The earliest feature length talkie was Alan Crossland’s (USA) The Jazz Singer (USA 1927), which premiered on Broadway on 6 October 1927. Warner Bros.intended the sound to be confined to music and songs, but Al Jolson (USA) ad-libbed some speech, which led to 354 words spoken in all:- 340 by Jolson, 13 by Eugenie Besserer (USA), who played his mum and one by Warner Oland (Sweden), his dad – `Stop!’.