Alan Crosland

Biography: American director Alan Crosland entered show business at the age of 15 as an actor and stage manager. He began working for the Edison company in 1912 where he worked at several jobs for two years. In 1914 he became a full-fledged director of short films. He directed his first feature film in 1917; this lead to his working on many routine films for a variety of studios until 1925 when he was hired by Warner Bros. The following year he directed Don Juan, the first full-length film to use synchronized music; he then directed the first talkie, The Jazz Singer (1927). Crosland died in an automobile crash in 1936. His son Alan Crosland Jr. was a film editor and sometime director during the '40s and '50s.