The voice of Al Jolson, from the soundtrack of the 1927 movie, The Jazz Singer, which marked the movies’ transition from a silent medium to one with sound. But the evolution of the technology behind sound movies was more complicated than The Jazz Singer would suggest ... complicated enough to include a University of Illinois professor among its many inventors. Today is the anniversary of his birth. Illinois Public Radio's Jim Meadows has more on Joseph Tykociner, and how a pioneer in the field of talking movies ended up on the sidelines.
Reporter's Note: Thanks are due to Bethany Anderson and the rest of the staff at the University of Illinois Archives for their help in providing access to the Joseph Tykociner Papers in their collection.