How Sound Changed Everything in 1927

The Jazz Singer premiered in October 1927 and the industry flipped within two years. Silent stars with thick accents or weak voices fell away, dialogue writers were imported from Broadway and newspapers, and cameras were buried in blimp housings to muffle their motors.

Some masters like Chaplin and Murnau resisted or adapted. The transition produced awkward 1929 films full of static talk, then a new fluency by 1932.

City Lights, a silent film made in 1931, was the last great argument for the old grammar..