Classical Hollywood cinema
The beginning of the sound era itself is ambiguously defined. To some, it began with "The Jazz Singer", which was released in 1927 and increased box-office profits for films, as sound was introduced to feature films. To others, the era began in 1929, when the silent age had definitively ended. Most Hollywood pictures from the late 1920s to 1960s adhered closely to a genre—Western, slapstick comedy, musical, animated cartoon, and biopic (biographical picture)—and the same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio. For instance, Cedric Gibbons and Herbert Stothart always worked on MGM films; Alfred Newman worked at Twentieth Century Fox for twenty years; Cecil B. DeMille's films were almost all made at Paramount Pictures; and director Henry King's films were mostly made for Twentieth Century Fox. Similarly, actors were mostly contract players. Film historians and critics note that it took about a decade for films to adapt to sound and return to the level of artistic quality of the silents, which it did in the late 1930s.
Pál Jávor (actor)
The opportunity to appear in movies first came in 1929, when he starred in "Csak egy kislány van a világon", what was to be the last Hungarian silent film. Ironically, this was also the first one to feature voice, as technicians got hold of the technology by the last days of shooting. This allowed Jávor to sing a song in one of the scenes, which, combined with the charm and temperament that became his later trademark, secured him firm employment in the country's waking film industry. He took the lead role in the first Hungarian movie with sound, "Kék Bálvány", and a smaller one in the second, "Hyppolit, a lakáj", which became the first real hit among the public. Jávor quickly became an idol of the 30s, appearing in numerous movies, but also remained popular on stage. The sudden fame weighed heavily on the young actor, leading to him returning to alcohol, and to frequent clashes with co-workers and the then-powerful newspaper owners, resulting in numerous scandals. His life was eased when he met and, in 1934, married the Jewish Olga Landesmann, a widow with two children, who provided him with a welcoming home and family.