Film History

Source

BFI Archive

The first film with sound

The Jazz Singer, 1927, changed cinema forever in 89 minutes.

When The Jazz Singer premiered on October 6, 1927, audiences heard Al Jolson speak the now-famous line: "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!" Silent film's golden age ended overnight. Within three years, nearly every major Hollywood studio had converted to sound — an entire art form reinvented in a single season.