The Jazz Singer (Warner Bros.) (1927)

‘ Warner Bro. Present AL JOLSON in “THE JAZZ SINGER” FEATURES FOR NEWSPAPERS THE MAKING OF “THE JAZZ SINGER” Epoch-Making Production Requires Months of Research and Enormous Expense “The Jazz Singer,” starring Al Jolson, the world’s most popular musical comedy artist, is considered by Warner Bros. to be their supreme triumph. It is indeed a stupendous achievement, and, incidentally, a superb example of the germination of an idea, the oak from the acorn. | Story Becomes Play | The acorn was a short story by Samson’ Raphaelson which appeared several years ago in one of the popular magazines. It was called “The Day of Atonement” and recounted the adventures of the son of a cantor who ran away from his home in the Ghetto, became a Broadway idol, and returned on the eve of the Day of Atonement, to sing “Kol Nidre” in the synagogue, in answer to the pleadings of his dying father. The little story might have been forgotten but for the genius of Mr. Raphaelson who remade it into “The Jazz Singer,” the drama which held Manhattan spellbound for almost two years, followed by even greater success on the road. But that was not to be the end. Arline de Haas wrote a brilliant novelization of the play, which ran serially in hundreds of newspapers over the country, and which was nublished in book form, running into a score of editions. And now the screening of “The Jazz Singer.” | Jolson As Star One of the most unique features of “The Jazz Singer” is the fact that it nearly parallels the actual life of Al Jolson, envoy extraordinary of black-face, minister plenipotentiary of the mammy song. Jolson, then, was the man of all men, to play the star part in the screen version which Warner Bros. contemplated. They were aware that. the most munificent offers of the most august of movie magnates had been met bv the comedian’s positive refusal to appear in pictures. Undaunted, Warner Bros. stormed the Jolson stronghold. The impossible was accomplished. Jolson went to Hollywood. Warner Bros. insured him for half a million dollars. Warners Lavish Money No effort or expense has been spared in making the presentation of “The Jazz Singer” authenté. The New York Winter Gardef, scene of so many Jolson triumphs, the State Theatre in Chicago, and the Orchard Street Synagogue, in the vicinity of which the childhood of the jazz singer was passed, all play a large part in the story. A complete theatre modeled after the metropolitan show-place, with huge stage, boxes and orchestra pit. was built, as well as a replica of the stage of the Chicago plavhouse. Winter Garden Used | For certain of the spectacular New York sequences the Winter Garden itself was secured through | Cor| the courtesy of the Shuberts. dons of police were necessary to control the crowds during the shooting of the scenes that showed a New York first night opening. Orchard Street Filmed upon the street with its motley crowd of foreigners, its pushcartlined curbs, its teeming stream o: vivid life, and took hundreds of feet of film, showing the people moving through their daily routine, without their being in the least aware that they were motion picture actors. Many touches of realism were caught in this manner, which would otherwise have been lost in the mad rush for acting honors. | Old Man Grabs Boy The picture-making procedure was as follows: Warner Oland, who plays the featured part of Cantor Rabinowitz, father of the jazz singer, sat at a table of a second story restaurant, from the window of which the director trained his camera on the street. When the action was ready to be shot, Oland, descended to the street, losing himself in the throng, as just another patriarchal Jew. Soon the denizens of Orchard Street saw an old man grab a boy of fourteen out of a gutter and lead him by the ear to a hallway. Manv of those who passed had enacted like roles with their own children, but the short journey was not made without the irate objection of several onlookers, +e whom the theatrical character of the proceeding, was with difficulty explained. Moving (Picture) Van But even then the Orchard Street sequences were not comlete. There remained the moving shots. For these, Mr. Crosland hid his cameras in the back of an old moving van, which was covered behind by a burlap drop. Through a slit in the burlap the eye of the camera photographed the business of the Ghetto, moving slowly down Orchard Street, to the clicking of the hidden camera. Every scene was repeated three times for safety, yet Orchard Street was none the wiser. More than a month was spent in filming the New York sequences. The interior of the synagogue, a replica of the ancient one on Orchard Street, was built on the West Coast lot, and here the stirring scenes of the hero’s childhood, and his return when grown to young manhood, to sing “Kol Nidre,” on the eve of the Day of Atonement, in response to the petitions of his dying father, were enacted. For these scenes, the aid of Cantor Josef Rosenblatt, sweetest singer of modern Israel, was enlisted. The ancient rites are performed with deevly moving sincerity and reverence. The faithful portrayal of Jewish home life is largely due to the unobtrusive assistance of Mr. Benjamin Warner, father of the producers, and ardent admirer of “The Jazz Singer.” Ancient Rites | Coffee Dan’s Place One of the most nicturesque lo_cales of this most picturesque of films is an _ after-theatre rendezvous of the people of the stage and screen. It is here that the jazz singer meets the beautiful vaudeville star who is to give him his onportunity for fame. It is one of the immemorial customs of “Coffee Dan’s” to furnish each The Producer: “This is the Broadway show! You are the the Ghetto?” y Scene from Sst Warner Br Production No. THE MOMENT FOR DECISION HAS COME The Old Friend: “Your Pappa dies—he begs you should come to the House of God—to sing Kol Nidre!” EERIE LEEPER EEE " The Va Sin y, 33 opening night of my greatest star! How dare you think of er” starring Ul! Jolson 6s, Production 9—Cut or Mat celebrity, or perhaps on some ob| secure vaudevillian fo do a “turn.” Mallet work, cat calls and wise cracks, rend the air as the performer climbs the stage. If he is well “knocked” he has pleased the crowd, and may fall heir to a gooa contract. | Brilliant Triumph Prolonged research preceded the four months required for the actual making of “The Jazz Singer.” Nothing was hurried, nothing haphazard. While perfection was being approximated in mechanical details even greater care was being exercised in the choice of the cast. May McAvoy, the airy and diminutive, was the unanimous selection as the dainty toe-dancer who | was to bring both the genius and ‘> love of the jazz singer into flower. Warner Oland, one of the greatest character actors of the generation, gives the most brilliant characterization of his career as Cantor Rabinowitz, the orthodox father. Eugenie Besserer is) the personification of universal motherhood. Bobby Gordon might | be any boy anywhere and Otto) Lederer and Nat Carr give comedy | creations of subtle reality. Richard | Tucker is superb as the worldly | wise man. “The Jazz Singer” is epoch-mak| ing. It is without doubt the biggest stride since the birth of the industry. The production is unique. There is but one “Jazz Singer”—one Al Jolson! “The Jazz Singer” Wins Chicago Plays Thereto Record Crowds | Al Jolson in “The Jazz Singer” had its Chicago premiere recently when this Warner Bros.’ special opened at the Garrick Theatre to one of the most brilliant first-night ‘| audiences that ever turned out to a motion picture in that city. Mu-| nicipal officials. society folks and | newspaper writers attended and hundreds seeking to gain admission found it impossible to do so. A special cordon of police was necessary to hold traffic in check in front of the house before the performance bean. The ovation wiven Jolson’s first screen performance was tremen-| dous. Warners report a_ record-breaking advance sale of tickets at the Orchard Street. the very heart of euest with a-small mallet. Thun-| Garrick where ‘the picture has now the New York Ghetto, was nhote derovs table-rapnings vreet each) settled down to an indefinite engraphed without the knowledge of arrival. The genial master of cere-| £4a7ement. : its inhabitants. Director Crosland came from Hollywood with a large retinue, descended | Alan monies. as the snirit moves him. | wends his way to the —— platform, calline upon this or that Manager .... of the... . Theatre also reports phenomenal local attendance and enthusiasm. Warner Bros Insure Al Jolson for $500,000 Warner Bros. insured Al Jolson for a half million dollars before the filming of “The Jazz Singer,” the spectacular success now showing at the .... Theatre. Upon finishing his New York theatrical season he at once hastened to Hollywood where the producers were at work on what they consider to be their greatest and most important picture. In support of Al Jolson are May McAvoy, Warner Oland, Eugenie Besserer, Cantor Josef Rosen blatt, Otto Lederer, Bobby Gordon, | Richard Tucker, Nat Carr, William Demarest, Anders Randolf and Will Walling. Alan Crosland directed. The scenario is by Al Cohn. By Samson He who wishes to picture today’s America must do it kaleidoscopically; he must show you a vivid contrast of surfaces, raucous, sentimental, egotistical, vulgar, ineffably busy—surfaces whirling in a dance which sometimes is a dance to Aphrodite and more frequently a dance to Jehovah. In seeking a symbol of the vital chaos of America’s soul, I find no more adequate one than jazz. Here you have the rhythm of frenzy staggering against a symphonic background—a background composed of lewdness, heart’s monumental boldness, exquisite humility, but principally prayer. I hear jazz, and I am given a collapsing and, silhouetted against the setting sun, a solitary figure, a lost soul, dancing grotesquely on the ruins .... Thus do I see the jazz singer. Jazz is prayer. It is too passionate to be anything else. It is prayer distorted, sick, unconscjous of its destination. of jazz is what Matthew Arnold said of the Jew, “lost between two worlds, one dead, the other of the Americas of 1927—that fervor as intense as that of the church and synagogue. dancing dervish, from the Zulu their roots in the synagogue. the meaning of the songs in the and interpret them. PREFACE TO “THE JAZZ SINGER” my first play, I have tried to crystallize the ironic truth that one our cabarets, musical revues, and dance halls—is praying with a The jazz American is different from the evangelist only in that he doesn’t know he is praying. I have used a Jewish youth as my protagonist because the Jews are determining the nature and scope of jazz more than any other race—more than the negroes, from whom they have taken jazz and given it a new color and meaning. Jolson, George Gershwin, Sophie Tucker. And these are expressing in evangelical terms the nature of our chaos today. You find the soul of a people in the songs they sing. In “The Jazz Singer’ I have attempted an exploration of the soul of one of these minstrels. Turning Point in Al Jolson’s Life Now Playing at Strand in “‘The Jazz Singer’ The luckiest break of his life came to Al Jolson some years ago while playing a vaudeville engagement in Brooklyn. The comedian | was doing a white-face act consist‘ing of patter, stories and songs. 'He should have been extremely |happy. The ambition of his life was to be a successful performer and here he was with an act good enough to get him fine bookings, which was proof that he was a success. But Jolson was far from happy. He could win applause, but that didn’t satisfy him. He wanted to create laughter. Oh, if he only could! Glum and dispirited he sat before the mirror in his dressing room in the Brooklyn theatre one night while the old darkey dresser was laying out his things. Looking up at the old man, he sighed. “Why can’t I make them laugh ?” came from him like a moan. “Hah,” smiled back the old man, “why don’t you black up, Mr. Al? We folks are thought to be funny. Sure enough they’ll think you am funny.” Jolson grasped the idea. There was still time to apply the burnt cork for that night’s performance. Nervously he faced the audience. That night his act went like the proverbial house afire. The turning point had come in the comedian’s career and since that night America’s foremost entertainer has been known as a black-face comedian. Jolson’s success has been laid to his personality, his dynamic energy and his voice. More helpful than any of these things, however, has been his sincerity. He loves his audiences. This shows even on the screen in Warner Bros.’ production of “The Jazz Singer,” in which his charm is as potent as it is when he faces an audience in person on the legitimate stage. The screen has been enrichd by Jolson’s apparance on it. Raphaelson delight, soul-racked madness, vision of cathedrals and temples The singer powerless to be born.” In this, one which packs to overflowing America which goes sedately to medicine man, from the negro Jazz is Irving Berlin, Al These are Jews with You find soul of the minstrels who create