Burbank, CA (July 9, 2007) –
Experience film history on October 16 when Warner Home Video (WHV) debuts on
DVD the studio’s landmark motion
picture, The Jazz Singer, the
first feature-length film with synchronized dialogue and musical sequences. The
movie, which brought Broadway superstar Al Jolson “alive†and seemingly singing
from the screen, was an immediate sensation when it opened in 1927 and created a
revolution in the history of the motion picture industry.
WHV proudly presents The Jazz Singer in
a deluxe 3-disc
80th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (at $39.92
SRP), with the film itself
immaculately restored and remastered from earliest surviving nitrate film
elements and original Vitaphone sound-on-disc recordings. Hours of rare, and
never-before seen features include a myriad of vintage shorts and film excerpts,
a 1947 radio show adaptation featuring Jolson, a commentary from film historians
Ron Hutchinson (founder of The Vitaphone Project) and Vince Giordano, and a
wealth of collectible memorabilia.
Disc Two contains a new full-length
documentary feature, The Dawn of Sound,
commissioned by Warner Home Video specifically for this very
special DVD release. The 93-minute
film covers the 30+ year struggle to successfully unite sound and image on
motion picture screens. The fascinating narrative of failures and triumphs is
propelled by insights from notable film historians as well as interviews from
many talents who reveal their personal experiences of this tumultuous period in
film history.
The third disc includes more than
four hours of extraordinary Vitaphone shorts (see more detail below), unique and
historic rarities that capture performances from the era’s great entertainment
legends of the era: Burns & Allen, Baby Rose Marie, Weber & Fields,
Blossom Seeley and Benny Fields and many others.
The
Jazz Singer – Background
The
Jazz Singer stars entertainment legend Al
Jolson in a story that bore a few similarities to his own life story. Jolson
portrays a would-be entertainer whose show business aspirations conflict with
the values of his rabbi father (Warner Oland). The Jazz
Singer began life
as a 1925 Broadway play, and was revived early in 1927, starring George Jessel.
The Warner brothers offered Jessel the opportunity to reprise his stage role on
the screen, but he and the studio couldn’t agree on salary. The studio then
offered the part to Eddie Cantor who declined. The part was finally offered to
Jolson, who was then at the height of his popularity.
Jolson had broken new ground on the
stage and sold millions of phonograph records. Just his name on the marquee of a
Broadway theater, or on a piece of sheet music, almost always guaranteed
success. He found the challenge of conquering the screen via the new VITAPHONE
technology irresistible. Jolson headed to Hollywood and began work on The Jazz Singer at
a fervent pace. Only a few months later, his labors resulted in the creation of
an indelible piece of motion picture history.
While a few earlier sound films had
bits of dialogue, they were all shorts. The first Warner Bros. Vitaphone feature
film, Don Juan (1926), starred
John Barrymore, and was a handsomely mounted epic. It was a silent film, but one
that featured a synchronized instrumental score and sound effects. Audiences and
critics responded with great enthusiasm, and Don Juan was a box-office smash. Many
thought its success was not so much due to the feature film, but more for the
fascinating program of Vitaphone shorts that preceded the feature. Its success
drove Warner Bros. to try and expand the potential of VItaphone. Like Don Juan, The Jazz Singer was
initially conceived as a silent feature film, with synchronized underscore and
sound effects, but this film would have synchronized singing sequences built
around Jolson performing as only he could. There was never any intention to have
dialogue in the film, but during his first vocal performance, Jolson improvised
the words: "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet!" In
actuality, The Jazz
Singer contains a total of only two minutes of synchronized
talking, most of it improvised, while the rest of the “dialogue†is presented
through the typical standard “title cards†found in all silent movies of the
era. But after Jolson uttered his now famous line, the rest was
history.
The movie premiered at the Warner
Theater in New York City on October 6, 1927 and soon became a national
phenomenon, limited only by the relatively small amount of theaters (200) which
were already equipped with Vitaphone’s sound-on-disc technology (a process
developed by Western Electric and Warner Bros. wherein a 16†disc was
synchronized with standard 35mm projection equipment). The film was a smash
everywhere it played, and led to the installation of sound equipment all over
the nation. Less than 2 years later, nearly 8000 theaters were wired for sound.
Fueled by Jolson’s charisma and Vitaphone, The Jazz Singer
created the momentum for “talking pictures†that couldn’t be stopped. Silent
films would soon become virtually extinct.
Directed by Alan Crosland, the film
co-stars Warner Oland, May McAvoy, and Eugenie Besserer Among the hit songs
featured in the film are Jolson’s trademarks, “Toot-Toot-Tootsie, Goodbyeâ€,
“Dirty Hands, Dirty Faceâ€, “My Mammyâ€, and a then-new song composed by Irving
Berlin …“Blue Skies.†The story was remade in 1952, starring Danny Thomas and
Peggy Lee, and then again in 1980 with Neil Diamond and Lucie Arnaz. There was
even a television version in 1959 starring Jerry Lewis. None of these subsequent
iterations were anywhere as successful as Al Jolson’s history-making original
from 1927.
DVD Special
Features:
Disc 1 – The
Movie
·
All new feature digital transfer and
immaculately refurbished soundtrack from restored picture elements and original
Vitaphone-Sound-on-Disc recordings
·
Commentary by film historians Ron
Hutchinson and Vince Giordano
·
Collection of rare cartoons and
shorts:
o
I Love to
Sing-a classic 1936 WB parody cartoon
directed by Tex Avery
o
Hollywood
Handicap classic M-G-M short with Al Jolson
appearance
o
A Day at Santa
Anita classic Technicolor Warner Bros.
short with Al Jolson & Ruby Keeler cameo appearance
o
“Al Jolson in ‘A
Plantation Act’
“1926 Vitaphone short made a year
prior to The Jazz
Singer
o
An Intimate
Dinner in Celebration of Warner Bros. Silver
Jubilee
·
1947 Lux Radio Theater Broadcast
starring Al Jolson (audio only)
·
Al Jolson Trailer
Gallery
Disc 2 – The Early Sound
Era
·
All-new feature-length documentary
The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to
Talk
·
Two rarely-seen Technicolor excerpts
from Gold Diggers of Broadway
(1929 WB film, most of which is considered
lost)
·
Studio shorts celebrating the early
sound era:
·
Finding His
Voice (1929 Western Electric animated promotional short, produced by Max
Fleischer)
·
The Voice That
Thrilled The World - Warner Bros. short about sound
·
Okay for Sound
1946 WB short celebrating the
20th anniversary of Vitaphone
·
When Talkies
Were Young 1955 WB short looking back at the
early talkies
·
The Voice from
the Screen 1926 WB ‘demonstration’ film
explores the Vitaphone technology and, looks at the making of a Vitaphone
short.
Disc 3 – VITAPHONE
SHORTS
In the 1920’s Warner Bros. began
producing a series of short films which utilized the Vitaphone process. These
films ran the gamut from musical theater legends and vaudeville acts, to
dramatic vignettes and classical music performances from the most prestigious
artists of the era.
Most of these were shorts considered
lost for decades, until a consortium of archivists and historians joined forces
with a goal to restore these magnificent time capsules of entertainment history.
Up until now, contemporary audiences have only been able to see these shorts via
rare retrospective showings in a few large cities, or through the limited
release of a restored handful of the earliest subjects, which were part of a
1996 laserdisc set. This new collection will finally make these amazing rarities
available to the thousands of film fans awaiting their DVD debut.
·
Over 3 1/2 hours worth of rare,
historic Vitaphone comedy and music shorts
Elsie Janis in a
Vaudeville Act: “Behind the
Linesâ€
Bernado Depace:
“Wizard of the Mandolinâ€
Van and
Schneck: “The
Pennant Winning Battery of Songlandâ€
Blossom Seeley
and Benny Fields
Hazel Green and
Company
The Night
Court
The Police
Quartette
Ray Mayer &
Edith Evans: “When East Meets
Westâ€
Adele
Rowland: “Stories in Songâ€
Stoll, Flynn and
Company: “The Jazzmania
Quintetâ€
The Ingenues in
“The Band Beautifulâ€
The Foy Family
in “Chips off the Old Blockâ€
Dick Rich and
His Melodious Monarchs
Gus Arnheim and
His Ambassadors [
Shaw and Lee:
“The Beau Brummelsâ€
Larry
Ceballos’
Roof Garden
Revue
Trixie Friganza
in “My Bag O’ Tricksâ€
Green’s
Twentieth Century Faydetts
Sol Violinsky:
“The Eccentric Entertainerâ€
Ethel Sinclair
and Marge La Marr in “At the
Seashoreâ€
Paul Tremaine
and His Aristocrats
Baby Rose
Marie: “The Child Wonderâ€
Burns &
Allen in “Lambchops “
Joe Frisco
in “The Happy
Hottentotsâ€
Outstanding
Collector’s Edition Bonuses:
·
Rarely seen behind-the-scenes Photo
cards
·
Original release Lobby card
reproductions
·
Original release Souvenir Program
book reproduction
·
Booklet with vintage document
reproductions and DVD features guide
·
Reproduction of post-premiere
telegram from Al Jolson to Jack L. Warner
THE
JAZZ SINGER 80TH ANNIVERSARY 3-DISC
DELUXE EDITION
Feature Running Time:
88 minutes
4x3 Fullscreen,
B&W
Dolby Digital 1.0
audio
With
operations in 90 international territories, Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros.
Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the
global video marketplace. Warner Home Video's film library is the largest of any
studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of
Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home
Video and New Line Home Entertainment.