<P> The "Vitaphone" trademark was later associated with cartoons and other short subjects that had optical soundtracks and did not use discs . </P> <P> In the early 1920s, Western Electric was developing both sound - on - film and sound - on - disc systems, aided by the purchase of Lee De Forest's Audion amplifier tube in 1913, consequent advances in public address systems, and the first practical condenser microphone, which Western Electric engineer E.C. Wente had created in 1916 and greatly improved in 1922 . De Forest debuted his own Phonofilm sound - on - film system in New York City on April 15, 1923, but due to the relatively poor sound quality of Phonofilm and the impressive state - of - the - art sound heard in Western Electric's private demonstrations, the Warner Brothers decided to go forward with the industrial giant and the more familiar disc technology . </P> <P> The business was established at Western Electric's Bell Laboratories in New York City and acquired by Warner Bros. in April 1925 . Warner Bros. introduced Vitaphone on August 6, 1926 with the release of their silent feature Don Juan, which had been retrofitted with a symphonic musical score and sound effects . There was no spoken dialog . The feature was preceded by a program of short subjects with live - recorded sound, nearly all featuring classical instrumentalists and opera stars . The only "pop music" artist was guitarist Roy Smeck and the only actual "talkie" was the short film that opened the program: four minutes of introductory remarks by motion picture industry spokesman Will Hays . </P> <P> Don Juan was able to draw huge sums of money at the box office, but was not able to match the expensive budget Warner Bros. put into the film's production . After its financial failure, Paramount head Adolph Zukor offered Sam Warner a deal as an executive producer for Paramount if he brought Vitaphone with him . Sam, not wanting to take any more of Harry Warner's refusal to move forward with using sound in future Warner films, agreed to accept Zukor's offer, but the deal died after Paramount lost money in the wake of Rudolph Valentino's death . Harry eventually agreed to accept Sam's demands . Sam then pushed ahead with a new Vitaphone feature starring Al Jolson, the Broadway dynamo who had already scored a big hit with early Vitaphone audiences in A Plantation Act, a musical short released on October 7, 1926 . On October 6, 1927, The Jazz Singer premiered at the Warner Theater in New York City, broke box - office records, established Warner Bros. as a major player in Hollywood, and is traditionally credited with single - handedly launching the talkie revolution . </P>

What was the first feature-length film to use vitaphone technology