I‘ve decided to contribute a new reoccurring post here on Row Three called Defining Moment. My plan is to give a short mention of moments in film that have had an impact on film as a whole.
The first of that I’d like to mention is Al Jolson‘s first words in The Jazz Singer. The Jazz singer was released in 1927 and it was the first non silent feature movie. Prior to this movie if a movie had sound it came from a gramophone records. Even when it was released with sound there were only a few theatres that were equipped to handle the sound but it became obvious pretty quickly that this was not a fad and soon more and more theatres were equipped.
Al Jolson’s first words which were ad libbed were “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet! Wait a minute, I tell ya! You ain’t heard nothin’! You wanna hear “Toot, Toot, Tootsie”? All right, hold on, hold on…Lou, listen. Play “Toot, Toot, Tootsie”, three chorus, you understand. In the third chorus, I whistle. Now give it to ‘em hard and heavy, go right ahead.”
Its with these words that Jolson and The Jazz Singer ushered in a new era of movies.
