‘Talkies’ is 89 years old today.

The first talking picture, The jazz singer, was produced by the Warner Brothers Vitaphone Corporation in amalgamation with the Western Electric after years of various experiments in the US and in Europe, which all failed.

The film was premiered on the evening of Thursday, October 6, 1927, at Warner’s theatre in New York.  That is why the local branch of the International Al Jolson Society, upon its representative’s suggestion, has been promoting October 6 as Talkies Day.

The main actor was the legendary minstrel and Broadway star Al Jolson, whose words spontaneously uttered during the shooting of a scene at a restaurant ended the silent movies era and started that of the talkies.

“Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothing yet. Wait a minute, I tell you. You wanna hear Toot, Toot, Tootsie? All right, hold on... Lou, listen. You play Toot, Toot, Tootsie, three choruses, you understand and in the third chorus I whistle. Now give it to them hard and heavy. Go right ahead.”

These were the first words uttered by any actor on the big screen and which transformed the film industry forever, worldwide.

The jazz singer was not all ‘talkie’ because the change from silent to talking pictures was very difficult for the whole filming industry.

The jazz singer won a Special Oscar at the first Academy Awards Ceremony on May 16, 1929.  And the first talking picture also made Jolson more popular than ever worldwide.