The Jazz Singer

[opening lines, first quote and first words in the first widely-seen talking picture]

Jack Robin:
Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin' yet! Wait a minute, I tell ya! You ain't heard nothin'! You wanna hear "Toot, Toot, Tootsie"? All right, hold on, hold on...

[then he walks back to one of the band members]

Jack Robin:
Lou, listen. Play "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", three chorus, you understand. In the third chorus, I whistle. Now give it to 'em hard and heavy, go right ahead.

[title/caption appearing after Yudelson and Jakie's mother first sees him in blackface]

Moisha Yudelson:
He sounds like Jakie, but he looks like his shadow!

Mary Dale:
[Listening to Jakie cantoring at Yom Kippur services after the death of his father] A jazz singer...singing to his God!

Jack Robin:
Mammy! Don't you know me? It's your little baby!

Jack Robin:
[sings] I'll walk a million miles for one of your smiles, my Mammy.

Jack Robin:
We in the show business have our religion too - on every day, the show must go on!

The Cantor:
Leave my house. I never want to see you again, you Jazz singer!

Gatsby old sport

The Cantor:
I'll teach him better than to debase the voice God gave him!

Sara Rabinowitz:
But Papa - our boy, he does not think like we do.

The Cantor:
First he will get a whipping!

Jakie Rabinowitz:
If you whip me again, I'll run away - - and never come back!

Sara Rabinowitz:
Maybe our boy doesn't want to be a Cantor, Papa...

The Cantor:
What has he to say? For five generations a Rabinowitz has been a Cantor - - he must be one!

The Cantor:
I have taught him all the hymns and prayers - - he knows them as well as I do.

Sara Rabinowitz:
Yes Papa - he knows all the songs - he has them in his head - - but not in his heart.

Jakie Rabinowitz:
You taught me that music is the voice of God! It is as honorable to sing in the theatre as in the synagogue! My songs mean as much to my audience as yours to your congregation!

The Cantor:
Leave my house! I never want to see you again - you jazz singer!

Jakie Rabinowitz:
[after singing] Did you like that mama?

Sara Rabinowitz:
Yes.

Jakie Rabinowitz:
I'm glad of it. I'd rather please you then anybody I know of. Oh darlin, would you give me something?

Sara Rabinowitz:
What?

Jakie Rabinowitz:
You'll never guess. Shut your eyes mama, shut them for little Jackie. Ho, I'm gonna steal something.

[He kisses her, and they laugh together]

Jakie Rabinowitz:
I'll give it back to you to someday, you see if I don't. Mama darling, if I'm a success in this show, well, we're going to move from here. Oh yes, we're move up in to Bronx. A lot of nice green grass up there and a whole lot of people you know of, there's the Ginsburgs and the Guttenburgs, the Goldbergs, a whole lotta Burgs oh I don't know them all. And I'm going to buy you a nice black silk dress mama. You'll see, the butcher's wife, she'll be jealous of you.

Sara Rabinowitz:
Oh no, no...

Jakie Rabinowitz:
Yes, she will, you see if she isn't. And I'm going to get you a nice pink dress that will go with your brown eyes.

Sara Rabinowitz:
I, no thank you, no no, I don't need it.

Jakie Rabinowitz:
What do you mean no? Who is telling you? Yes, you'll wear pink or else, or else you'll wear pink.

Harry Lee:
I hope this 'discovery' of yours, Mary, is as good as you think he is.

Mary Dale:
Don't worry about him. If it's music - he can sing it.

Moisha Yudelson:
Jakie, your singing would be like sunshine to your Papa.

Jakie Rabinowitz:
You don't understand - he ordered me out of the house.

Moisha Yudelson:
Jakie, remember - - a son's a son no matter if his Papa throws him out a hundred times!

Jack Robin:
I came home with a heart full of love, but you don't want to understand. Some day you'll understand, the same as Mama does.

Cantor Rabinowitz:
My son was to stand at my side and sing tonight – but now I have no son.

Cantor Rabinowitz:
My son came to me in my dreams—he sang Kol Nidre so beautifully. If he would only sing like that tonight—surely he would be forgiven.

Mary Dale:
There are lots of jazz singers, but you have a tear in your voice.

Sara Rabinowitz:
Here he belongs. If God wanted him in His house, He would have kept him there. He's not my boy anymore—he belongs to the whole world now.

Sara Rabinowitz:
Do what is in your heart, Jakie—if you sing and God is not in your voice — your father will know.

Moisha Yudelson:
What a little boy learns - he never forgets.