Q 01/05

Which 1927 Warner Bros. film starring Al Jolson is credited with ending the silent era with its synchronized songs?

A) Old San Francisco

B) The Jazz Singer

C) Lights of New York

D) The Singing Fool

Answer · why

B) The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer was mostly silent but had six numbers sung to the Vitaphone disc system, and its success pushed every studio toward sound.

Q 02/05

Which gravel-voiced jazz trumpeter made wordless scat singing a sensation with the 1926 record 'Heebie Jeebies'?

A) King Oliver

B) Bix Beiderbecke

C) Buddy Bolden

D) Louis Armstrong

Answer · why

D) Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong is said to have dropped his lyric sheet during the take and improvised nonsense syllables, though scat was already heard around New Or...

Q 03/05

Which 1920s dance craze was launched by a tune of the same name in the 1923 Broadway show Runnin' Wild?

A) The Charleston

B) The Black Bottom

C) The Shimmy

D) The Foxtrot

Answer · why

A) The Charleston

The Charleston is named after the South Carolina harbor city, and the dance hit its peak of popularity from mid-1926 to 1927.

Q 04/05

Which eerie-sounding electronic instrument, invented by a Russian physicist in 1920, is played without being touched?

A) The Mellotron

B) The Hammond organ

C) The theremin

D) The ondes Martenot

Answer · why

C) The theremin

The theremin senses the player's hands as they move near two metal antennas, and its inventor patented it in the United States in 1928.

Q 05/05

Cliff Edwards, a 1920s recording star known as 'Ukulele Ike', later voiced which Disney character in Pinocchio?

A) Geppetto

B) Jiminy Cricket

C) The Blue Fairy

D) Honest John

Answer · why

B) Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket became his most famous role, and in that 1940 film he introduced 'When You Wish Upon a Star'.