''A Plantation Act'' (1926) is an early

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...

sound-on-disc Sound-on-disc is a class of sound film processes using a phonograph or other disc to record or play back sound in sync with a motion picture. Early sound-on-disc systems used a mechanical interlock with the movie projector, while more recent syste ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

starring

Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-billed ...

, the first film that Jolson starred in. Jolson in blackface sings three of his hit songs: " April Showers", "

Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" is a popular song written by Jean Schwartz, with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. The song was introduced by Al Jolson in the Broadway musical '' Sinbad'' and published in 1918. Probably the best- ...

", and "

When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along) "When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)" is a popular song written, both words and music, by Harry Woods in 1926. The song became the signature song for singer and actress Lillian Roth, who performed it often during the height ...

". The film presents him as if in a live stage performance, complete with three curtain calls at the finish. Jolson is dressed as a

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

worker for the entirety of the short, but only performs his entrance in character. For the remainder of the film he speaks and performs to the audience as Al Jolson. The film features one set, that of a cabin with farmland behind it, and a cage with live chickens. Two fixed film cameras are used to give a

wide shot In photography, filmmaking and video production, a wide shot (sometimes referred to as a full shot or long shot) is a shot that typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surro ...

and a

medium shot In a movie a medium shot, mid shot (MS), or waist shot is a camera angle shot from a medium distance. Use Medium shots are favored in sequences where dialogues or a small group of people are acting, as they give the viewer a partial view of t ...

of Jolson and the set. Its premiere took place on October 7, 1926, at the Colony Theatre, New York, where it concluded a program of short subjects that accompanied

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

' second feature-length

film ''

The Better 'Ole ''The Better 'Ole'', also called ''The Romance of Old Bill'', is an Edwardian musical comedy with a book by Bruce Bairnsfather and Arthur Elliot, music by Herman Darewski, and lyrics by Percival Knight and James Heard, based on the cartoon chara ...

''. The "Intermission" card which appears at its end derives from that use. Critics praised ''A Plantation Act'' as the hit of the show.''Vitaphone News'', vol.2 no.2
(Fall/Winter-1994). Retrieved April 5, 2016. The short was long believed to be a

lost film A lost film is a feature Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing char ...

, and its unavailability fueled the misconception that Jolson's first sound film was the famous feature-length milestone ''

The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolate ...

'', which premiered almost exactly one year later. A mute print of ''A Plantation Act'' was eventually found in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

, mislabeled as a preview for ''The Jazz Singer''. A copy of the corresponding soundtrack disc also came to light, but it had been broken into four pieces and glued back together so imperfectly that it would not play through. After some careful surgery, restoration technicians succeeded in making a usable dub from the disc and digitally removing the pops and clicks resulting from the damage. The restored film was included on a LaserDisc published in the 1990s and as a bonus feature on the 2007 3-disc DVD release of ''

''.

References

External links

* * * * 1920s musical films 1926 films American black-and-white films Blackface minstrel shows and films Vitaphone short films 1920s rediscovered films American musical films Rediscovered American films 1920s English-language films 1920s American films {{musical-film-stub

See also

References

External links