The Jazz Singer (1927) (2024)

If I am going to try to immerse myself in a complete(ish) history of musical movies, where else could I start but at the very beginning? The Jazz Singer, directed by Alan Crossland and starring Al Jolson, was the first feature-length movie to feature synchronised music, singing, and dialogue, marking the beginning of the end of the silent film era.

The film tells the story of the young Jewish singer Jakie Rabinowitz (Jolson), who, after falling out with his disapproving traditionalist father, runs away from home to make a life as a jazz singer. As his career begins to take off, Jakie – now performing as Jack Robin – remains haunted by the rift between himself and his papa, and struggles to reconcile his love for performing with the duty he still feels toward his family and heritage.

I went into this relatively blind: I knew exactly two things about The Jazz Singer – the first was that it was the first ever talkie. This is not entirely true, though, as the film is only a part-talkie – most of the film is silent, with an orchestral score. In fact, the first few songs in the film – a couple of ragtime bits sung by chlid Jakie, and his father’s singing in the synagogue – are very roughly dubbed in by including the songs in the score, clearly without regard to synchronising the sound to the image on screen. This use of the more typical silent film style for the film’s opening makes the introduction of true synchronised sound even more of a revelation when it occurs with Jolson’s first performance in the film, of two songs with a little stage patter in between. I can only imagine what it was like for people who had never seen this before – it must have been quite striking at the time.

The sound is used during the film’s singing performances from then on, along with a single dialogue scene between Jakie and his mother while he plays the piano for her. That last scene is where the skill involved in the film’s use of sound really struck me, as their scene is cut short by the arrival of Jakie’s father, bringing with him an abrupt and jarring shift back to the silent film score, effectively underscoring the elder Cantor Rabinowitz’s alignment toward the traditional and rejection of Jakie’s more modern passions. Indeed, apart from the first two songs by Jolson (which are more an introduction of him and the new sound the film is introducing), each use of sound serves a purpose and ties in to its moment in the story – Jakie’s songs highlight the emotions he’s feeling at each point they appear, and a segment featuring real-life Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt is a reminder to Jakie of the guilt that haunts him over his father. It’s not exactly what comes first to mind when I think “movie musical” today, but the music is integral to the structure of the film and plot.

And then there is the second thing I knew before I watched this film: Al Jolson was known for performing in blackface, and there would indeed be blackface used in this movie. While I watched the film and appreciated what it was doing with an entirely new medium, I was simultaneously held in a state of tension as I waited for the inevitable to arrive. In fact the film does nothing to prepare you for the fact that this is part of Jakie’s act – it isn’t shown or mentioned or even hinted at until the moment Jolson starts to apply the makeup, more than an hour into the runtime and right at the climax of his character’s emotional dilemma. If I hadn’t been prepared for it, it would have been shocking for how it came out of nowhere.

I can’t watch this film with the eye of someone in 1927. Perhaps they watched this with an entirely different kind of anticipation, as they waited for their favourite minstrel performer to bring out his famous act. We could talk about the symbolism of blackface in the story, of Jakie’s dual nature and the obliteration of his own identity paralleling his estrangement from his culture. We could also talk about how a Jewish blackface performer launders their own identity, going before a white audience and performing whiteness by paradoxically inhabiting a parody of Blackness. From what little I’ve read, Al Jolson was a decent man, a supporter of Black people in the entertainment industry who sometimes pushed for their inclusion in his shows (there are no Black people in The Jazz Singer). But blackface is and always has been racist. It exists because of white audiences who will only accept Black culture when it is presented to them through the filter of whiteness, and who would rather see someone perform a caricature of Blackness than hire a Black performer. Al Jolson might have done a lot to introduce Black music to a white audience – but only because they wouldn’t let Black people do it.

If I go ahead with this insane project to watch almost every movie musical I can get my hands on, it’s inevitable that I’ll come across more racist content. The list I’m working with is collossal, many of the movies are from the 1930s and 40s, and I’ve already eliminated a few for looking like they go a bit too far. The very next one on my list – which I’ll be watching immediately after I write this – is another Al Jolson film, The Singing Fool, which will inevitably feature his minstrel performance. I’ve already decided I might not finish every film I start, and for the ones I do finish, I might not write as much as I did here. This is to say that outside of exceptional instances, I might not say much about other instances of blackface or similar racist tropes as I encounter them. I will mention if they are present, but if it is something that comes up again and again and again… well, then I might just rethink the whole project and skip over a lot more movies, but I think I’ve made my opinion clear here, and won’t be looking to restate it at every turn. Here’s looking forward to getting through these quickly, and moving on to newer and more modern forms of bigotry as I advance through the decades.

The Jazz Singer (1927) (2024)

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