Gregor Clegane, nicknamed "The Mountain That Rides" or simply "The Mountain", is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin, and its television adaptation Game of Thrones. In the books, the character is initially introduced in 1996's A Game of Thrones. He subsequently appeared in A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000) and in A Dance with Dragons (2011).

A notorious knight and retainer to House Lannister, he is well known for his enormous size, prowess in battle, extremely cruel nature, and uncontrollable temper. He is the older brother of Sandor "The Hound" Clegane; who has hated him ever since Gregor gruesomely scarred Sandor by shoving his face into a brazier when they were children. After being mortally wounded in a duel with Oberyn Martell, he is resuscitated by Qyburn via sinister means and becomes member of the Kingsguard and the personal bodyguard of Cersei Lannister.

In the HBO television adaptation, Clegane was originally portrayed by Australian actor Conan Stevens in season one, and by Welsh actor Ian Whyte in season two; Icelandic actor and world champion strongman Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson took over the role in season four and continued in the role until the final season.

Character description
Ser Gregor Clegane is the head of House Clegane, a landed knight vassal to House Lannister, and is the older brother of Sandor Clegane.  His enormous size and strength make him a fearsome warrior (in the novels he is nearly ) tall, and weighs over ), and he has earned a reputation for violence and brutality.  When they were children, Gregor shoved Sandor's face into a brazier for using his toy, gruesomely scarring him.  Over the course of his service to Tywin Lannister, he has committed numerous war crimes, most infamously the rape and murder of the Targaryen royal family, but has repeatedly avoided punishment due to House Lannister's power and influence over the Iron Throne.  Clegane was one of the first Lannister soldiers to enter King's Landing during its sack at the end of Robert Baratheon's rebellion. He raped and murdered Princess Elia, after murdering her son Aegon by shattering the child's head against a wall, a grudge House Martell still bears 14 years later at the onset of A Game of Thrones.

Gregor Clegane is not a point of view character in the novels, so his actions are witnessed and interpreted through the eyes of other people, such as Arya Stark and Cersei Lannister. Gregor is mostly a background character in the novels.

Storylines

A Song of Ice and Fire
In A Game of Thrones, Tywin Lannister sends him to raid the Riverlands in retaliation for Catelyn Stark's abduction of Tyrion. Beric Dondarrion is sent to arrest Gregor, but Gregor ambushes and kills him. He and his men continue raiding the Riverlands throughout A Clash of Kings. When Tyrion Lannister demands a trial by combat in A Storm of Swords, the accuser Cersei Lannister chooses Gregor as her champion. Elia's brother Oberyn Martell volunteers as Tyrion's champion to expose Gregor as a murderer. Oberyn wounds Gregor with a poisoned spear, but the Mountain is ultimately victorious, admitting to murdering Elia and Aegon before crushing Oberyn's skull. The dying Gregor is given to Qyburn for experimentation. Later Gregor's skull is sent to Doran Martell and the Sand Snakes who question if it is really Gregor.

Robert Strong
Following Cersei's walk of atonement, Qyburn presents Ser Robert Strong as Kingsguard's newest member and Cersei's champion for her upcoming trial by combat. Strong is of similar enormous stature as Gregor, and his body is completely covered in armor. Several characters have made comments about his unnatural behaviour and have theorized about who he could be, however he is currently not confirmed to be Ser Gregor.

Game of Thrones (TV adaptation)

Season 1
Tywin Lannister sends Ser Gregor to raid the Riverlands. Beric Dondarrion is sent to arrest Gregor. When war breaks out, Gregor is given command of Tywin's vanguard and left flank and leads his men through intimidation.

Season 2
Ser Gregor is left to command Harrenhal in Tywin's absence and to find and destroy "The Brotherhood Without Banners", invoking the escape of Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie from Harrenhal. He later abandons Harrenhal after slaughtering the prisoners and is defeated by Edmure Tully at the Stone Mill, but manages to escape back to the Westerlands. Robb chides his uncle, having planned to draw the Mountain into a trap of his own making to be captured or killed.

Season 4
Ser Gregor is chosen as Cersei's champion for Tyrion's trial by combat, and fights Oberyn Martell, Tyrion's champion who wants to kill Gregor as revenge for the murder of his sister, Elia Martell. Oberyn inflicts several serious injuries on Clegane with his poisoned spear, but Gregor eventually kills Oberyn by crushing his skull, while admitting that he did rape Elia, killed her children and enjoyed it, before collapsing from his own injuries. It is later revealed that The Mountain has been poisoned with manticore venom, a poison with which Oberyn had laced his weapon, and that he is slowly dying. Cersei enlists ex-maester Qyburn to save him, though Qyburn claims that the procedure will "change" Clegane.

Season 5
The procedure is seemingly a success as Ser Gregor returns to duty, now as a kingsguard, presenting himself as Cersei returns from her walk of shame. Though Qyburn's treatment has changed his physical appearance and behavior, and seemingly made him completely mute, Qyburn explains that Ser Gregor - not naming him as such - has sworn a vow of silence and vowed to serve as Cersei's personal bodyguard until all her enemies are destroyed and evil has been driven from the realm. He picks her up and carries her into Qyburn's care, her demeanor visibly lifted.

Season 6
Ser Gregor continues to act as Cersei's bodyguard to intimidate all those who may bother or mock her. He also rips the head off of a Faith Militant with his bare hands when they try to take Cersei into their custody. After Cersei destroys the Great Sept of Baelor and retakes power, she has Gregor torture Septa Unella in revenge for torturing her during her time in prison.

Season 7
Ser Gregor is still with Cersei as a member of the Queensguard. He is confronted by his brother Sandor "The Hound" Clegane in the season finale, where Sandor conveys an ominous message that he (Gregor) already knows who is coming for him and that he has always known.

Season 8
Ser Gregor is present when Daenerys Targaryen arrives at King's Landing with all her forces, demanding the release of her advisor Missandei and Cersei's surrender. A defiant Cersei has Ser Gregor decapitate Missandei. Ser Gregor is killed in the penultimate episode when Cersei attempts to flee the Red Keep, meeting Gregor's vengeful brother on their way down. Sandor quickly dispatches her guards and Gregor slays Qyburn as he insists upon obeying her, instead engaging in a sword duel with Sandor (whose presence seems to break his spell of loyalty). After stubbornly fighting his brother by any means available, and even penetrating his bared face with a dagger all the way through his skull (suggesting that Gregor is, in fact, dead and reanimated by magical means), Sandor finally tackles him into an unsteady wall as the Red Keep crumbles around them. The effort is finally successful, and both brothers fall out of the stairwell into a raging inferno below.

References

A Song of Ice and Fire characters
Literary characters introduced in 1996
Fictional characters with disfigurements
Fictional characters with gigantism
Fictional characters with superhuman strength
Fictional murderers of children
Fictional bodyguards
Fictional knights
Fictional mass murderers
Fictional rapists
Fictional swordfighters in literature
Fictional torturers
Fictional undead
Fictional zombies and revenants
Fratricide in fiction
Male characters in literature
Male characters in television
Male literary villains
Television characters introduced in 2011

Gregor Clegane


An energy drink is a type of drink containing stimulant compounds, usually caffeine, which is marketed as providing mental and physical stimulation (marketed as "energy", but distinct from food energy). They may or may not be carbonated and may also contain sugar, other sweeteners, or herbal extracts, among numerous possible ingredients.

They are a subset of the larger group of energy products, which includes bars and gels, and distinct from sports drinks, which are advertised to enhance sports performance. There are many brands and varieties in this drink category.

Energy drinks have the effects of caffeine and no sugar, but there is little or no evidence that the wide variety of other ingredients have any effect. Most effects of energy drinks on cognitive performance, such as increased attention and reaction speed, are primarily due to the presence of caffeine. Other studies ascribe those performance improvements to the effects of the combined ingredients.

Advertising for energy drinks usually features increased muscle strength and endurance, but there is no scientific consensus to support these claims. Energy drinks have been associated with many health risks, such as an increased rate of injury when usage is combined with alcohol, and excessive or repeated consumption can lead to cardiac and psychiatric conditions. Populations at risk for complications from energy drink consumption include youth, caffeine-naïve or caffeine-sensitive, pregnant, competitive athletes and people with underlying cardiovascular disease.

Ingredients and uses
Energy drinks are usually marketed to young people and provide the health effects of caffeine. Health experts agree that energy drinks which contain caffeine do improve alertness.

There is no reliable evidence that other ingredients in energy drinks provide further benefits, even though the drinks are frequently advertised in a way that suggests they have unique benefits. The dietary supplements in energy drinks may be purported to supply benefits, such as for vitamin B12, but no claims of using supplements to enhance health in otherwise normal people have been verified scientifically.

Marketing of energy drinks has been particularly directed towards teenagers, with manufacturers sponsoring or advertising at extreme sports events and music concerts, and targeting a youthful audience through social media channels.

Effects

Energy drinks have the effects caffeine and sugar provide, but there is little or no evidence that the wide variety of other ingredients have any effect. Most of the effects of energy drinks on cognitive performance, such as increased attention and reaction speed, are primarily due to the presence of caffeine. Advertising for energy drinks usually features increased muscle strength and endurance, but there is little evidence to support this in the scientific literature.

According to the Mayo Clinic, it is safe for the typical healthy adult to consume a total of 400 mg of caffeine a day. This has been confirmed by a panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which also concludes that a caffeine intake of up to 400 mg per day does not raise safety concerns for adults. According to the ESFA this is equivalent to 4 cups of coffee (90 mg each) or 2 1/2 standard cans (250 ml) of energy drink (160 mg each/80 mg per serving). Adverse effects associated with caffeine consumption in amounts greater than 400 mg include nervousness, irritability, sleeplessness, increased urination, abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmia), and dyspepsia. Caffeine dosage is not required to be on the product label for food in the United States, unlike drugs, but most (although not all) place the caffeine content of their drinks on the label anyway, and some advocates are urging the FDA to change this practice.

Health problems
Excessive consumption of energy drinks can have serious health effects resulting from high caffeine and sugar intakes, particularly in children, teens, and young adults. Excessive energy drink consumption may disrupt teens' sleep patterns and may be associated with increased risk-taking behavior. Excessive or repeated consumption of energy drinks can lead to cardiac problems, such as arrhythmias and heart attacks, and psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and phobias. In Europe, energy drinks containing sugar and caffeine have been associated with the deaths of athletes. Reviews have noted that caffeine content was not the only factor, and that the cocktail of other ingredients in energy drinks made them more dangerous than drinks whose only stimulant was caffeine; the studies noted that more research and government regulation were needed.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children not consume caffeinated energy drinks.

History

Energy drinks were an active subset of the early soft drink industry; Pepsi, for instance, was originally marketed as an energy booster. Coca-Cola's name was derived from its two active ingredients, both known stimulants: coca leaves and kola nuts (a source of caffeine). Fresh coca leaves were replaced by "spent" ones in 1904 because of concerns over the use of cocaine in food products; the federal lawsuit United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola and subsequent litigation pressured The Coca-Cola Company into reducing the amount of caffeine in its formula by 1916, though the Food and Drug Administration ultimately lost the case against the inanimate Coca-Cola barrels because it failed to demonstrate that the caffeine levels in the drink—78 mg per 8 fl oz, a level comparable to modern energy drinks, at the time of the lawsuit—was harmful as alleged. These developments brought an end to the first wave of energy drinks.

In the UK, Lucozade was originally introduced in 1927 by a Newcastle pharmacist, William Walker Hunter, as a hospital drink for "aiding the recovery;" in the early 1980s, it was promoted as a drink for "replenishing lost energy." One of the first post-Forty Barrels energy drinks introduced in America was Dr. Enuf. Its origins date back to 1949, when a Chicago businessman named William Mark Swartz was urged by co-workers to formulate a soft drink fortified with vitamins as an alternative to sugar sodas full of empty calories. He developed an "energy booster" drink containing B vitamins, caffeine and cane sugar. After placing a notice in a trade magazine seeking a bottler, he formed a partnership with Charles Gordon of Tri-City Beverage to produce and distribute the soda. Dr. Enuf is still being manufactured in Johnson City, Tennessee and sold sparsely throughout the nation.

In Japan, the energy drink dates at least as far back as the early 1960s, with the launch of the Lipovitan brand. However, in Japan, most of the products of this kind bear little resemblance to soft drinks, and are sold instead in small brown glass medicine bottles, or cans styled to resemble such containers. These "eiyō dorinku" (literally, "nutritional drinks") are marketed primarily to salarymen. Bacchus-F, a South Korean drink closely modeled after Lipovitan, also appeared in the early 1960s and targets a similar demographic.

In 1985, Jolt Cola was introduced in the United States. Its marketing strategy centered on the drink's caffeine content, billing it as a means to promote wakefulness. The drink's initial slogan read: "All the sugar and twice the caffeine."

In 1995, PepsiCo launched Josta, the first energy drink introduced by a major US drink company (one that had interests outside energy drinks), but Pepsi discontinued the product in 1999. Pepsi would later return to the energy drink market with the AMP brand.

In Europe, energy drinks were pioneered by the Lisa company and a product named "Power Horse", before Dietrich Mateschitz, an Austrian entrepreneur, introduced the Red Bull product, a worldwide bestseller in the 21st century. Mateschitz developed Red Bull based on the Thai drink Krating Daeng, itself based on Lipovitan. Red Bull became the dominant brand in the US after its introduction in 1997, with a market share of approximately 47% in 2005.

In New Zealand and Australia, the leading energy drink product in those markets, V, was introduced by Frucor Beverages. The product now represents over 60% of market in New Zealand and Australia.

In 2002, Hansen Natural Company introduced the energy drink Monster Energy. Hansen Natural Company changed their name to Monster Beverage Corporation after an agreement by shareholders to change the name after Monster Energy became the largest source of revenue. The company's previous beverages were taken ownership by the Coca-Cola Company.

The energy shot product, an offshoot of the energy drink, was launched in the US with products such as "5-Hour Energy," which was first released onto the market in 2004. A consumer health analyst explained in a March 2014 media article: "Energy shots took off because of energy drinks. If you're a white collar worker, you're not necessarily willing to down a big Monster energy drink, but you may drink an energy shot."

In 2007, energy drink powders and effervescent tablets were introduced, whereby either can be added to water to create an energy drink.

On 14 August 2012, the word "energy drink" was listed for the first time in the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Variants

By concentration

Energy shots

Energy shots are a specialized kind of energy drink. Whereas most energy drinks are sold in cans or bottles, energy shots are usually sold in smaller 50ml bottles. Energy shots can contain the same total amount of caffeine, vitamins or other functional ingredients as their larger versions, and may be considered concentrated forms of energy drinks. The marketing of energy shots generally focuses on their convenience and availability as a low-calorie "instant" energy drink that can be taken in one swallow (or "shot"), as opposed to energy drinks that encourage users to drink an entire can, which may contain 250 calories or more. A common energy shot is 5-hour Energy which contains B vitamins and caffeine in an amount similar to a cup of coffee.

By ingredient

Caffeinated alcoholic drink

Energy drinks such as Red Bull are often used as mixers with alcoholic drinks, producing mixed drinks such as Vodka Red Bull which are similar to but stronger than rum and coke with respect to the amount of caffeine that they contain. Sometimes this is configured as a bomb shot, such as the Jägerbomb or the F-Bomb—Fireball Cinnamon Whisky and Red Bull.

Caffeinated alcoholic drinks are also sold in some countries in a wide variety of formulations. The American products Four Loko and Joose originally combined caffeine and alcohol before caffeinated alcoholic drinks were banned in the U.S. in 2010.

Chemistry

Energy drinks generally contain methylxanthines (including caffeine), B vitamins, carbonated water, and high-fructose corn syrup or sugar (for non-diet versions). Other common ingredients are guarana, yerba mate, açaí, and taurine, plus various forms of ginseng, maltodextrin, inositol, carnitine, creatine, glucuronolactone, sucralose or ginkgo biloba.

In the United States, the caffeine content of energy drinks is in the range of 40 to 250 mg per 8 fluid ounce (237 ml) serving. The FDA recommends that 400 mg per day is safe for adults, while 1200 mg per day can be toxic.

Demographics
Globally, energy drinks are typically attractive to youths and young adults.

Sales and trends

In 2017, global energy drink sales were about 44 billion euros. In 2017, manufacturers were modifying the composition of energy drinks for reduced or no sugar content and lower calories, caffeine content, "clean" labels to reflect the use of organic ingredients, exotic flavors, and ingredients that may affect mood.

Regulations

Some countries have certain restrictions on the sale and manufacture of energy drinks. A ban was challenged in the European Court of Justice in 2004 and consequently lifted.

Australia and New Zealand

In Australia and New Zealand, energy drinks are regulated under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code; limiting the caffeine content of 'formulated caffeinated beverages' (energy drinks) at 320 mg/L (9.46 mg/oz) and soft-drinks at 145 mg/L (4.29 mg/oz). Mandatory caffeine labeling is issued for all food products containing guarana in the country, and Australian energy drink labels warn consumers to drink no more than two cans per day.
Bridgetown in Western Australia became the first place in Australia to ban the sale of energy drinks to persons under 18 years for four months as of February 2023.

Colombia
In 2009 under the Ministry of Social Protection, Colombia prohibited the sale and commercialization of energy drinks to minors under the age of 14.

Latvia
In June 2016, Latvia banned the sale of energy drinks containing caffeine or stimulants like taurine and guarana to people under the age of 18.

Lithuania
In November 2014, Lithuania became the first country in the EU to ban the selling of energy drinks to anyone under the age of 18. The Baltic state placed the ban in reaction to research showing how popular energy drinks were among minors. According to the AFP reports roughly 10% of school-aged Lithuanians say they consume energy drinks at least once a week.

Norway
Norway did not allow Red Bull for a time, although this restriction has been relaxed. In May 2009, it became legal to sell in Norway. The Norwegian version has reduced levels of vitamin B6. The United Kingdom investigated the drink, but only issued a warning against its consumption by children and pregnant women.

Russia
In November 2012, President Ramzan Kadyrov of Chechnya (Russian Federation) ordered his government to develop a bill banning the sale of energy drinks, arguing that as a form of "intoxicating drug", such drinks were "unacceptable in a Muslim society". Kadyrov cited reports of one death and 530 hospital admissions in 2012 due to "poisoning" from the consumption of such drinks. A similar view was expressed by Gennady Onishchenko, Chief Sanitary Inspector of Russia.

United Kingdom
In 2009, a school in Hove, England requested that local shops refrain from selling energy drinks to students. Headteacher Falklanda Sanders added that "This was a preventative measure, as all research shows that consuming high-energy drinks can have a detrimental impact on the ability of young people to concentrate in class." The school negotiated for their local branch of the Tesco supermarket to display posters asking students not to purchase the products. Similar measures were taken by a school in Oxted, England, which banned students from consuming drinks and sent letters to parents.

While not yet age-restricted by legislation, all major UK supermarkets have agreed to voluntarily stop the sale of energy drinks to under-16s. The UK government plans to end the sale of energy drinks to under-16s in the future.

In January 2018, many United Kingdom supermarkets banned the sale of energy drinks containing more than 150 mg of caffeine per liter to people under 16 years old; this was followed by the UK government announcing that it planned to ban all sales of energy drinks to minors in 2019. However, in 2022 such plans were reported to have been scrapped by Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

United States

As of 2013 in the United States, some energy drinks, including Monster Energy and Rockstar Energy, were reported to be rebranding their products as drinks rather than as dietary supplements. As drinks they would be relieved of FDA reporting requirements with respect to deaths and injuries and can be purchased with food stamps, but must list ingredients on the can.

Some places ban the sale of prepackaged caffeinated alcoholic drinks, which can be described as energy drinks containing alcohol. In response to these bans, the marketers can change the formula of their products.

Uzbekistan
In January 2019, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan signed a law that imposes a number of restrictions on energy drinks. To protect the younger generation, a rule had been introduced prohibiting the sale of energy drinks to persons under the age of 18. Advertising of energy drinks was prohibited on television and radio from 7:00 to 22:00. It was also completely banned in printed publications intended primarily for children and adolescents, in medical, sports and educational institutions.

India
In India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulates the manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and sale of energy drinks. Listed here are substances and the maximum amount of consumption in a single day as recommended by FSSAI. Taurine is limited to 2000mg/per day, D-glucuronic-Y-lactone is limited to 1200/per day, Inositol is limited to 100 mg/per day, and Pantothenic acid is limited to 10mg/per day.

See also

 List of energy drinks
 Sport drink
 Elixir
 Soft drink
 Caffeinated alcoholic drinks

References

Further reading

External links

Caffeine
Drinks

Energy drink


"Defender" is a song by Australian singer–songwriter Gabriella Cilmi, released as the third single from her second studio album Ten. The single release of "Defender" included a cover of Kiki Dee's "Magic Carpet Ride" as a b-side, promotional releases however listed the two songs as a double-A Side. It was co-written by Gabriella herself alongside George Astasio, Jason Pebworth and Jon Shave.

Release
"Defender" was released as a digital download on 26 August 2010. The single failed to appear on the UK Singles Chart.

Critical reception
Jon O'Brien from Allmusic said that: "The epic beats of the Dido-esque power "Defender," offer a respite from the party atmosphere, but as competent as they are, Ten is much more interesting when Cilmi unleashes her previously hidden disco diva tendencies".

Music video
The music video for "Defender" starts off with Cilmi with her back to the camera holding a microphone, a stage light is shining on her and a crowd can be heard cheering and applauding her. The video then cuts to Gabriella sitting and singing in a room wearing a white top; the room seems to be a part of a derelict space station. Clips of her walking through the corridors with a black dress intersect the parts of the video with her in the room. Whilst walking through the corridor she takes off her jewellery and her dress leaving Cilmi in just her underwear and shoes. Water then sprays over her and close ups of Gabriella with wet hair are shown.

Scenes of her in the white top intersect again. Gabriella is seen fully clothed again and she starts to cut her wet hair with a pair of scissors. She then finds some ink in a glass bottle and uses an instrument to tattoo 3 bars on her wrist. She wraps black material around her wrists and is then seen walking down the corridor again only this time she is holding a katana and she has a scarf around her mouth. The lights then go out in the space station and Gabriella fades into the darkness.

Track listings
Digital download
"Defender"

Digital EP
"Defender"
"Magic Carpet Ride"
"Defender" (Cahill Remix)

References

External links

2010s ballads
2010 singles
Gabriella Cilmi songs
Pop ballads
Synth-pop ballads
2010 songs
Island Records singles
Songs written by Jason Pebworth
Songs written by George Astasio
Songs written by Jon Shave
Songs written by Gabriella Cilmi

Defender (Gabriella Cilmi song)


The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American part-talkie musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolated sequences). Its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and effectively marked the end of the silent film era with the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, featuring six songs performed by Al Jolson. Based on the 1925 play of the same title by Samson Raphaelson, the plot was adapted from his short story "The Day of Atonement".

The film depicts the fictional story of Jakie Rabinowitz, a young man who defies the traditions of his devout Jewish family. After singing popular tunes in a beer garden, he is punished by his father, a hazzan (cantor), prompting Jakie to run away from home. Some years later, now calling himself Jack Robin, he has become a talented jazz singer, performing in blackface. He attempts to build a career as an entertainer, but his professional ambitions ultimately come into conflict with the demands of his home and heritage.

Darryl F. Zanuck won an Academy Honorary Award for producing the film; Alfred A. Cohn was nominated for Best Writing (Adaptation) at the 1st Academy Awards. In 1996, The Jazz Singer was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". In 1998, the film was chosen in voting conducted by the American Film Institute as one of the best American films of all time, ranking at number ninety. The film's copyright expired on January 1, 2023, when all works published in the U.S. in 1927 entered the public domain.

Plot

Cantor Rabinowitz wants his son, 13-year old Jacob "Jakie" Rabinowitz, to carry on the generations-old family tradition and become a cantor at the synagogue in the Jewish ghetto of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Jakie has instead taken a liking to singing jazz at the local beer garden. Moisha Yudelson spots the boy and tells Jakie's father, who drags him home. Jakie clings to his mother, Sara, as his father declares, "I'll teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him!" Jakie threatens: "If you whip me again, I'll run away—and never come back!" After the whipping, Jakie kisses his mother goodbye and, true to his word, runs away. At the Yom Kippur service, Rabinowitz mournfully tells a fellow celebrant, "My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight—but now I have no son." As the sacred Kol Nidre is sung, Jakie sneaks back home to retrieve a picture of his loving mother.

About ten years later, Jakie has anglicized his name to Jack Robin. Jack is called up from his table at a cabaret to perform on stage ("Dirty Hands, Dirty Face").

Jack wows the crowd with his energized rendition of "Toot, Toot, Tootsie." Afterward, he is introduced to the beautiful Mary Dale, a musical theater dancer. "There are lots of jazz singers, but you have a tear in your voice," she says, offering to help with his budding career. With her help, Jack eventually gets his big break: a leading part in the new musical April Follies.

Back at the family home Jack left long ago, the elder Rabinowitz instructs a young student in the traditional cantorial art. Jack appears and tries to explain his point of view, and his love of modern music, but the appalled cantor banishes him: "I never want to see you again—you jazz singer!" As he leaves, Jack makes a prediction: "I came home with a heart full of love, but you don't want to understand. Some day you'll understand, the same as Mama does."

Two weeks after Jack's expulsion from the family home and 24 hours before the opening night of April Follies on Broadway, Jack's father falls gravely ill. Jack is asked to choose between the show and duty to his family and faith: in order to sing the Kol Nidre for Yom Kippur in his father's place, he will have to miss the big premiere.

That evening, the eve of Yom Kippur, Yudelson tells the Jewish elders, "For the first time, we have no Cantor on the Day of Atonement." Lying in his bed, weak and gaunt, Cantor Rabinowitz tells Sara that he cannot perform on the most sacred of holy days: "My son came to me in my dreams—he sang Kol Nidre so beautifully. If he would only sing like that tonight—surely he would be forgiven."

As Jack prepares for a dress rehearsal by applying blackface makeup, he and Mary discuss his career aspirations and the family pressures they agree he must resist. Sara and Yudelson come to Jack's dressing room to plead for him to come to his father and sing in his stead. Jack is torn. He delivers his blackface performance ("Mother of Mine, I Still Have You"), and Sara sees her son on stage for the first time. She has a tearful revelation: "Here he belongs. If God wanted him in His house, He would have kept him there. He's not my boy anymore—he belongs to the whole world now."

Afterward, Jack returns to the Rabinowitz home. He kneels at his father's bedside and the two converse fondly: "My son—I love you." Sara suggests that it may help heal his father if Jack takes his place at the Yom Kippur service. Mary arrives with the producer, who warns Jack that he'll never work on Broadway again if he fails to appear on opening night. Jack can not decide. Mary challenges him: "Were you lying when you said your career came before everything?" Jack is unsure if he even can replace his father: "I haven't sung Kol Nidre since I was a little boy." His mother tells him, "Do what is in your heart, Jakie—if you sing and God is not in your voice—your father will know." The producer cajoles Jack: "You're a jazz singer at heart!"

At the theater, the opening night audience is told that there will be no performance. Jack sings the Kol Nidre in his father's place. His father listens from his deathbed to the nearby ceremony and speaks his last, forgiving words: "Mama, we have our son again." The spirit of Jack's father is shown at his side in the synagogue. Mary has come to listen. She sees how Jack has reconciled the division in his soul: "a jazz singer—singing to his God."

"The season passes—and time heals—the show goes on." Jack, as "The Jazz Singer," is now appearing at the Winter Garden theater, apparently as the featured performer opening for a show called Back Room. In the front row of the packed theater, his mother sits alongside Yudelson. Jack, in blackface, performs the song "My Mammy" for her and the world.

Cast

Al Jolson as Jakie Rabinowitz (Jack Robin)
Warner Oland as Cantor Rabinowitz
Eugenie Besserer as Sara Rabinowitz
May McAvoy as Mary Dale
Otto Lederer as Moisha Yudelson
Richard Tucker as Harry Lee
Yossele Rosenblatt as himself
Bobby Gordon as Jakie Rabinowitz (age 13)

Songs
 "My Gal Sal" (music and lyrics by Paul Dresser; dubbed by unknown singer with Bobby Gordon onscreen)
 "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" (music by Lewis F. Muir and lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert; dubbed by unknown singer with Bobby Gordon onscreen)
 "Yussel, Yussel" (music by Samuel Steinberg and lyrics by Nellie Casman, 1923); heard as background music as Jolson walks through his ghetto neighborhood.
 "Kol Nidre" (traditional; dubbed by Joseph Diskay with Warner Oland onscreen; sung also by Al Jolson)
 "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face" (music by James V. Monaco and lyrics by Edgar Leslie and Grant Clarke; sung by Al Jolson)
 "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye)" (music and lyrics by Gus Kahn, Ernie Erdman, and Dan Russo [title orthography and songwriting credits per original sheet music cover; some other sources do not mention Russo and some also name either or both Ted Fio Rito and Robert A. King]; sung by Al Jolson)
 "Kaddish" (traditional; sung by Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt)
 "Yahrzeit Licht"; sung by Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt
 "Blue Skies" (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin; sung by Al Jolson)
 "Mother of Mine, I Still Have You" (music by Louis Silvers and lyrics by Grant Clarke [Jolson also credited by some sources]; sung by Al Jolson)
 "My Mammy" (music by Walter Donaldson and lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young; sung by Al Jolson)

Production

Concept and development
On April 25, 1917, Samson Raphaelson, a native of New York City's Lower East Side and a University of Illinois undergraduate, attended a performance of the musical Robinson Crusoe, Jr. in Champaign, Illinois. The star of the show was a thirty-year-old singer, Al Jolson, a Lithuanian-born Jew who performed in blackface. In a 1927 interview, Raphaelson described the experience: "I shall never forget the first five minutes of Jolson—his velocity, the amazing fluidity with which he shifted from a tremendous absorption in his audience to a tremendous absorption in his song." He explained that he had seen emotional intensity like Jolson's only among synagogue cantors.

A few years later, pursuing a professional literary career, Raphaelson wrote "The Day of Atonement", a short story about a young Jew named Jakie Rabinowitz, based on Jolson's real life. The story was published in January 1922 in Everybody's Magazine. Raphaelson later adapted the story into a stage play, The Jazz Singer. A straight drama, all the singing in Raphaelson's version takes place offstage. With George Jessel in the lead role, the show premiered at the Warner Theatre in Times Square in September 1925 and became a hit. Warner Bros. acquired the movie rights to the play on June 4, 1926, and signed Jessel to a contract. The Moving Picture World published a story in February 1927 announcing that production on the film would begin with Jessel on May 1.

But the plans to make the film with Jessel would fall through, for multiple reasons. Jessel's contract with Warner Bros. had not anticipated that the movie they had particularly signed him for would be made with sound (he'd made a modestly budgeted, silent comedy in the interim). When Warner had hits with two Vitaphone, though dialogue-less, features in late 1926, The Jazz Singer production had been reconceived. Jessel asked for a bonus or a new contract, but was rebuffed. According to Jessel's description in his autobiography, Harry Warner "was having a tough time with the financing of the company.... He talked about taking care of me if the picture was a success. I did not feel that was enough." In fact, around the beginning of 1927, Harry Warner—the eldest of the brothers who ran the eponymous studio—had sold $4 million of his personal stock to keep the studio solvent. Then came another major issue. According to Jessel, a first read of screenwriter Alfred A. Cohn's adaptation "threw me into a fit. Instead of the boy's leaving the theatre and following the traditions of his father by singing in the synagogue, as in the play, the picture scenario had him return to the Winter Garden as a blackface comedian, with his mother wildly applauding in the box. I raised hell. Money or no money, I would not do this."

According to performer Eddie Cantor, as negotiations between Warner Bros. and Jessel floundered, Jack L. Warner and the studio's production chief, Darryl Zanuck, called to see if he was interested in the part. Cantor, a friend of Jessel's, responded that he was sure any differences with the actor could be worked out and offered his assistance. Cantor was not invited to participate in the Jessel talks; instead, the role was then offered to Jolson, who had inspired it in the first place. Describing Jolson as the production's best choice for its star, film historian Donald Crafton wrote, "The entertainer, who sang jazzed-up minstrel numbers in blackface, was at the height of his phenomenal popularity. Anticipating the later stardom of crooners and rock stars, Jolson electrified audiences with the vitality and sex appeal of his songs and gestures, which owed much to black american sources." As described by film historian Robert L. Carringer, "Jessel was a vaudeville comedian and master of ceremonies with one successful play and one modestly successful film to his credit. Jolson was a superstar." Jolson took the part, signing a $75,000 contract on May 26, 1927, for eight weeks of services beginning in July. There have been several claims but no proof that Jolson invested some of his own money in the film. Jessel and Jolson, also friends, did not speak for some time after—on the one hand, Jessel had been confiding his problems with the Warners to Jolson; on the other, Jolson had signed with them without telling Jessel of his plans. In his autobiography, Jessel wrote that, in the end, Jolson "must not be blamed, as the Warners had definitely decided that I was out."

Introduction of sound
While many earlier sound films had dialogue, all were short subjects. D. W. Griffith's feature Dream Street (1921) was shown in New York with a single singing sequence and crowd noises, using the sound-on-disc system Photokinema. The film was preceded by a program of sound shorts, including a sequence with Griffith speaking directly to the audience, but the feature itself had no talking scenes. On April 15, 1923, Lee De Forest introduced the sound-on-film system Phonofilm, which had synchronized sound and dialogue, but the sound quality was poor, and the films produced in this process were short films only.

The first Warner Bros. Vitaphone features, Don Juan (premiered August 1926) and The Better 'Ole (premiered October 1926), like three more that followed in early 1927 (When a Man Loves, Old San Francisco, and The First Auto), had only a synchronized instrumental score and sound effects. The Jazz Singer contains those, as well as numerous synchronized singing sequences and some synchronized speech: Two popular tunes are performed by the young Jakie Rabinowitz, the future Jazz Singer; his father, a cantor, performs the devotional Kol Nidre; the famous cantor Yossele Rosenblatt, appearing as himself, sings an excerpt of another religious melody, Kaddish, and the song "Yahrzeit Licht". As the adult Jack Robin, Jolson performs six songs: five popular "jazz" tunes and the Kol Nidre. The sound for the film was recorded by British-born George Groves, who had also worked on Don Juan. To direct, the studio chose Alan Crosland, who already had two Vitaphone films to his credit: Don Juan and Old San Francisco, which opened while The Jazz Singer was in production.

Jolson's first vocal performance, about fifteen minutes into the picture, is of "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face", with music by James V. Monaco and lyrics by Edgar Leslie and Grant Clarke. The first synchronized speech, uttered by Jack to a cabaret crowd and to the piano player in the band that accompanies him, occurs directly after that performance, beginning at the 17:25 mark of the film. Jack's first spoken words—"Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet"—were well-established stage patter of Jolson's. He had even spoken very similar lines in an earlier short, A Plantation Act (1926). The line had become virtually an in-joke. In November 1918, during a gala concert celebrating the end of World War I, Jolson ran onstage amid the applause for the preceding performer, the great operatic tenor Enrico Caruso, and exclaimed, "Folks, you ain't heard nothin' yet." The following year, he recorded the song "You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet". In a later scene, Jack talks with his mother, played by Eugenie Besserer, in the family parlor; his father enters and pronounces one very conclusive word, "Stop!"

In total, the movie contains barely two minutes' worth of synchronized talking, much or all of it improvised. The rest of the dialogue is presented through the caption cards, or intertitles, standard in silent movies of the era; as was common, those titles were composed not by the film's scenarist, Alfred Cohn, but by another writer – in this case, Jack Jarmuth.

While Jolson was touring with a stage show during June 1927, production on The Jazz Singer began with the shooting of exterior scenes by the second unit. In late June, Alan Crosland headed to New York City to shoot the Lower East Side and Winter Garden exteriors on location. Jolson joined the production in mid-July (his contract specified July 11). Filming with Jolson began with his silent scenes; the more complex Vitaphone sequences were primarily done in late August. Both Jolson and Zanuck would later take credit for thinking up the ad-libbed dialogue sequence between Jack and his mother; another story had it that Sam Warner was impressed by Jolson's brief ad-libbing in the cabaret scene and had Cohn come up with some lines on the spot. On September 23, Motion Picture News reported that production on the film had been completed.

The production cost for The Jazz Singer was $422,000 (approximately US$ in  dollars), a large sum, especially for Warner Bros., which rarely spent more than $250,000. It was by no means a record for the studio, however; two features starring John Barrymore had been costlier: The Sea Beast (1926), a loose and entirely silent adaptation of Moby-Dick, at $503,000 and Don Juan at $546,000. Nonetheless, the outlay constituted a major gamble in light of the studio's financial straits: while The Jazz Singer was in production, Harry Warner stopped taking a salary, pawned jewelry belonging to his wife, and moved his family into a smaller apartment.

Premiere and reception

The premiere occurred on October 6, 1927, at Warner Bros.' flagship theater in New York City. In keeping with the film's theme of a conflict within a Jewish family, the film premiered after sunset on the eve of the Yom Kippur holiday. The buildup to the premiere was tense. Besides Warner Bros.' precarious financial position, the physical presentation of the film itself was remarkably complex:Each of Jolson's musical numbers was mounted on a separate reel with a separate accompanying sound disc. Even though the film was only eighty-nine minutes long...there were fifteen reels and fifteen discs to manage, and the projectionist had to be able to thread the film and cue up the Vitaphone records very quickly. The least stumble, hesitation, or human error would result in public and financial humiliation for the company. None of the four Warner brothers were able to attend: Sam Warner—among them, the strongest advocate for Vitaphone—had died the previous day of pneumonia, and the surviving brothers had returned to California for his funeral.

According to Doris Warner, who was in attendance, about halfway through the film she began to feel that something exceptional was taking place. Suddenly, Jolson's face appeared in big close-up, and said "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothing yet!" Jolson's "Wait a minute" line prompted a loud, positive response from the audience, who were dumbfounded by seeing and hearing someone speak on a film for the first time, so much so that the double-entendre was missed at first. Applause followed each of his songs. Excitement built, and when Jolson and Eugenie Besserer began their dialogue scene, "the audience became hysterical." After the show, the audience turned into a "milling, battling, mob", in one journalist's description, chanting "Jolson, Jolson, Jolson!" Among those who reviewed the film, the critic who foresaw most clearly what it presaged for the future of cinema was Life magazine's Robert E. Sherwood. He described the spoken dialogue scene between Jolson and Besserer as "fraught with tremendous significance.... I for one suddenly realized that the end of the silent drama is in sight".

Critical reaction was generally, though far from universally, positive. The New York Times critic Mordaunt Hall, reviewing the film's premiere, declared that

not since the first presentation of Vitaphone features, more than a year ago [i.e., Don Juan], has anything like the ovation been heard in a motion-picture theatre.... The Vitaphoned songs and some dialogue have been introduced most adroitly. This in itself is an ambitious move, for in the expression of song the Vitaphone vitalizes the production enormously. The dialogue is not so effective, for it does not always catch the nuances of speech or inflections of the voice so that one is not aware of the mechanical features.

Variety called it "[u]ndoubtedly the best thing Vitaphone has ever put on the screen...[with] abundant power and appeal." Richard Watts Jr. of the New York Herald Tribune called it a "pleasantly sentimental orgy dealing with a struggle between religion and art.... [T]his is not essentially a motion picture, but rather a chance to capture for comparative immortality the sight and sound of a great performer." The Exhibitors Heralds take was virtually identical: "scarcely a motion picture. It should be more properly labeled an enlarged Vitaphone record of Al Jolson in half a dozen songs." The film received favorable reviews in both the Jewish press and in African American newspapers such as the Baltimore Afro-American, the New York Amsterdam News, and the Pittsburgh Courier. The headline of the Los Angeles Times review told a somewhat different story: "'Jazz Singer' Scores a Hit—Vitaphone and Al Jolson Responsible, Picture Itself Second Rate." Photoplay dismissed Jolson as "no movie actor. Without his Broadway reputation he wouldn't rate as a minor player."

Commercial impact and industrial influence

The film developed into a major hit, demonstrating the profit potential of feature-length "talkies", but Donald Crafton has shown that the reputation the film later acquired for being one of Hollywood's most enormous successes to date was inflated. The movie did well, but not astonishingly so, in the major cities where it was first released, garnering much of its impressive profits with long, steady runs in population centers large and small all around the country. As conversion of movie theaters to sound was still in its early stages, the film actually arrived at many of those secondary venues in a silent version. On the other hand, Crafton's statement that The Jazz Singer "was in a distinct second or third tier of attractions compared to the most popular films of the day and even other Vitaphone talkies" is also incorrect. In fact, the film was easily the biggest earner in Warner Bros. history, and would remain so until it was surpassed a year later by The Singing Fool, another Jolson feature. In the larger scope of Hollywood, among films originally released in 1927, available evidence suggests that The Jazz Singer was among the three biggest box office hits, trailing only Wings and, perhaps, The King of Kings.

According to Warner Bros records the film earned revenues of $1,974,000 in the United States and Canada, and $651,000 elsewhere, for a worldwide theatrical gross rental of approximately $2.6 million (the studio's share of the box office gross) and a profit of $1,196,750.

One of the keys to the film's success was an innovative marketing scheme conceived by Sam Morris, Warner Bros.' sales manager. In Crafton's description:

[A] special clause in Warners' Vitaphone exhibition contract virtually guaranteed long runs. Theaters had to book The Jazz Singer for full rather than split weeks. Instead of the traditional flat rental fee, Warners took a percentage of the gate. A sliding scale meant that the exhibitor's take increased the longer the film was held over. The signing of this contract by the greater New York Fox Theatres circuit was regarded as a headline-making precedent.

Similar arrangements, based on a percentage of the gross rather than flat rental fees, would soon become standard for the U.S. film industry's high-end or "A" product.

Though in retrospect it is understood that the success of The Jazz Singer signaled the end of the silent motion-picture era, this was not immediately apparent. Mordaunt Hall, for example, praised Warner Bros. for "astutely realiz[ing] that a film conception of The Jazz Singer was one of the few subjects that would lend itself to the use of the Vitaphone." In historian Richard Koszarski's words, "Silent films did not disappear overnight, nor did talking films immediately flood the theaters.... Nevertheless, 1927 remains the year that Warner Bros. moved to close the book on the history of silent pictures, even if their original goal had been somewhat more modest."

The film had other effects that were more immediate. George Jessel, who was in his third season touring with the stage production of The Jazz Singer, later described what happened to his show—perhaps anticipating how sound would soon cement Hollywood's dominance of the American entertainment industry: "A week or two after the Washington engagement the sound-and-picture version of The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson was sweeping the country, and I was swept out of business. I couldn't compete with a picture theatre across the street showing the first great sound picture in the world...for fifty cents, while the price at my theatre was $3.00."

As the truly pivotal event, Crafton points to the national release of the film's sound version in early 1928—he dates it to January, Block and Wilson to February 4. In March, Warners announced that The Jazz Singer was playing at a record 235 theaters (though many could still show it only silently). In May, a consortium including the leading Hollywood studios signed up with Western Electric's licensing division, ERPI, for sound conversion. In July, Warner Bros. released the first all-talking feature, Lights of New York, a musical crime melodrama.

On September 27, The Jazz Singer became the first feature-length talking picture to be shown in Europe when it premiered at London's Piccadilly Theatre. The movie "created a sensation", according to British film historian Rachael Low. "The Jazz Singer was a turning point [for the introduction of sound]. The Bioscope greeted it with, 'We are inclined to wonder why we ever called them Living Pictures.'" The Paris sound premiere followed in January 1929.

Before the 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in May 1929, honoring films released between August 1927 and July 1928, The Jazz Singer was ruled ineligible for the two top prizes—the Outstanding Picture, Production and the Unique and Artistic Production—on the basis that it would have been unfair competition for the silent pictures under consideration. By mid-1929, Hollywood was producing almost exclusively sound films; by the end of the following year, the same was true in much of Western Europe. Jolson went on to make a series of movies for Warners, including The Singing Fool, a part-talkie, and the all-talking features Say It with Songs (1929), Mammy (1930), and Big Boy (1930).

Critical analysis

Jack Robin's use of blackface in his Broadway stage act—a common practice at the time, which is now widely condemned as racist—is the primary focus of many Jazz Singer studies. Its crucial and unusual role is described by scholar Corin Willis:

In contrast to the racial jokes and innuendo brought out in its subsequent persistence in early sound film, blackface imagery in The Jazz Singer is at the core of the film's central theme, an expressive and artistic exploration of the notion of duplicity and ethnic hybridity within American identity. Of the more than seventy examples of blackface in early sound film 1927–53 that I have viewed (including the nine blackface appearances Jolson subsequently made), The Jazz Singer is unique in that it is the only film where blackface is central to the narrative development and thematic expression.

The function and meaning of blackface in the film is intimately involved with Jack's own Jewish heritage and his desire to make his mark in mass American culture—much as the ethnically Jewish Jolson and the Warner brothers were doing themselves. Jack Robin "compounds both tradition and stardom. The Warner Brothers thesis is that, really to succeed, a man must first acknowledge his ethnic self," argues W. T. Lhamon. "[T]he whole film builds toward the blacking-up scene at the dress rehearsal. Jack Robin needs the blackface mask as the agency of his compounded identity. Blackface will hold all the identities together without freezing them in a singular relationship or replacing their parts."

Seymour Stark's view is less sanguine. In describing Jolson's extensive experience performing in blackface in stage musicals, he asserts, "The immigrant Jew as Broadway star...works within a blackface minstrel tradition that obscures his Jewish pedigree, but proclaims his white identity. Jolson's slight Yiddish accent was hidden by a Southern veneer." Arguing that The Jazz Singer actually avoids honestly dealing with the tension between American assimilation and Jewish identity, he claims that its "covert message...is that the symbol of blackface provides the Jewish immigrant with the same rights and privileges accorded to earlier generations of European immigrants initiated into the rituals of the minstrel show."

Lisa Silberman Brenner contradicts this view. She returns to the intentions expressed by Samson Raphaelson, on whose play the film's script was closely based: "For Raphaelson, jazz is prayer, American style, and the blackface minstrel the new Jewish cantor. Based on the author's own words, the play is about blackface as a means for Jews to express a new kind of Jewishness, that of the modern American Jew." She observes that during the same period, the Jewish press was noting with pride that Jewish performers were adopting aspects of African American music.

According to Scott Eyman, the film "marks one of the few times Hollywood Jews allowed themselves to contemplate their own central cultural myth, and the conundrums that go with it. The Jazz Singer implicitly celebrates the ambition and drive needed to escape the shtetls of Europe and the ghettos of New York City, and the attendant hunger for recognition. Jack, Sam, and Harry [Warner] let Jack Robin have it all: the satisfaction of taking his father's place and of conquering the Winter Garden. They were, perhaps unwittingly, dramatizing some of their own ambivalence about the debt first-generation Americans owed their parents."

Legacy
Three subsequent screen versions of The Jazz Singer have been produced: a 1952 remake, starring Danny Thomas and Peggy Lee; a 1959 television remake, starring Jerry Lewis; and a 1980 remake starring Neil Diamond, Lucie Arnaz, and Laurence Olivier. The Jazz Singer was adapted as a one-hour radio play on two broadcasts of Lux Radio Theatre, both starring Al Jolson, reprising his screen role. The first aired August 10, 1936; the second, also starring Gail Patrick, on June 2, 1947.

The Jazz Singer was parodied as early as 1936, in the Warner Bros. cartoon I Love to Singa, directed by Tex Avery. Its hero is "Owl Jolson", a young owl who croons popular ditties, such as the title song, against the wishes of his father, a classical music teacher. Among the many references to The Jazz Singer in popular culture, perhaps the most significant is that of the MGM musical Singin' in the Rain (1952). The story, set in 1927, revolves around efforts to change a silent film production, The Dueling Cavalier, into a talking picture in response to The Jazz Singers success. At one point Donald O'Connor's character suggests a new name for the now-musical, "I've got it! 'The Dueling Mammy'." The plot of The Simpsons episode "Like Father, Like Clown" (1991) parallels the tale of Jakie Rabinowitz/Jack Robin. Krusty the Clown's rabbi father disapproves of his son's choice to be a comedian, telling him, "You have brought shame on our family! Oh, if you were a musician or a jazz singer, this I could forgive."

According to film historian Krin Gabbard, The Jazz Singer "provides the basic narrative for the lives of jazz and popular musicians in the movies. If this argument means that sometime after 1959 the narrative must belong to pop rockers, it only proves the power of the original 1927 film to determine how Hollywood tells the stories of popular musicians." More broadly, he also suggests that this "seemingly unique film" has "become a paradigm for American success stories." More specifically, he examines a cycle of biopics of white jazz musicians stretching from Birth of the Blues (1941) to The Five Pennies (1959) that trace their roots to The Jazz Singer.

In 1996, The Jazz Singer was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" motion pictures. In 1998, the film was chosen in voting conducted by the American Film Institute as one of the best American films of all time, ranking at number ninety. In 2007, a three-disc deluxe DVD edition of the film was released. The supplemental material includes Jolson's Vitaphone short, A Plantation Act (1926).

The phrase said by Al Jolson, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothin' yet!" was voted as the 71st best quote by the American Film Institute.

Awards and nominations

See also

List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)
List of early Warner Bros. sound and talking features

References

Explanatory notes

Citations

Bibliography

Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation

External links

  Vitaphone short
 Al Jolson Society Official Website includes clip from The Jazz Singer of Jolson's first onscreen speech and performance of "Toot, Toot, Tootsie" (follow links: His Work–Films–The Jazz Singer–Toot, Toot, Tootsie)
 Let's Go To The Movies (1948) film clip, with excerpt of "My Mammy" at 2:30; at the Internet Archive
 Lux Radio Theater/The Jazz Singer radio version originally broadcast on August 10, 1936; at the Internet Archive

1927 romantic drama films
1920s musical drama films
1927 films
American musical drama films
American romantic drama films
American romantic musical films
American black-and-white films
Blackface minstrel shows and films
1920s English-language films
Films about Jews and Judaism
American films based on plays
Films about runaways
Films directed by Alan Crosland
Films set in 1927
Films set in New York City
Hazzans
Transitional sound films
United States National Film Registry films
Warner Bros. films
Films produced by Darryl F. Zanuck
Films scored by Louis Silvers
Films based on adaptations
1920s romantic musical films
1927 musical films
Early sound films
African-American-related controversies in film
Race-related controversies in film
Casting controversies in film
African American–Jewish relations
Articles containing video clips
1920s American films

The Jazz Singer


Coast is a consumer magazine about the British seaside. It was launched as a bi-monthly title in 2004 by Coastal Living Ltd, and was then published by Edisea Ltd, until UK publishing company National Magazines (now Hearst Communications) bought it in 2005. National Magazines continued to publish it bi-monthly as a sister title to Country Living magazine. It increased the number of issues published per year to ten in 2007. The magazine was taken over by current publishers Kelsey Media in November 2012. The number of issues published per year was increased to twelve in 2014. Coast covers all aspects of living by the sea: homes, gardens, travel, food and health. The magazine was formerly headquartered in London. It is now based in Kent.

The Coast Awards
Every year, the magazine celebrates the best of the British coastline in the Coast Awards, sponsored by Joules Clothing. The winners of each of the ten categories are usually announced in the June issue of the magazine. From 2008-2011, the Awards have been reader nominated and a panel of expert judges has decided on the winners from a short list. Past presenters of the Coast Awards ceremony have included Michaela Strachan and Julia Bradbury.

Campaigns
In 2009, Coast launched a campaign, Save the Seaside Postcard. This attracted widespread media attention including an appearance by editor Clare Gogerty on the Today programme on Radio 4, and on BBC Breakfast.

In the Great Seaside Poster Revival (June 2010), seven artists (Rob Ryan, Angie Lewin, Barbara Hulanicki, Nick Higgins, Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway, Andy Tuohy and Christopher Wormell) were asked to reinvent the seaside poster to publicise a chosen resort. The original artwork of each of these posters was auctioned on eBay with funds raised (£5,000) going to the Marine Conservation Society. Readers also submitted their own designs in a related competition.

In March 2011, Coast launched the Great Pier Promenade to raise funds towards the restoration of Hastings Pier, which was devastated by a fire in October 2010. The magazine called upon readers to walk as many UK pleasure piers as possible during spring/summer 2011, and to get themselves sponsored.

Reader events
Coast holds an annual beach clean in collaboration with the Marine Conservation Society. Beaches cleaned so far include Southwold, East Wittering, Holkham and Weston-super-Mare (May 2011). Further events included an annual coastal walk, a reader Learn to Sail Day, and a day out at the De La Warr Pavilion.

Competitions
Competitions are an annual photographic competition (results announced in the March issue), and a Coast Quilt competition held in association with Runaway Coast.

Awards won
Coast won Best Specialist Consumer Magazine at the PPA Awards in 2009. Coast stylist Abigail Edwards won Best Work by a Freelance at the Red Carpet Awards in 2011. Coast has also been shortlisted numerous times for PPA Awards and editor Clare Gogerty has been nominated five times for a BSME Award.

Editors
Jo Denbury (issues 1-5)
Katie Ebben (issues 6-10)
Susy Smith (issues 10-19)
Clare Gogerty (issues 20 to 73)
Emma Dublin (issues 74  to 79)
Alex Fisher (issues 80 to present)

References

External links

 KELSEY Publishing Ltd

2004 establishments in the United Kingdom
Bi-monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom
Lifestyle magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 2004
Magazines published in London
Mass media in Kent

Coast (magazine)


The Honourable Paul Joseph Ngei (18 October 1923 – 15 August 2004) was a Kenyan politician who was imprisoned for his role in the anti-colonial movement, but who went on to hold several government ministerial positions after Kenya became independent.

Early life
Ngei was born at Kiima Kimwe near Machakos township, Kenya. He was the grandson of paramount chief Masaku after whom the town and the district were named. The family moved from Kiima Kimwe to a new settlement at Kangundo Division in a small village called Mbilini in 1929. This was a mountainous area with good rainfall for agriculture. His father had been converted to Christianity by the Africa Inland Mission.

Ngei attended primary school at DEB Kangundo from 1932, intermediate school at Kwa Mating'i in Machakos town from 1936, and Alliance High School in Kiambu District. He then joined the army in the King's African Rifles (KAR) for a four-year stint. After that he enrolled at Makerere University in Uganda as a journalism student from 1948 to 1950.

Anti-colonial activism
The anti-colonial movement gathered momentum in Kenya in the 1940s. A political upsurge led to the Mau Mau rebellion, which involved several tribes: the Luos, Nandis, Maasai, Kamba, Kikuyus, Merus and Embu and Gusii people.

The declaration of a state of emergency in October 1952 led to the arrest of Ngei, Jomo Kenyatta and others. Ngei earned Kenyatta's undying friendship when, during their imprisonment in Lodwar, Ngei physically stopped a colonial jailer from beating up Kenyatta by seizing the whip and challenging the jailer to beat him (Ngei) first. The "Kapenguria Six" included Fred Kubai, Bildad Kaggia, Achieng Oneko and Kung'u Karumba. The last surviving member, Oneko, died on 9 June 2007. Mashujaa Day, which until recently was known as Kenyatta Day, is a national holiday in Kenya held every year to commemorate the detention of the six on 20 October 1952.

They were released nine years later, in 1961, two years before Kenya gained independence. The following year Ngei established the African People's Party.

Ngei's history generates much interest when examined within the context of these post-World War II protest politics that eventually ushered in independence for Kenya. These were protest politics characterised by party politics and violence as was manifested by the Mau Mau rebellion. Ngei lived and actively participated in both of these facets of Kenya's historical trajectory.

He came from the Akamba people of Kenya, who were the driving force behind a political protest against the British in 1937 led by Samuel Muindi Mbingu.

Government positions
Ngei was the Kangundo Constituency MP from 1969 to 1990. He served throughout the Jomo Kenyatta government from 1964 to 1978 as a cabinet minister and in the post-Kenyatta government led by President Daniel arap Moi from 1978 to 1990 where he held several ministerial positions. In 1990 he was ruled bankrupt by court and consequently had to give up his parliamentary seat.

Funeral
Ngei died in August 2004 at the age of 81 after suffering from diabetes. A mausoleum was built in Mbilini, Kangundo, the constituency he had served for 27 years, by the Kenyan government and unveiled in 2006. On 20 October 2016, the president of the Republic of Kenya unveiled a statue in honour of Paul Ngei at Chumvi town which is in the junction that leads to Machakos from the Mombasa Highway. This was during the celebrations of the year's Heroes' Day which were held in Machakos. The Jubilee Government committed to have national days celebrated outside the capital, Nairobi.

References

1923 births
2004 deaths
Alumni of Alliance High School (Kenya)
Makerere University alumni
British colonial army soldiers
Deaths from diabetes
Government ministers of Kenya
Kamba people
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
People from Eastern Province (Kenya)
Prisoners and detainees of Kenya

Paul Ngei


Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (or, informally,  Commando Cody) is a 1953 twelve-chapter movie serial from Republic Pictures, which began life as a proposed syndicated television series. It consists of twelve 25-minute sequential episodes directed by Harry Keller, Franklin Adreon, and Fred C. Brannon. It stars Judd Holdren, Aline Towne, Gregory Gaye, William Schallert, Richard Crane, and Craig Kelly.

Originally intended to be broadcast on television as a 12-episode weekly series, Sky Marshall was first released theatrically in 1953 as a 12-chapter weekly serial; it was syndicated to television on NBC in 1955. The Commando Cody character was first introduced in Republic's earlier serial Radar Men from the Moon (1952), with actor George Wallace in the title role. Judd Holdren first played the Commando Cody character in Zombies of the Stratosphere (also 1952), but was renamed Larry Martin for this follow-up serial.

Plot
Dangerous weather and climate changes are ravaging the Earth. Masked super-scientist Commando Cody is approached by the U.S. government to investigate. Among the tools at his disposal are a sonic-powered one-man flying suit with an aerodynamic helmet and a new Cody-designed and built rocket ship.

With his colleagues Joan and Ted (later replaced by Dick), he ascertains the disasters are being caused by space-alien forces led by a mysterious "Ruler" of unknown planetary origins, with occasional help from hired, Earth-born criminals. Warding off various dangers, Cody and his associates are able to methodically close in on the culprits and reveal that The Ruler is from our sister world, Venus.

In the final episode, Cody is able to capture The Ruler and his soldiers on Mercury with the help of the persecuted Mercurians and their queen. This brings a quick end to the Ruler's influence on Venus and a peace treaty soon follows, ending the Venus-Earth conflict.

Cast
 Judd Holdren as Commando Cody
 Aline Towne as Joan Gilbert
 William Schallert as Ted Richards (Chs. 1–3)
 Richard Crane as Dick Preston (Chs. 4–12)
 Gregory Gaye as The Ruler
  Craig Kelly as Commissioner Henderson
 Peter Brocco as Dr. Varney (Chs. 1–2)
 Lyle Talbot as Henchman Baylor (Chs. 4,5,6,7,9,10)
 Mauritz Hugo as Henchman Mason (Chs. 4,5,6,9,10)
 Joanne Jordan as The Queen of Mercury (Ch. 12)
 Gloria Pall as The Moon Girl
 John Crawford
 Zon Murray
 Stanley Waxman
 I. Stanford Jolley
 Bill Henry
 Kenneth MacDonald
 William Fawcett
 Lane Bradford
 Denver Pyle
 Sidney Mason

Release and chapters
The serial was first released theatrically in 1953 with twelve weekly approximately 30-minute chapters:

 "Enemies of the Universe"
 "Atomic Peril"
 "Cosmic Vengeance"
 "Nightmare Typhoon"
 "War of the Space Giants"
 "Destroyers of the Sun"
 "Robot Monster from Mars"
 "The Hydrogen Hurricane"
 "Solar Sky Raiders"
 "S.O.S. Ice Age"
 "Lost in Outer Space"
 "Captives of the Zero Hour"

The serial was later syndicated to television in 1955 by Republic's TV arm Hollywood Television Service, airing on NBC stations. The original chapters were filmed with a running-time of 25 minutes each, before commercials, requiring no further editing for a half-hour television slot of that era.

Production
While Commando Cody was originally filmed as a twelve-part TV series, union contract issues forced Republic to first exhibit them in theaters as a 12-part weekly movie serial. The TV episodes actually built on each other in chronological order, lacking the traditional cliffhanger endings that characterized theatrical serials, which has resulted in its being omitted altogether from many reference works on film serials.

Sky Marshal was meant as a prequel to Republic's Radar Men from the Moon movie serial. The first chapter has characters Joan and Ted, Commando Cody's established sidekicks in Radar Men, applying for their jobs and meeting Cody for the first time.

There was a substantial break between filming the first three TV episodes and the last nine, during which time Republic set about filming another Cody movie serial called Zombies of the Stratosphere. It starred Judd Holdren as Cody, Aline Towne as Joan, and Wilson Wood as Ted. For reasons unknown, however, the Republic revised the principal characters' names, and "Commando Cody" became "Larry Martin".

The third TV episode ends with the apparent death of The Ruler, suggesting that Republic may have reconsidered filming the remaining nine and just edit the three it had already completed into a 75-minute science fiction feature film.

By the time filming finally resumed on the Sky Marshal TV series, Republic had lost actor William Schallert as Cody's male colleague "Ted Richards" (played by William Bakewell in Radar Men). A replacement was found in Richard Crane, a year before his best-remembered role starring as the title character on the science fiction TV series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. The Ruler also gained a female sidekick, played by Gloria Pall, though she had almost no dialog or action scenes.

Flying jacket and helmet
Commando Cody reuses the "rocket man" flying jacket and helmet costume, first seen in Republic's serial King of the Rocket Men (1949), to which the other Cody serials are not related. Stock footage was also reused from their other serials, including The Purple Monster Strikes. The Sky Marshal series also recycles characters, sets, props, and concepts from the Radar Men serial. Two streamlined, bullet-shaped prop helmets were reused again with the "rocket man" costume. The first was made of lighter weight materials and worn only during the various stunt action scenes; during filming, the single-hinged visors on both frequently warped and would stick open or closed.

When not in his flying jacket and helmet, Cody wears a black military tunic with many insignia and a cap, instead of the regular business suit seen in Radar Men. Cody also wears a black domino mask to hide his real identity. Holdren always suspected this was due to the producers not wanting to take a chance that he might walk out if any future demands for a higher salary were not met, as Clayton Moore had done on the popular The Lone Ranger TV series. The mask presumably served to conceal any change of actor, should the part ever need recasting, although disguising the change of lead with a domino mask had not worked well in the case of the Lone Ranger series.

Setting
As the story opens, it is the near future as seen from the perspective of the early 1950s. Earth is in radio contact with civilizations on planets in our solar system, as well as planets in other, distant solar systems, and Commando Cody has just built the world's first spaceship. The rest of the world appears unchanged by these galactic developments. (The exterior of Cody's headquarters building is actually a Republic Pictures office building.) A mysterious despot, known only as "The Ruler", his base planet even being unknown, is trying to take over the Earth with various disastrous devices. Cody is enlisted by the American government to put an end to the trouble, which takes him into the stratosphere, into outer space, and even to other worlds. The Ruler is finally brought down on Mercury, with the aid of the Mercurian Queen and her soldiers.

For the series, a number of new outer space scenes were filmed that had not been seen before in the Republic serials, including "space walks" for several exterior spaceship repairs; aerial raygun duels between "hero" and "enemy" spaceships and black star fields (rather than daylight and cloud-spotted skies) for backgrounds, when Cody's or the Ruler's spaceships were shown outside the Earth's atmosphere.

Cody and his associates use special badges that conceal radios to communicate with one another, prefiguring similar communication badges used more than 30 years later in Star Trek: The Next Generation. There were futuristic props and sets, as well as shots of the intricate model-rocket special effects work of Republic's Howard and Theodore Lydecker; the spaceships of Cody and The Ruler were the same basic shooting miniature with different attachments and markings added to make them appear different.

"Rocket man" themed theatrical movie serials in release order

 King of the Rocket Men
 Radar Men from the Moon
 Commando Cody
 Zombies of the Stratosphere

Television series or film serial?
The release of Commando Cody as a weekly theatrical serial, because it had been originally filmed as a TV series, led to controversy among serial purists: Should it be included in Republic's canon of film serials, or should it be considered as a different animal, a TV series? The resolution to this question was historically resolved on the basis that the episodes did not end with traditional film-serial cliffhanger endings, but rather found all the protagonists together and safe from whatever menace they had faced during the episode. This resolution, however, ignored the facts that a single conflict existed throughout all the episodes between the protagonists and the chief antagonist, the Ruler; that his overall motivations and ability to menace were never abated until the final episode; that most episodes included a reference to the preceding episode's adventure and would not make sense if seen in anything other but sequential order and in the totality of the 12 chapters; and that, in its origins in literature, a serial's episodes did not usually have, much less require, a protagonist-in-mortal-peril cliffhanger ending to justify being categorized as serials, and this was also true of the earliest film serials, such as The Hazards of Helen.

Reference works on movie serials, however, generally exclude the serial version of Sky Marshal, or simply mention it in passing as a later Republic TV series.

Home media
Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe, the 1955 syndicated TV series, has been available for decades on all manner of Home Video formats, and was the first of the "rocket man" adventures to be released on Blu-Ray from Olive Films on September 13, 2016.

See also
 List of film serials by year
 List of film serials by studio

References

External links

Commando Cody Episode Guide

A list of titles, casts and credits for several 1950s Republic space serials, taken from IMDb listings
Commando Cody: Sky Marshall of the Universe at THE THUNDERCHILD.com

1953 films
1955 American television series debuts
1955 American television series endings
1950s American science fiction television series
American black-and-white films
English-language television shows
Republic Pictures film serials
Television series by CBS Studios


Area code 941 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan for a west-central coastal portion of the U.S. state of Florida. Introduced on March 3, 1996, the numbering plan area includes the counties of Manatee, Sarasota, and Charlotte, areas along the Sun Coast of southwestern Florida, USA. It is the area code for North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.

DeSoto County, Charlotte County, Hardee County, Polk County, Okeechobee County, Glades County, and Hendry County were part of this area code until 1999, when area code 863 was created, and Lee County and Collier County were part of 941 until March 2003 when area code 239 was created. Before the designation of area code 941, the region was originally served by 305, then by area code 813.

Prior to October 2021, area code 941 had telephone numbers assigned for the central office code 988. In 2020, 988 was designated nationwide as a dialing code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which created a conflict for exchanges that permit seven-digit dialing. This area code was therefore scheduled to transition to ten-digit dialing by October 24, 2021.

See also
List of Florida area codes
List of North American Numbering Plan area codes

References

External links
 Florida's Area Code History (1947 - 1998)

941
941
Telecommunications-related introductions in 1996
1996 establishments in Florida
South Florida
Manatee County, Florida
Sarasota, Florida

Area code 941


Pilot Knob is located in the Arcadia Valley of Iron County, Missouri, between the towns of Ironton and Pilot Knob.
Pilot Knob, so named because of its distinctive shape and prominent position, reaches an elevation of  rising  above the Arcadia Valley floor and has a large deposit of iron ore in its upper regions. Pilot Knob is a peak in the St. Francois Mountains.

The mountain was heavily mined in the 19th century, leaving many open mine workings. The summit of the mountain consists of the  Pilot Knob National Wildlife Refuge which is the home for nearly one-third of the world's population of Indiana bats. The bats hibernate in the abandoned mine workings. Pilot Knob Ore Company donated the land for conservation purposes after ceasing its mining operations on July 22, 1987. Currently the Pilot Knob National Wildlife Refuge is closed to the public to protect habitat for the endangered Indiana bat. There is an eight-foot-tall (2.44 meters) chain link fence around  of the land for safety reasons, keeping individuals away from the open mine shafts.

History
The rock formation is approximately 1450 million years old.

Based on notes and writings of three individuals who traveled with a band of Spanish Conquistadors and explorers, the first Europeans to see the Arcadia Valley and Pilot Knob would have been Hernando DeSoto and his army as it crossed Missouri in September 1541. Specifically, the date being September 7. They reportedly crossed some mountains and came into the region where Ironton is now located. There they found a good salt spring for making of salt cakes. The next day the army's stragglers caught up to the main body where Pilot Knob is now located. The following day de Soto's band departed the area, moving towards present day Lesterville.

By 1800 members of the Algonquian peoples of Native Americans had moved into the area with a village of the Delaware Tribe established at the base of Pilot Knob. This village existed as late as 1819. In the late 1830s during the infamous forced relocation march named the Trail of Tears the Cherokee Tribe came through the valley.

The completion of the Iron Mountain Railroad all the way to the town of Pilot Knob in 1857 provided easy the transportation of iron ore mined from the Pilot Knob to the growing St. Louis. During the Civil War, with a looming invasion of Missouri by the Confederate Army under the command of General Sterling Price, the Union constructed and stationed troops at Ft. Davidson, an earth work fortification near the base of Pilot Knob in the small town of Pilot Knob. In September 1864 the invasion materialized and the Battle of Fort Davidson (also called the Battle of Pilot Knob) was fought in the valley below Pilot Knob.

During the years before Pilot Knob was closed to the public, one could hike to the top and experience a blast of cool air flowing out of one of the mine shafts nicknamed the "Devil's Icebox". In the early 20th century Easter sunrise services were held on the top of Pilot Knob.

References

Sources

 Reader's Digest, (August 1987) v. 131, nos. 783–787, page 61. "19 Hours in "Devil's Icebox"" Mention of Devils Icebox

External links

Hills of Missouri
St. Francois Mountains
Protected areas of Iron County, Missouri
Mountain ranges of Missouri
National Wildlife Refuges in Missouri
Regions of Missouri
Protected areas established in 1987
Landforms of Iron County, Missouri

Pilot Knob (Iron County, Missouri)


Gitobu Imanyara (born c. 1954) is a Kenyan human rights lawyer, journalist, and politician.

Biography
After Imanyara spent more than two years in Maximum Security Prison on charges associated with his work as a human rights lawyer, he founded the Nairobi Law Monthly in 1987. It was not supportive of Daniel Arap Moi's one party policy and Imanyara was arrested for not registering the magazine. He was again arrested in 1990 after writing a special issue entitled "The Historic Debate: Law, Democracy, and Multi-Party Politics in Kenya." At one point he was held in a prison psychiatric ward, though he re-released the issue following his own release. Receiving the International Editor of the Year by the World Press Review while in prison, he was called "the boldest voice for a free press in a country whose intolerant government does not hesitate to shut down publications and where most journalists practice self censorship."
Imanyara was arrested for a third time in April 1991 after police confiscated the current issue of his journal. The offending information was about the formation of an opposition political party, and Imanyara was unable to notify his family or lawyer. His papers were ransacked without a warrant.
While in custody, Imanyara developed a brain tumor which was treated. Kenyan aid money went down significantly after the arrest, and the U.S. State Department called it "another denial of freedom of expression in Kenya." He was awarded the World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award later that year, but due to authorities not allowing him to leave the country for it, Liberal International President Otto Lambsdorff brought it personally to Nairobi in early 1992.
At the Kenyan general elections in December 1997, he won a regional landslide victory and was elected MP for Central Imenti Constituency. He continued to publish his newspaper, which was renamed the Africa Law Review. Imanyara is a member of the International Board of Article XIX, a member of the Advisory Board of the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, and also a member of the Media Institute for the advancement of the freedom of expression.
In January 2008, Imanyara accused the Kenyan first lady Lucy Kibaki of assault and threatened to sue Kibaki over the alleged incident. The first lady was swift to deny the allegations, accusing Imanyara of blackmail after failing to secure the deputy Speaker's seat during the elections in Parliament.

References

Kenyan newspaper journalists
20th-century Kenyan lawyers
1950s births
Meru people
Members of the National Assembly (Kenya)
Kenyan prisoners and detainees
Prisoners and detainees of Kenya
Living people
21st-century Kenyan lawyers

Gitobu Imanyara