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Alan Crosland
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Al Jolson as Jakie Rabinowitz embraces Eugenie Besserer as his mother, Sara Rabinowitz, in an emotional scene from the 1927 film The Jazz Singer.
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Alan Crosland

American film director
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Al Jolson as Jakie Rabinowitz embraces Eugenie Besserer as his mother, Sara Rabinowitz, in an emotional scene from the 1927 film The Jazz Singer.
Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer Al Jolson and Eugenie Besserer in the movie The Jazz Singer (1927), directed by Alan Crosland.

Alan Crosland was an American film director, best known for directing The Jazz Singer (1927). This film was a landmark in cinema history as it was the first feature-length movie with synchronized dialogue, heralding the end of the silent film era and the rise of "talkies".1

While The Jazz Singer is widely recognized as the first "talkie," it's important to note that other films had incorporated synchronized sound for music or effects earlier. The Jazz Singer utilized the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system and featured synchronized dialogue for musical numbers and select conversations, amounting to about a quarter of the film's runtime. The first feature film with all dialogue recorded was Lights of New York (1928).1

Crosland's career also included directing other films, and his work on The Jazz Singer earned Warner Brothers an honorary Academy Award for producing a "pioneer outstanding talking picture" that revolutionized the industry.1

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2 Britannica Sources
  1. The Jazz Singer
  2. James Cruze

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