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The film industry was forever altered in the autumn of 1927. While short films with sound and features with synchronized musical scores had existed before, this was the year Warner Bros. released the first feature-length motion picture to include spoken dialogue as part of its narrative. This groundbreaking film, *The Jazz Singer*, premiered in New York City and is widely considered the start of the "talkie" era, marking the beginning of the end for silent films. The studio used a sound-on-disc technology called the Vitaphone system to bring its star's voice to the big screen.
Interestingly, the film is not a full "talkie" by modern standards. Much of it operates like a silent film, with a recorded orchestral score and dialogue presented on intertitles. However, the moments when star Al Jolson speaks or sings were a complete sensation. Audiences were reportedly electrified when Jolson ad-libbed the line, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet!" It was this integration of dialogue that made the film a cultural and commercial phenomenon, forcing every other major studio to scramble to convert to sound technology. The gamble paid off, saving a struggling Warner Bros. and revolutionizing cinema.
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