Of greed and false gods

Of course, the Church has the undeniable right to sell its property just like everybody else (September 30). However, as was pointed out in the editorial of the same day, the Church is not everybody else and may be expected to lead by example, particularly in a society which has become corrupt with untrammelled greed.

After all, whoever has sold (out) to developers may have in some cases done so for very good reasons, perhaps more need than greed. Irrespective of whether these were two, four or however many parcels of land in Għargħur, selling to developers and then being disappointed when the predictable rapacious plans see the light of day is at best naive and smacks of going for a dip in crocodile-infested waters and then being surprised when one is attacked.

Anna Micallef – Sliema

Talkies Day is celebrated today

The poster for the 1927 first talking film The Jazz Singer, featuring the legendary minstrel Al Jolson.

It was on Thursday, October 6, 1927 that Warner Brothers Vitaphone Corporation premiered the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer, starring the legendary minstrel Al Jolson, at Warner Brothers’ flagship theatre in New York.

The immediate success of The Jazz Singer changed the cinema industry fundamentally. So much that it caused a sensation among moviegoers and moviemakers alike. 

However some film-makers resisted for a short time the advent of sound which dealt a shattering blow to silent films. 

It was the collaboration between Warner Brothers (Harry, Albert, Jack and Sam) and Bell Telephone Labs-Western Electric that produced a sound system known as Vitaphone. For the first time, the newly perfected sound-on-disc system was used, enabling recorded sound to be synchronised with the action on screen. The Jazz Singer included several sequences of spoken dialogue as well as a number of songs.  

Darryl F. Zanuck, a young executive with Warner Brothers, suggested that a feature film should be produced. Shorts with Vitaphone system were screened but did not leave a great impression even though audiences increased wherever they were projected.

Anxious to score a hit with their innovative use of the new sound system, Warner Brothers persuaded Al Jolson, at that time the biggest star on Broadway, to play the leading role in The Jazz Singer. 

Jolson proved to be perfect for the part, which led to a second career for him, adding movie stardom to his earlier phenomenal success on the New York stage.

The triumph of The Jazz Singer was due to the ad-libbing that Jolson did during the shooting and because of the great personality that Jolson possessed on the stage, on the screen and elsewhere.

It was due to the workmanship and the initiative of such people that the first talking picture was a worldwide success. And, therefore, while it was the end of the silent movie era, talkies were born.

The Malta branch of The International Al Jolson Society has, for the last year, been suggesting to the appropriate authority that, on Talkies Day, October 6, cinema tickets should cost less when compared to other days.

To celebrate Talkies Day, the same society is mounting an exhibition on the second floor, in front of the ticket booth, at the Galleria cinema complex in Fgura. 

The exhibition will be open all day long until October 16. For further details call on 9988 0489.

Vince Williams – Paola

Religious indoctrination

It mystifies me that otherwise intelligent people should take religion seriously.

An American psychologist observed: “Without cultural sanctions, most of our religious beliefs and rituals would fall into the domain of mental disturbance.”

Arthur Schopenhauer explains why religious believers never outgrow the indoctrination they were subjected to in childhood: “There is no absurdity, however palpable, which cannot be firmly implanted in the minds of all, if only one begins to inculcate it before the age of six by constantly repeating it to them with an air of great solemnity.”

In his Treatise on Man, Helvétius wrote: “In every religion, the first objective of the priests is to stifle the curiosity of men, to prevent the examination of every dogma whose absurdity is too palpable to be concealed.”

While many religious believers persist in believing the myths and fables inculcated in their minds in childhood, others question their beliefs, as Helvétius observed: “a secret incredulity frequently opposes the pernicious effect of religious indoctrination.”

John Guillaumier – St Julian’s

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