Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson) (1886 – October 1950) was a Lithuanian-born American singer, actor, and vaudevillian.
Jolson was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, as well as the first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in the United States. Known for his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach" towards performing, along with popularising many of the songs he sang, he is credited as being the single most important factor in defining the modern musical.
Some brief facts:
Performed a lot in blackface.
The star of the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927).
Starred in a series of successful musical films during the 1930s.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was the first star to entertain troops overseas during World War II.
After a period of inactivity, his stardom returned with The Jolson Story (1946), in which Larry Parks played the younger Jolson, but with sung vocals dubbed by Jolson himself. The formula was repeated in a sequel, Jolson Sings Again (1949).
By the way: Larry Parks’ career virtually ended when he admitted to having been a member of a Communist Party cell, which led to his blacklisting by all Hollywood studios. Parks eventually left the film industry and formed a successful construction business. Eventually, he and his wife owned many apartment buildings scattered throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Rather than sell them upon completion, Parks decided to retain ownership and collect rents as a landlord, a decision that proved to be extremely profitable.
In 1950, Jolson again became the first star to entertain GIs on active service in the Korean War, performing 42 shows in 16 days. He died weeks after returning to the U.S., partly owing to the physical exhaustion from the performance schedule. Defense Secretary George Marshall posthumously awarded him the Medal for Merit.
With his dynamic style of singing, he became widely successful by extracting traditionally African-American music and popularising it for white American audiences who would be unwilling to listen to it when performed by Black artists.
Despite his promotion and perpetuation of Black stereotypes, his work was often well-regarded by Black publications, and he has been credited for fighting against Black discrimination on Broadway as early as 1911.
From the website ‘Al Jolson Blackface and Racism’ at:
“….the blackface make-up that Al Jolson wore was make-up for a character, just as every entertainer wears make-up on stage or screen. That style of make-up, now understood to be offensive, was one of the conventions of theater 100 years ago, and must be viewed in that light, through the eyes of the day. Al Jolson is often the example of blackface, because he was just that famous. He was not, however, the only performer wearing it, nor even part of a minority wearing it. He was just the one who is remembered today. The following pieces (references to articles listed in the website) will attempt to put blackface in context, and help view Al Jolson's view on difference in race, and his actions in that behalf.”
It is interesting, however, how society and attitudes have moved on from those of Jolson’s day and career.
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TOOT, TOOT TOOTSIE
Video link:
Al Jolson performing the classic 'Toot, Toot, Tootsie!', taken from the 1927 film 'The Jazz Singer' credited as the first feature-length 'Talkie' film.
About the song:
The song is about a man who watches his girl leave on a train and promises to write. It is often performed with train whistles.
First recorded by Al Jolson in 1922.
This song has become associated with the age and image of the flapper during the Roaring Twenties.
Lyrics:
Yesterday I heard a lover sigh
Goodbye, oh me oh my!
Seven times he got aboard his train
And seven times he hurried back to give his love again and tell her:
Toot Toot Tootsie goodbye
Toot Toot Tootsie, don't cry
That little choo-choo train
That takes me
Away from you, no words can tell how sad it makes me
Kiss me Tootsie and then
Oh baby, do it over again
Watch for the mail;
I'll never fail
And if you don't get a letter then you'll know I'm in jail
Toot Toot Tootsie, don't cry
Toot Toot Tootsie, goodbye!
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MY MAMMY
Video:
Al Jolson performing his signature tune 'Mammy' in the finale of the 1927 film 'The Jazz Singer'. The film was the first feature-length motion picture with not only a synchronised recorded music score, but also lip-synchronised singing and speech in several isolated sequences. Its release heralded the end of silent films.
About the song:
The song is a love song from a son to his mother, expressing his regrets and longing for her, and hoping she will recognise him after he has been away for a long time.
However, in certain contexts, it can be considered as a tribute sung by a man who, during his childhood, was nurtured by a "mammy", a surrogate mother who supplanted the role that would have otherwise been provided by his biological mother. Mammies, were, in essence, African American nurse maids, or nannies, who cared for white children. Myriad examples of this occupation occurred during the 19th century in the United States, especially on southern plantations, where African Americans, often slaves, would perform these duties while the birth mother attended other matters such as the day-to-day management of the plantation. The affection between children and their mammies resulted in bonds equalling or exceeding that of children and their biological mothers. In the song, one such child, now an adult, is returning to his aging mammy, proclaiming his unconditional love for her, and hoping that, despite her age, that she will recognise him as her "little baby."
"My Mammy" was performed first in 1918 by William Frawley (later to become famous on I Love Lucy as Ethel’s husband Fred) as a vaudeville act.
Jolson first added the song in 1921 to the Broadway show Sinbad which was in the fourth year of its run. Jolson recorded this song twice and performed it in films, including The Jazz Singer (1927) and Rose of Washington Square (1939).
His voice can also be heard (dubbing actor Larry Parks) singing the song in The Jolson Story (1946).
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ROCK-A-BYE YOUR BABY WITH A DIXIE MELODY
Video:
From the 1939 film, 'The Rose of Washington Square' starring Alice Faye and Tyrone Power.
About the song:
"Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" was written in 1918, recorded by Jolson in the same year and introduced by him in the Broadway musical Sinbad
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SWANEE
Video:
An excerpt from a Hollywood film Rhapsody In Blue: The George Gershwin Story (1945). Great whistling.
About the song:
"Swanee" was composed by George Gershwin in 1919 with lyrics written by Irving Caesar but is most often associated with Al Jolson.
The song was written for a New York City revue called Demi-Tasse, which opened in October 1919 at the Capitol Theater. Caesar, who was then aged 24, claimed to have written the song in about ten minutes riding on a bus in Manhattan, finishing it at Gershwin's apartment.
The song had little impact in its first show, but not long afterwards Gershwin played it at a party where Al Jolson heard it. Jolson then put it into his show Sinbad, already a success at the Winter Garden Theatre, and recorded it for Columbia Records in January 1920. "After that", said Gershwin, "Swanee penetrated the four corners of the earth." It became Gershwin's first hit and the biggest-selling song of his career; the money he earned from it allowed him to concentrate on theatre work and films rather than writing further single pop hits.
Jolson recorded the song several times in his career and performed it in the movies The Jolson Story (1946), Rhapsody in Blue (1945),[8] and Jolson Sings Again (1949). For the song's performance in The Jolson Story, Jolson, rather than actor Larry Parks, appeared as himself, filmed in long shot.
By the way:
The song was used by the Sydney Swans Australian Rules Football Club for its marketing promotions in the late 1990s.
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More to come.
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By the way:
#1:
Jolson’s fourth wife Erle Galbraith, a tall, glamorous girl whom he met at an Army base in Arkansas while he was on the road for USO and she was an X-ray technician, was much younger than he. He fell in love with her on sight and they were married a year later. In 1948 they adopted a three-months-old boy, whom they named Asa, Jr. Jolson was not disturbed by the disparity in their ages. On one occasion the couple, motoring, stopped at a gas station.
The attendant remarked, “Mister, that’s a mighty pretty daughter you got there.”
Jolson grinned and replied, “I’m too old to have a daughter that young – that’s my wife!”
#2:
A Jolson characteristic was that in some songs he would drop to one knee:
Statue at Jolson's grave
Jolson has told that during a performance he dropped to one knee from the pain of an ingrown toenail. Thereafter he retained dropping to one knee.
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