Did you know that the first 'Talkies' movie 'The Jazz Singer' was released in 1927 because a wealthy American financier arranged for a court trial to kill the movie industry?

We all remember that awkward moment when movies were black and white and silent. Then they suddenly weren't, but why?<br><br>A post from u/obvious_child2001 in r/unpopularopinion argues that "silent movies were horrible":<br><br>"...the only reason it was so popular was because of the time it was in. You can basically find the same quality silent films on youtube, and the most interesting ones made during the 20s 30s era were the first alfred hitchcock films.<br><br>I think the main reason why silent films were so popular was because there was no other source of entertainment at the time, that is superior to it. <br>In reality, silent films are not that entertaining and the quality is not as good as people make it out to be.<br><br>Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for the pioneers of film, but I think that silent films are overrated."<br><br>His comment has some thousands of upvotes, and many of the responses agree with him too. The truth is, it's actually worse than this and silent movies didn't even need to be bad to be hated.<br><br>Talkies were actually around *first*, and a wealthy american financier arranged for a top court trial to kill the movie industry. The first patent for 'talkies' (movies with sound) was held by a company that didn't even exist anymore.<br><br>Movie production companies signed contracts to use the technology and the courts banned them all from making movies with sound, leading to a court battle that made all movies silent from 1908 and killed the movie industry. In that trial, the judge made a ruling that all talkies were banned over some other technicality and the patent holder was banned from making movies. The movie industry was killed.<br><br>It wasn't until 1927 that the movie industry was finally able to make talkies as the contract had expired by then. One wealthy american was so grieved by what happened he hosted a special movie screening of 'The Jazz Singer' in 1927 to celebrate the return of talkies, and to laugh at the downfall of the judge who had ruined the movie industry. The movie 'The Jazz Singer' was released to the public in 1927, and so the silent movie era was over.<br><br>So all in all, silent movies were not just bad, they were actually banned by the courts. Talkies were the first movies, but the courts banned them. The movie industry was killed because the judge held a personal grudge against the inventor of talkies.<br><br>The silents were the worst movies ever made.