On This Day: The night the movies found their voice

For decades, movie stars had smiled, cried, kissed and fought without audiences hearing them speak.

Then came October 6, 1927.

Hollywood discovers the talkies

On this day, The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, premiered in New York.

Much of the movie was actually silent, accompanied by recorded music and sound effects. But scattered through it were songs and brief passages of synchronised speech.

Audiences suddenly heard Jolson talking from the screen.

The Jazz Singer wasn’t the first movie to experiment with synchronised sound or dialogue. What it did was prove just how powerful the combination could be.

Its success helped accelerate Hollywood’s transition from silent films to the “talkies”, changing cinema forever. Warner Bros later received a special Academy Award recognising the film as a pioneer of talking pictures.

Australia begins bringing its troops home

On October 6, 1971, HMAS Sydney arrived at Vung Tau in South Vietnam to embark members of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.

Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War was winding down, and the voyage formed part of the withdrawal of Australian forces.

HMAS Sydney had become known as the “Vung Tau Ferry” after making repeated voyages carrying Australian troops and equipment to and from Vietnam.

An Egyptian president is assassinated

On October 6, 1981, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated during a military parade in Cairo.

Sadat had shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin after negotiations that led to the historic peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

He was killed as he watched a parade marking the anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Born on this day

Here’s one for the Bond fans.

Swedish actress Britt Ekland turns 84 today. She became one of the best-known faces of the 1960s and ’70s, appearing in Get Carter, The Wicker Man and opposite Roger Moore in the Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.

And The Karate Kid, Cocktail and Back to the Future star Elisabeth Shue turns 63.

Do you remember?

What was the first movie you remember seeing at the cinema? Tell us the film — and, even better, the old picture theatre where you saw it.