 when the talking movies took over, but not every movie in released in 1929 was full or part talking there were a few silent films released in the theatres. By 1930 every single movie released was in full talking and most of then were in full or part color.
Don Juan is not a talking picture it was just the first ever movie with a Vitaphone soundtrack and sound effects no talking at all, 100% no talking just soundtrack and sound effects. Myrna Loy was in a small cameo scene of this film, at the time Myrna Loy wasn't a famous celebrity she was just had little roles in silent films at the time. It wouldn't take Myrna until the 1930's to be famous with movie like The Thin Man, The Great Ziegfield, Libeled Lady, and more great movies in her acting career.
Don Juan is not a talking picture it was just the first ever movie with a Vitaphone soundtrack and sound effects no talking at all, 100% no talking just soundtrack and sound effects. Myrna Loy was in a small cameo scene of this film, at the time Myrna Loy wasn't a famous celebrity she was just had little roles in silent films at the time. It wouldn't take Myrna until the 1930's to be famous with movie like The Thin Man, The Great Ziegfield, Libeled Lady, and more great movies in her acting career.
The Jazz Singer (1927)
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 film starring Al Jolson, it is a very historical movie in film history being the first ever feature length talking picture, not full talking but somewhere around 25% talking. Like Don Juan, The Jazz Singers soundtrack was recorded on a 16 inch phonographic record that would spin 33.33 times a minute synchronized with the film. Synchronization was the reason it took the movies a little while to start talking. At that time it wasn't easy to synchronize sound with the film because there was a difficulty playing the record at the same time with the film. When Western Electric invented Vitaphone in 1926 it was already easy to synchronize sound with film due to advancements with technology. The only problem with talking pictures at that time was the movie corporations didn't care for talking pictures, they never thought that sound movies would take over well they was very wrong.
The Jazz Singer was first a Broadway play produced by George Jessel in September 1925 and was a big hit then the Warner Bros. in June 4 1926 acquired the movie rights and signed a contract with George Jessel. In February 1926 Moving Picture World published a story saying that production of the film would begin with George Jessel on May 1st 1927. Production of the film with George Jessel didn't work out for multiple reasons. The contract that Jessel had signed with Warner Bros. didn't say anything about the movie being in sound. The Jazz Singer was meant to be a silent film, but with the success of Warner Bros. previous Vitaphone sound film Don Juan. Don Juan wasn't a talking picture, it was only a movie with it's own soundtrack and sound effects, but Warner Bros. decided to take it to the next level and make a movie with synchronized talking. So Warner Bros. changed there plans with The Jazz Singer and decided to film it with a Vitaphone soundtrack and part talking, a part-talkie. George Jessel wanted a bonus or a new contract but didn't get it so he left the Warner Bros. and production on The Jazz Singer would be made without him and the role for Jackie rabinowitz went to Al Jolson.
The Jazz Singer was first a Broadway play produced by George Jessel in September 1925 and was a big hit then the Warner Bros. in June 4 1926 acquired the movie rights and signed a contract with George Jessel. In February 1926 Moving Picture World published a story saying that production of the film would begin with George Jessel on May 1st 1927. Production of the film with George Jessel didn't work out for multiple reasons. The contract that Jessel had signed with Warner Bros. didn't say anything about the movie being in sound. The Jazz Singer was meant to be a silent film, but with the success of Warner Bros. previous Vitaphone sound film Don Juan. Don Juan wasn't a talking picture, it was only a movie with it's own soundtrack and sound effects, but Warner Bros. decided to take it to the next level and make a movie with synchronized talking. So Warner Bros. changed there plans with The Jazz Singer and decided to film it with a Vitaphone soundtrack and part talking, a part-talkie. George Jessel wanted a bonus or a new contract but didn't get it so he left the Warner Bros. and production on The Jazz Singer would be made without him and the role for Jackie rabinowitz went to Al Jolson.
The Jazz Singer was a big success in the box office, it was the number one top grossing film of 1927. Then a year later in 1928 Warner Bros. made a sequel to The Jazz Singer called The Singing Fool, like The Jazz Singer The Singing Fool was the number one top grossing film of the year, but like lots of sequels and remakes The Singing Fool wasn't as good as The Jazz Singer. After The Singing Fool there was two remakes of The Jazz Singer, a Technicolor one in 1953 and one in 1980 starring Neil Diamond. Allmovie.com gave The Jazz Singer 1927 a 4 out of 5 star review, The Singing Fool a 2 and a half out of 5 star review, The Jazz Singer 1953 a 2 and a half star out of 5 star review, and the 1980 version of The Jazz Singer a 2 stars out of 5. So the best version of The Jazz Singer was the 1927 one with Al Jolson
Today lots of sources say that The Jazz Singer isn't really the first ever talkie, well when it comes to being the first ever talking film no, but the first ever feature length talking movie yes. Before The Jazz Singer there was other sound shorts, like in 1894 or 1895 (no ones really sure between those two years) Thomas Edison made the first ever synchronized sound film. The film showed a man playing a violin and people dancing, but there was no talking in this film. In 1923 there was a synchronized sound on film short with Eddie Cantor called A Few Moments With Eddie Cantor From Kid Boots, but today it's just called A Few Moments With Eddie Cantor. Today A Few Moments With Eddie Cantor is not synchronized like it originally was in 1923.
So The Jazz Singer is only the first feature length talkie, but not the first ever talkie. Also The Jazz Singer was the movie that ended the silent era of film. Before The Jazz Singer movie corporations didn't care to make talking movies, they never thought the talkies would actually take over, they would also think what's so great about a talking movie. So if it wasn't for Warner Bros., Vitaphone, Al Jolson, and The Jazz Singer the movies would never learn to talk.
Today lots of sources say that The Jazz Singer isn't really the first ever talkie, well when it comes to being the first ever talking film no, but the first ever feature length talking movie yes. Before The Jazz Singer there was other sound shorts, like in 1894 or 1895 (no ones really sure between those two years) Thomas Edison made the first ever synchronized sound film. The film showed a man playing a violin and people dancing, but there was no talking in this film. In 1923 there was a synchronized sound on film short with Eddie Cantor called A Few Moments With Eddie Cantor From Kid Boots, but today it's just called A Few Moments With Eddie Cantor. Today A Few Moments With Eddie Cantor is not synchronized like it originally was in 1923.
So The Jazz Singer is only the first feature length talkie, but not the first ever talkie. Also The Jazz Singer was the movie that ended the silent era of film. Before The Jazz Singer movie corporations didn't care to make talking movies, they never thought the talkies would actually take over, they would also think what's so great about a talking movie. So if it wasn't for Warner Bros., Vitaphone, Al Jolson, and The Jazz Singer the movies would never learn to talk.
Like Don Juan in 1926 at age 22 Myrna Loy had a cameo appearance in The Jazz Singer, this time as a chorus girl.
Lights of New York (1928)
Lights of New York was the first feature length all talking movie, it was directed by Bryan Foy and starred Helen Costello and Cullen Landis. At first Lights of New York was meant to be a musical Vitaphone short, but was continuously expanded until it became a feature length film. It isn't really that long of a movie it's roughly a hour at 57 minutes, but in order for a movie to be feature length it has to be 40 minutes or more, even though lots of are way more longer than that. Lights of New York done very good at the box at the box office, it was the number two grossing film of that year. The number one grossing film of that year was a part-talkie (part talking silent movie) The Singing Fool starring Al Jolson, The Singing Fool was a sequel to The Jazz Singer the first ever talkie.
The cost of the film was only $23,000 to make, and grossed over $1,000,000. So Lights of New York had more than a $977,000 gain in the box office. This movie is a very historic movie in movie history, but not a very good movie in movie history. Allmovie.com gave Lights of New York only a one star out of five. There was also a a silent version of this film made special for theatres without sound equipment, it didn't take until the early 1930's for every theatre to have sound equipment, but today the silent version of Lights of New York is a lost film. Only the sound version of Lights of New York survives, which isn't a major loss as long as the sound version of Lights of New York still survives complete today.
The cost of the film was only $23,000 to make, and grossed over $1,000,000. So Lights of New York had more than a $977,000 gain in the box office. This movie is a very historic movie in movie history, but not a very good movie in movie history. Allmovie.com gave Lights of New York only a one star out of five. There was also a a silent version of this film made special for theatres without sound equipment, it didn't take until the early 1930's for every theatre to have sound equipment, but today the silent version of Lights of New York is a lost film. Only the sound version of Lights of New York survives, which isn't a major loss as long as the sound version of Lights of New York still survives complete today.
On With The Show (1929)
The last film on this list is On With the Show from 1929 starring Betsy Compson, Arthur Lake, Sally O'Neil, and newcomer to Hollywood comedian Joe E. Brown. On With Show was the first ever all-color all-talking movie. It wasn't the first movie to use color there were even some silent movies in color like The Gulf Between (1917), Cupid Angling (1918), The Toll of the Sea (1922), Cecil B. Demilles original 1923 version of The Ten Commandments, the original 1925 version of Ben-Hur, The original 1925 version of The Phantom of the Opera, Cecil B. Demilles original 1927 version of King Of Kings, and lots of other silent films that are lost or unkown to exist. Like the movie The Gulf Between is a lost film, only a few frames of the film still survive. The movie Cupid Angling is unkown to lots of sources to still survive.
On With the Show was at number 19 at gross for the whole year of 1929. So On With the Show didn't have that much of a big success in the box office as the Warner Bros. thought it would have. Sadly only 20 minutes of On With the Show survives in color the rest is in black and white. The reason On With the Show only survives mostly in black and white is because when T.V. came out in the late 1940's and 1950's Technicolor and the big movie corporations like Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, and United Artist started discarding most of their two color negatives and On With the Show was one of those movies that only survive in black and white sadly. Other movies that were originally in two-color Technicolor that only survive in black and white today are Sally (1929), The Broadway Melody (1929), The Dessert Song (1929), Footlight and Fools (1929), Pointed Heels (1929), The Life of the Party (1930), and Manhattan Parade (1931) for more information go to my other page on my website early color talkies 1929-1933.
On With the Show was at number 19 at gross for the whole year of 1929. So On With the Show didn't have that much of a big success in the box office as the Warner Bros. thought it would have. Sadly only 20 minutes of On With the Show survives in color the rest is in black and white. The reason On With the Show only survives mostly in black and white is because when T.V. came out in the late 1940's and 1950's Technicolor and the big movie corporations like Warner Bros., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, and United Artist started discarding most of their two color negatives and On With the Show was one of those movies that only survive in black and white sadly. Other movies that were originally in two-color Technicolor that only survive in black and white today are Sally (1929), The Broadway Melody (1929), The Dessert Song (1929), Footlight and Fools (1929), Pointed Heels (1929), The Life of the Party (1930), and Manhattan Parade (1931) for more information go to my other page on my website early color talkies 1929-1933.
