Dating The Jazz Singer Daybill
This is a pretty exciting Daybill, it represents international what is generally accepted as the first 'Talkie' movie. It recently fetch on HA a staggering US$28,680.00 (includes 19.5% Buyer's Premium) - and who could argue that's not a fair price.
The poster itself was listed as "The Jazz Singer (Warner Brothers, 1927). Pre-War Release Australian Daybill."
But it is NOT from 1927 which is when the movie was released in the USA, in fact the movie had its first (advanced) screening in Sydney at The Lyceum Theatre on Friday 28 December 1928, more than TWELVE MONTHS after the USA release.
For those who have got this information wrong, feel free to adjust your databases.
When The Lyceum Theatre was announced as the first picture theatre to show the movie it was planned for a Boxing Day release but the preparations necessary to show the movie as intended (with sound!) made the alteration of the date inevitable. The official opening (after the pre-screening) was Saturday 29 December 1929 and the run at the Lyceum was astounding, still attracting audiences in May of 1929 thus delaying the release of The Terror (1928) another talkie. Now, this wasn't a continuous run for The Jazz Singer and The Lyceum Theatre, the annual (and pre-booked) Methodist Conference closed the screenings of the film between Feb 26 1929 and March 1 1929.
Another side note is that the movie opened in Adelaide at the 'New Pavillion Theatre' on 13 May 1929 AS A SILENT MOVIE...those of us in Australia know that technology takes time to get through to (the state of) South Australia, I believe colour TV was launched down there in the last 2 years...
NOW!
Despite The Jazz Singer being touted as the first 'talkie' it was not the first one released in New Zealand, that distinction goes to the 1928 movie Street Angel, a silent picture with a recorded musical soundtrack which was shown to excited people as they flocked to see it at Wellington’s Paramount Theatre in March 1929.
And while doing this research I dug up a couple of interesting trivia pursuit snippets:
"United Artists president Joseph Schenck asserted in 1928 that the talkies were just a passing fad."
'..the Geraldine Borough Council passed a resolution to ban talking pictures fearing it would corrupt the minds of the people.' Geraldine is about 100 miles south of Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand, unfortunately this resolution did not quite work as planned, people simply drove the 20 miles to the nearest town (Timaru)
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