On This Date: Jasa Harris

October 6th, 1927 the entertainment industry was changed forever. On this date Warner Bros. Theater released The Jazz Singer, signaling the end of silent movies as it was the first to feature a soundtrack. It was the beginning of “talkies”. This invention of sound has redefined entertainment around the world. No longer would people sit through silent films, but now they could put voices and faces together. At first, The Jazz Singer wasn’t a huge success, but with advertisements and time it soon began to break records, eventually grossing more than three million dollars. This huge success inspired Warner Bros. to switch all of their films over to “talkies”. And other film production studios followed their example. Soon theaters began to have sound systems installed and silent films were pretty much done with. Every prominent actor from silent films, with the exception of Charlie Chaplin, lost their jobs, but people now had the opportunity to enjoy the sound of their movies. So there were consequences from this event, but not enough to outweigh the greatness of it. I appreciate this event very much as I love watching movies with sound. I’ve tried watching silent films and I just can’t enjoy them like I can with “talkies” because they’re just kind of boring.