"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on Monday, August 10th, 1936 with Al Jolson reprising his film role. They did a second one on Tuesday, June 2nd, 1947. 3,949 days, 564 weeks and 1 day differ between the two radio adaptation dates.
Al Jolson's famous line "you ain't heard nothin' yet" was an ad-lib. The intention was that the film should only have synchronized music, not speech, but Jolson dropped in the line (which he used in his stage act) after the song "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face". The director wisely left it in.
Sam Warner, the Warner Brother, that was nicknamed the "Father of the Talkies", because he insisted that Al Jolson's ad-libbed speech be included in the movie, died on Wednesday, October 5th, 1927, just one day before the film debuted, to the remaining cast and crew, on Thursday, October 6th, 1927.
George Jessel, star of the stage version, was asked to play the role in the film, but refused over a pay dispute. Eddie Cantor was also asked, and also refused.
Myrna Loy is briefly glimpsed as a chorus girl in one scene.
According to the dates of the letter/telegram shown and the title card preceding Jakie's return to New York, and allowing one day for travel, the Cantor's date of birth would have been on Saturday, August 9th, 1867 or Sunday, August 10th, 1867.
According to the insert shot of the Winter Garden Theatre program, the date of the performance that Al Jolson's character passes up to sing "Kol Nidre" (and the date of the Cantor's death), which was on Wednesday, September 14, 1927.
First feature-length movie with audible dialogue.
Included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.
Many documentaries and historians state that immediately after the release and success of The Jazz Singer that all of Hollywood switched to sound. This is not true for several reasons. First, there were two competing and incompatible sound systems. The Vitaphone process was cumbersome, relying on an electro-mechanical interface between the projector and the turntable. Fox's Fotofilm was a superior sound-on-film process that allowed for easier editing but required a costlier projector (the Vitaphone system would be quietly killed off by 1932). Secondly, either sound process nearly doubled the budget of a film. Thirdly, theater chains faced enormous conversion costs (MGM-parent company Loew's Inc. owned over 1,000 outlets, and took a deliberately slow wait-and-see attitude toward sound). The first feature film with all synchronous dialog was Lights of New York. Also, in the midst of the talkie-craze of 1928-30, studio bosses were faced with a limited amount of sound equipment and qualified sound technicians, causing them innumerable headaches over which productions to produce as talkies vs. silents. Also, silents were internationally marketable via cheap title card translations while talkies, prior to the advent of subtitles, usually required complete
The first film musical.
The movie's line "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothing yet" was voted as the #71 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100), and as #57 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
The original Broadway stage production of "The Jazz Singer" opened at the Fulton Theater on Sunday, September 14th, 1925 and ran for 303 performances. The play starred George Jessel. Also in the cast were Phoebe Foster as Mary Dale, Arthur Stuart Hull as Harry Lee, Sam Jaffe as Yudelson and Howard Lang as The Cantor.
The role of Al Jolson's mother was first offered to Slovenian actress Avgusta Danilova, but for some reason she refused it. If she had accepted the role, she would become the first Slovenian actress to appear in a Hollywood film.
The theatrical date of release, was on Saturday, February 4th, 1928. But it was first shown to and shown seen by the Warner Brothers' cast and crew, of directors, producers, actors and actresses, on Thursday, October 6th, 1927. 121 days, (17 weeks & 2 days), differ between the movie's date of release & the date, it was first shown to and seen by the Warner Brothers' cast and crew, of directors, producers actors and actresses.
The world premiere was at the Tower Theater in Los Angeles.
Warner Brothers quietly threw in the towel on the Vitaphone disk process in 1932. Not wanting to risk losing the disks, Warner Bros. had all of the Vitaphone sound for the film transferred to optical tracks on the side of the film itself in the 1930s.
The Old Warner Brothers Studio, officially called today Sunset Bronson Studios and also known as KTLA Studios and Tribune Studios, is a motion picture, radio and television production facility located at 5800 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. The studio was the site where the first talking feature film, The Jazz Singer was filmed in 1927. Due to its role in the history of the motion picture business, the site was designated as a Historic Cultural Landmark in 1977 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.