Nothing could have introduced sound to the movies better than Al Jolson’s catchphrase: “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” No one was better qualified to comment than this star of The Jazz Singer, the film accepted to have been the first talking picture.

Today marks the 84th anniversary of the premiere of The Jazz Singer.

A Warner Brothers Vitaphone production, the film was premiered at their flagship theatre in New York on the Thursday night of October 6, 1927, causing a sensation among moviegoers and moviemakers alike. Although some film-makers resisted for a short time, the advent of sound dealt a shattering blow to silent films, changing the face of the movie industry forever.

Using the newly perfected Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, which for the first time enabled recorded sound to be synchronised with the action on screen, The Jazz Singer included several sequences of spoken dialogue as well as a number of songs.

Anxious to score a hit with their innovative use of the new sound system, Warner Brothers persuaded Al Jolson, at that time the biggest star on Broadway, to play the leading role in The Jazz Singer. It was his unscripted ad-libbing between songs that made the biggest impression on audiences, and ensured the success of the film.

Al Jolson proved to be perfect for the part, which led to a second career for him, adding movie stardom to his earlier phenomenal success on the New York stage of The Winter Garden. So much so, that when film writer Lino Cassar interviewed George Jessel in 1968, while the latter was filming in Malta, Mr Jessel admitted that “Jolson was better at it than I would have been!” (The Sunday Times, October 6, 2002). Mr Jessel successfully played the leading part in The Jazz Singer on Broadway.

The impact of the introduction of sound may be gauged by the fact that within a year, most movie theatres had been wired for sound around the US.

Despite the 84 years that have elapsed since the birth of the talkies, many still remember how Warner Brothers shattered the silence and how Al Jolson, known as the “world’s greatest entertainer” gave a voice to the movies.

It is appropriate that the filming industry and the picturegoers celebrate October 6 as “Talkies Day”.