I’m going to ask you to work a little with me in this post: Imagine a world that has movies, but nobody ever really talks in any of those. Messages are conveyed by written text, in between the moving images. There’s music, maybe even a live pianist, but that’s about it. Because they don’t have a voice, the people in the movie never really come to life. None-the-less, movie goers have become used to reading the story on the screen and movies are popular. But then, suddenly the people on that screen start talking to you.
It must have been a powerful, aw-inspiring moment. That movie was The Jazz Singer. This alone is enough for me and give it a place in history, but apparently the movie also had a big political significance. The article is a bit long, but worth it if you are interested in its history.