Al Jolson

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Al Jolson
Background information
Birth name	Asa Yoelson
Born	May 26, 1886(1886-05-26), Seredžius, Lithuania, Russian Empire
Died	October 23, 1950 (aged 64)
Genre(s)	Vaudeville, Pop standards, Jazz, Pop
Years active	1911–1950
Label(s)	Victor, Columbia, Brunswick, Decca
Website	The Al Jolson Society

Al Jolson (May 26, 1886–October 23, 1950) was a highly acclaimed American singer, comedian and actor of Jewish heritage whose career lasted from 1911 until his death in 1950. He was one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century whose influence extended to other popular performers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Mandy Patinkin, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis, Jr., Eddie Fisher, Jerry Lewis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Michael Jackson, Rufus Wainwright, David Lee Roth and Rod Stewart.

Al Jolson was the first popular singer to make a spectacular "event" out of singing a song. Prior to Jolson, popular singers such as John McCormack and Henry Burr would stand still, with only very minimal gesturing as they performed. In contrast, Jolson displayed tremendous energy using dynamic gestures and other movement. Jolson was the first entertainer to have a runway extending out from the center of the stage, so he could be closer to the audience. It was very common for Jolson to sit on the end of the runway and have personal one-on-one conversations with audience members, which had also never been done before.

Jolson was known to stop major Broadway productions in which he was performing, turn to the audience and ask them if they would rather hear him sing instead of watching the rest of the play. The answer was always a resounding yes, and Jolson would spend at least the next hour singing an impromptu concert. His friend George Burns said, "...Jolson was all show business!"

Contents 1 Early years 2 First Years On Stage 3 Blackface performer 4 Success at The Winter Garden 5 Movies 6 Personal life 7 World War II and Korea tours 8 The Jolson Story 9 Plans for television 10 Death and commemoration 11 Movies 12 Theater 13 Famous songs 14 References 15 External links 15.1 Listen to 15.2 Watch

[edit] Early years

Albert Jolson was born as Asa Yoelson in Seredžius, Lithuania, the fourth child of Moses Reuben Yoelson and his wife Naomi.^[1]. His siblings were Rose, Etta, Hirsch (Harry), and a sister who died in infancy.^[1] Because of the oppression of Jews in Czarist Russia, Moses Yoelson decided to emigrate to America.^[1] He arrived in 1891,^[1] and was able to find a job as a rabbi and cantor in a synagogue in Washington D.C.^[2] Three years later, his family would join him.^[2]

Hard times hit the family when Naomi died in late 1894.^[3] Following his mother's death, Asa was in a state of withdrawal for seven months.^[3] In 1895, he and his brother Harry were introduced to show business by entertainer Al Reeves.^[3] Upon being introduced to show business, Al and Hirsch became fascinated by the industry,^[3]. By 1897, the brothers were singing for coins on local street corners, using the names "Al" and "Harry;"^[3] They would usually use the money to buy tickets to shows at the local National Theater. Asa and Hirsch became very close and spent most of their days working different jobs as a team.^[4]

[edit] First Years On Stage

In 1900, Asa ran away from home to escape from his strict father. He went to New York City^[5] to seek a career in show business.^[6] Unfortunately, he was unable to find work and lived in poverty during his first two years there.^[6] In the spring of 1902, he accepted a job with Walter L. Maim's Circus.^[7] Although he had been hired as an usher, Maim was impressed by Jolson's singing voice and gave him a position as a singer during the circus' Indian Medicine Side Show segment.^[8]

By the end of the year, however, the circus had folded,^[8] and Jolson was again out of work.^[9] In May of 1903, the head producer of the burlesque show "Dainty Duchess Burlesquers" agreed to give Jolson a part in one show.^[10] Asa gave a remarkable performance of "Be My Baby Bumble Bee," and producer agreed to keep him for future shows.^[10] Unfortunately, the show closed by the end of the year.^[11] Asa was able to avoid financial troubles by forming a vaudeville partnership with his brother Hirsch, now a vaudeville performer who was known to the public as "Harry Yoelson"^[12] The brothers worked for the William Morris Agency.^[13]

Asa and Harry also eventually were teamed with Joe Palmer.^[14] During their time with Palmer, they ^[15] were able to get bookings in a nationwide tour.^[15] However, live performances were fading in popularity, as nickelodeon theaters captured audiences;^[16] by 1908, nickelodeon theaters completely dominated throughout New York City as well.^[16] Al decided on a new approach and began wearing blackface makeup.^[17] The conversion to blackface boosted his career,^[18] and he began wearing blackface in all of his shows.^[18]

In the fall of 1905, Harry left the trio, following a harsh argument with Al^[19]. Harry had refused to accept Al's offer to take care of Joe Palmer - who was in a wheelchair - while he went out on a date.^[19] After Harry's departure, Al and Joe Palmer worked as a duo, but where not very successful together.^[19] By 1906,^[20] the two agreed to separate, and Jolson was on his own.^[21]

Al became a regular at the Globe and Wigwam Theater in San Francisco,^[21] and remained successful nationwide as a vaudeville singer^[20] He took up residence in San Francisco, saying the earthquake devastated area needed someone to cheer them up.^[21] In 1908, Jolson - needing money for himself and his new wife Henrietta - returned to New York.^[22] In 1909, Al's singing caught the attention of Lew Dockstader, who was the producer and star of Dockstader's Minstrels.^[18] Al accepted Dockstader's offer, and became a regular blackface performer.^[23]

According to Esquire magazine, "J. J. Shubert, impressed by Jolson’s overpowering display of energy, booked him for La Belle Paree, a musical comedy which opened at the Winter Garden in 1911. Within a month Jolson was a star. From then until 1926, when he retired from the stage, he could boast an unbroken series of smash hits."[1]

[edit] Blackface performer

Performing in blackface makeup was a theatrical convention used by many entertainers at the beginning of the 20th century, having its origin in the minstrel show. Most early American stage actors performed with the aid of costume and makeup, often as characters of other nationalities and races. Al Jolson was the most famous performer to wear blackface makeup when singing which some now claim was a form of racial stereotyping. Yet by the standards of stagecraft a hundred years ago it was considered no more than another stage costume or prop.[2] Others claim that working behind a blackface mask "gave Al a sense of freedom and spontaneity he had never known before.... and was not considered racially offensive in the early 1900's."[3] Nor is it considered offensive today when blacks, Asians, or latinos act in traditionally white roles. [4][5][6][7]

Jolson first saw African-American music, such as jazz, blues, and ragtime, played in the back alleys of New Orleans. He enjoyed singing the new jazz-style of music, and it's not surprising that he often performed in blackface, especially songs he made popular, like Swanee, Mammy, and Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody . In most of his movie roles, however, including a singing hobo in Hallelujah, I'm a Bum or a jailed convict in Say It With Songs, he chose to act without using blackface. In the 1927 film The Jazz Singer, he performed only a few songs, including My Mammy, in blackface, although there was nothing in the storyline that required a black singer. Jolson clearly had wide discretion over when and where to use blackface.

Some reviewers feel that Jolson's use of blackface was partly intended as an act of anti-racism. As a Jewish immigrant and America's most famous and highest paid entertainer, he clearly had the incentive and resources to help break down racial attitudes. For instance, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) during its peak in the early 1920s, included about 15% of the nation's eligible population, 4-5 million men. While D.W. Griffith created the blockbuster movie The Birth of a Nation, which glorified white supremacy and the KKK, Jolson chose to star in The Jazz Singer, which defied racial bigotry by introducing American black music to white audiences worldwide.

While growing up, he hung around with blacks, including "a skinny Negro lad with magic in his feet who grew up to become Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, greatest of all tap dancers."[8] As early as 1911, at the age of 25, he was already noted for fighting bigotry on the Broadway stage and later in his movies: he promoted the play by black playwright Garland Anderson,[9] which became the first production with an all-black cast ever produced on Broadway; he brought an all-black dance team from San Francisco that he tried to feature in his Broadway show; he demanded equal treatment for Cab Calloway with whom he performed a number of duets in his movies.[10] In 1919, when he read in the newspaper that songwriters Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, neither of whom he had ever heard of, were refused service at a Connecticut restaurant because of their race, he immediately tracked them down and took them out to dinner "insisting he'd punch anyone in the nose who tried to kick us out!" [11] In 1950, Sissle, as president of the Negro Actors' Guild, represented that organization at Jolson's funeral.[12]

According to St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture: "Almost single-handedly, Jolson helped to introduce African-American musical innovations like jazz, ragtime, and the blues to white audiences.... [and] paved the way for African-American performers like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, and Ethel Waters.... to bridge the cultural gap between black and white America." [13] In a recent interview with Michael Freedland, Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, one of the most popular and respected jazz singers in New Orleans, said, "Jolson? I loved him. I think he did wonders for the blacks and glorified entertainment." ^[24]

[edit] Success at The Winter Garden

On March 20, 1911, Jolson starred in his first play at the Winter Garden Theater in New York, La Belle Paree, ^[25] which also greatly helped launch his career as a singer in Winter Garden plays as well.^[25] The opening night drew huge crowd to the Garden,^[25] and during this evening, Jolson gained popularity with the audience by singing old Stephen Foster songs in blackface.^[26]; In the wake of this phenomenal opening night, Jolson was given a position in the shows cast.^[27]; the show closed after 104 performances,^[28], and during its run, Jolson's popularity grew greatly,^[28] Following La Belle Paree, Jolson accepted an offer to perform in the play Vera Violetta^[28]. The show opened on November 20, 1911^[29], and, like La Belle Paree, was a phenomenal success.^[30]; In the show, Jolson again portrayed the role of a blackface singer^[30], and managed to become so popular, that his weekly salary- which he earned from his success in La Belle Paree- of $500.00 was increased to $750.00;^[30]

After Vera Violetta ran its course, Jolson starred in The Whirl of Society, and through this play, his career on Broadway would rise to new heights.^[31]; during his time at The Winter Garden, Jolson also would tell the audience "you ain't heard nothing yet" before performing additional songs as well^[32] In the play, Jolson debuted his signature blackface character, "Gus."^[33]The play was so successful, that Winter Garden owner Lee Shubert agreed to sign Jolson to a seven year contract with a salary of 1,000 a week.^[34] Jolson would reprise his role as "Gus" in future plays and by 1914, Jolson achieved so much popularity with the theater's audience, that his $1,000.00 a week salary was doubled to $2,000.00 a week.^[35] In 1916, Robinson Crusoe, Jr., which was the first play where he was featured as the star character.^[36] In 1918, Jolson's acting career would be pushed even further, after he starred in the hit play Sinbad.^[37]

The play became arguably the most successful Broadway play of the year.^[37], and was also very successful throughout in 1919 as well.^[38]. In 1919, an additional song added to the show the song that would go on to be composer George Gershwin's first hit recording, "Swanee."^[39] The next year, Jolson also added another song to the show, "My Mammy."^[40]By 1920, Jolson was arguably the biggest star on Broadway.^[3] His next play, "Bombo," would also take his career to new heights as well.^[41] The play was so successful, that it went beyond Broadway and held performances nationwide.^[41] However, following "Bombo," Jolson's next play, Big Boy, would not achieve much success.^[42]

[edit] Movies

In the first part of the 20th century, Al Jolson was without question the most popular performer on Broadway and in vaudeville. Show-business historians regard him as a legendary institution. Yet for all his success in live venues, Al Jolson is possibly best remembered today for his numerous recordings and for starring in The Jazz Singer (1927), the first nationally distributed feature film that included dialogue sequences as well as music and sound effects. This historic movie was made available on DVD in 2007.

The role of Jack Robin also had some parallels to events that occurred in Jolson's life as well.^[3]

Warner Bros. had originally picked George Jessel-who played Jack Robin in the Broadway play The Jazz Singer- to reprise his Broadway role in the film.^[43] However, Jessel refused the offer, because the film had a different ending than its Broadway counterpart;^[43] in the original play, Robin gave up his career as a Broadway performer to serve as a cantor in his father's synagogue, while in the movie, he chose to remain a Broadway performer.^[43] After Jessel refused the offer, Warner Bros. chief Jack L. Warner decided to offer Jolson the role instead.^[43] Jolson accepted Warner's offer, and was given a guaranteed salary of $200,000.00 to play Jack Robin.^[44]

The film was produced by Warner Brothers, using its revolutionary Vitaphone sound process. Vitaphone was originally intended for musical renditions, and The Jazz Singer follows this principle, with only the musical sequences using live sound recording. Much of the film is a silent drama, telling the sentimental story of a Jewish boy who loves to sing popular songs. He becomes a cabaret and stage star, much to the disgust of his estranged father (Warner Oland), a cantor in the synagogue. The moviegoers were electrified when the action was interrupted periodically for a Vitaphone song sequence with synchronized sound. Jolson's dynamic voice, physical mannerisms, and charisma held the audience spellbound. The irrepressible Jolson insisted on improvising incidental dialogue, and for the first time, moviegoers could hear a spoken conversation. Jolson ad-libs freely while singing "Blue Skies", explaining how he's going to move his mother to a better neighborhood when he becomes successful. (Nobody on the set was ready for Jolson's ramblings, and the actress playing the mother, Eugenie Besserer, did her best to hide her surprise.) It was the talking, not the music as the Warners had expected, that delighted the customers and made them clamor for more "talkies."

Jolson had actually filmed a brief musical performance before The Jazz Singer. A Plantation Act was one of Warners' musical short subjects featuring Broadway and vaudeville headliners. Jolson, in blackface and ragged costume, prances on screen in a bucolic setting and sings three songs, with incidental patter in between. So close is this to an actual stage act that Jolson returns for two curtain calls afterwards. This Jolson short was the key attraction in Warners' second theatrical demonstration of Vitaphone. Historians such as Donald Crafton, author of The Talkies (University of California Press), have disputed the official Warner Bros. account of the "talkie revolution," suggesting that the Vitaphone shorts, in production since 1926 and often including significant dialogue passages, were actually more influential than The Jazz Singer in whetting the public taste for talking films.

A Plantation Act was considered lost as far back as 1933 (Jolson requested a print and was told that the film no longer existed), but a mute print was discovered in the Warner vaults. The Vitaphone Project, a consortium of early-sound-film enthusiasts and collectors, located a damaged soundtrack disc and painstakingly restored the sound. Included with the Warner Home Video DVD of The Jazz Singer, the short contains almost as much dialogue as the later feature.

With Warner Bros., Al Jolson made his first "all-talking" picture, The Singing Fool (1928) — the story of a driven entertainer who insisted upon going on with the show even as his small son lay dying, and its signature tune, "Sonny Boy," became the first American record to sell one million copies. The film was even more popular than The Jazz Singer, and held the record for box-office attendance for 11 years, until broken by Gone with the Wind.

Jolson continued to make features for Warners, very similar in style to The Singing Fool, Say It with Songs (1929), Mammy (1930), and Big Boy (1930). A restored version of Mammy, which includes Jolson in some Technicolor sequences, was first screened in 2002.^[45] (Jolson's first Technicolor appearance was in a cameo in the musical Show Girl in Hollywood (1930) from First National Pictures, a Warner Bros. subsidiary.) The sameness of the stories, Jolson's large salary, and changing public tastes in musicals contributed to the films' diminishing returns over the next few years. As a result of this, Jolson decided to return to Broadway, and starred in a new show, entitled "Wonder Bar."^[46] Unfortuantely, "Wonderbar was not able to achieve success.^[47]

Despite these new troubles, Jolson was able to make a comeback after he performed a hit concert in New Orleans in after "Wonderbar" closed 1931 as well^[48] . Warners allowed him to make one film elsewhere: Hallelujah, I'm a Bum was released by United Artists in 1933. As the title suggests, the film was a direct, albeit misguided, response to the Great Depression, making the argument that homeless people are happy to be homeless.

Unfortunately, while the film was successful, the one who garnered the most attention from the film was his wife Rudy Keeler.^[49]Jolson again found himself facing hard times.^[50]

Returning to Warners, Jolson bowed to new production ideas, focusing less on the star and more on elaborately cinematic numbers staged by Busby Berkeley and Bobby Connolly. This new approach worked, sustaining Jolson's movie career until the Warner contract lapsed in 1935. Jolson co-starred with his actress-dancer wife, Ruby Keeler, only once, in Go Into Your Dance.

Jolson's last Warner vehicle was the highly entertaining The Singing Kid, a gentle parody of Jolson's stage persona (he plays a character named Al Jackson) in which he pokes fun at his stage histrionics and taste for "mammy" songs -- the latter via a number by E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen titled "I Love to Singa," and a comedy sequence with Jolson doggedly trying to sing "Mammy" while The Yacht Club Boys keep telling him such songs are outdated. The Singing Kid was not one of the studio's major attractions -- it went out under the subsidiary First National trademark, and Jolson didn't even rate starring billing. The song "I Love to Singa" later appeared in Tex Avery's cartoon of the same name.

Jolson did not return to films until 1939, when Twentieth Century-Fox hired him to re-create a scene from The Jazz Singer in the Alice Faye-Don Ameche film Hollywood Cavalcade. Guest appearances in two more Fox films followed that same year, but Jolson never starred in a full-length feature film again.

Jolson was caricatured as "Al Goatson" in Frank Tashlin's cartoon The Woods are Full of Cuckoos.

[edit] Personal life

Jolson was a political and economic conservative, supporting Calvin Coolidge for president of the United States in 1924 (with the ditty, "Keep Cool with Coolidge"), unlike most other Jewish performers, who supported the losing Democratic candidate, John William Davis. Jolson did, however, publically campaign for Democrat Franklin Roosevelt during the 1932 US Presidential Election as well.^[51]

In 1906,^[20] while living in San Francisco, Jolson met dancer Henrietta Keller, and the two engaged in a year-long relationship before marrying in September of 1907^[20] In 1918, however, Henrietta - tired of Al's excessive womanizing and refusal to come home after shows - filed for divorce.^[52] Following Henrietta, in 1920, Jolson began a relationship with Broadway actress Alma Osbourne (stage name Ethel Delmar).^[53]; the two were married in August of 1922.^[53]

In the summer 1928, Jolson would meet tap dancer, and later successful actress, Ruby Keeler at Texas Guinan's night club and was dazzled by her on sight;^[54] at the club, the two danced together^[54] Three weeks later, Jolson saw a production of George M. Cohan's Rise of Rosie O'Reilly, and noticed she was in the show's cast^[54]. Now knowing she was going about her Broadway career, Jolson attended another one of her shows, Show Girl, and rose from the audience and engaged in her duet of "Liza"^[55] After this moment, the show's producer, Florenz Ziegfeld, asked Al join the cast and continue to sing duets with Keeler.^[55] Jolson greatly accepted Ziegfeld's offer and during their tour with Ziegfeld, the two started dating and were married on September 21, 1928;^[56] in 1935, Al and Ruby adopted a son, whom they named him "Al Jolson Jr."^[57]

In 1939, however - despite a marriage that was considered to be more successful than his previous ones^[58] - Keeler left Jolson, and began a relationship with actor John Loewe^[59][60] In the 1944, while giving a show at a military hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Jolson met a young X-ray technican named Erle Galbraith.^[61] After meeting her, Jolson became fascinated by her and - over a year after meeting her - was able to track her down and hired her as an actress while he served as a producer at Columbia Pictures.^[62] After Al - who's health was still scarred from his previous battle with malaria - was hospitalized in the winter of 1945, Erle visited him at the hospital,^[63] and the two quickly began a relationship with each other.^[64] They were married on March 22, 1945 - adopting two kids, Asa Jr. (b. 1948) and Alicia(b. 1949)^[65], and remained married until Al's death in 1950.

Despite their close relationship growing up, Harry did show some disdain for Al's success over the years.^[66] Even during their time with Jack Plamer^[20] On one occasion - which was another factor in his on-off relationship with Al - Harry offered to be Al's agent, but Al rejected the offer, worried about the pressure that he would have faced from his producer's for hiring his brother as his agent.</ref>

Jolson remained very popular both in America and abroad, and was dubbed the world's greatest entertainer. He contributed millions to Jewish and other charities in his will.[[14]].

[edit] World War II and Korea tours

Japanese bombs on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, shook Jolson out of continuing moods of lethargy . ... "Early in 1942, Jolson was cleared for a flight to the Caribbean and he became the first star to perform at a GI base in World War II."[15] He did as many as four shows a day in the jungle outposts in Central America and covered the string of Naval bases. He paid for part of his transportation out of his own pocket.

He enlisted in the United Service Organizations (USO), an organization which provided entertainment for American troops who served in combat overseas.^[67] While serving in the USO, Jolson would dress up in a private uniform, and would sing a number of his old classic songs.^[68] Because of his time in the USO, Jolson's career as a singer successfully rebounded;^[68] despite the fact he also came down with a case of malaria while entertaining troops in North Africa in 1943 and had to have his left lung removed.^[69]

When the U.S. war in Korea started, Jolson shelved all his own plans for another movie biography and TV show and wired Washington asking permission to go to Korea. On September 17th, 1950, a dispatch from 8th Army Headquarters, Korea, announced that 'Al Jolson, the first top-flight entertainer to reach the war-front, landed here today by plane from Los Angeles.' Jolson had again paid his own way over.[16] [17]

[edit] The Jolson Story

After the success of the George M. Cohan film biography, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky believed that a similar film could be made about Al Jolson -- and he knew just where to pitch the project. Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures, loved the music of Al Jolson. He knew that Jolson had been one of America's most well-known and popular entertainers.

Skolsky pitched the idea of an Al Jolson biopic and Cohn agreed. It was directed by Alfred E. Green (best known today for the pre-Code masterpiece Baby Face), with musical numbers staged by Joseph H. Lewis. With Jolson providing almost all the vocals, and veteran Columbia contractee Larry Parks playing Jolson, The Jolson Story (1946) became one of the biggest hits of the year.

Parks received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and the film became one of the highest-grossing films of the year. Although Jolson was too old to play himself in the film, he persuaded the studio to let him appear in one musical sequence, "Swanee," shot entirely in long shot, with Jolson in blackface singing and dancing onto the runway leading into the middle of the theater. In the wake of the film's success, Jolson became a top singer among the American public once again.^[70]

The Jolson Story and its sequel Jolson Sings Again (1949) introduced a whole new generation to Jolson's voice and charisma. Both movies are currently available on DVD. Jolson, who had been a popular guest star on radio since its earliest days, got his own show, hosting the Kraft Music Hall from 1947 to 1949, with Oscar Levant as a sardonic, piano-playing sidekick. Despite such singers as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como being in their primes, Jolson was voted the "Most Popular Male Vocalist" in 1948 by a poll in the show biz newspaper Variety.

The next year, Jolson was named "Personality of the Year" by the Variety Clubs of America. When Jolson appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show, he attributed his receiving the award to his being the only singer not to make a record of Mule Train, which had been a widely covered hit of that year (four different versions, one of them by Crosby, had made the top ten on the charts). Jolson even joked that he had tried to sing the hit song: "I got the clippetys all right, but I can't clop like I used to."

[edit] Plans for television

When Jolson appeared on Steve Allen's KNX Los Angeles radio show in 1949 to promote Jolson Sings Again, he offered his curt opinion of the burge oning television industry: "I call it smell-evision." Writer Hal Kanter recalled that Jolson's own idea of his TV debut would be a corporate-sponsored, extra-length spectacular that would feature him as the only performer, and would be telecast without interruption. In 1950, it was announced that Jolson agreed to appear on the CBS Television Network. However, he died before production could be initiated.

Also in 1950, Columbia was thinking about a third Jolson musical, and this time Jolson would play himself. The project, tentatively titled You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, was to dramatize Jolson's recent tours of military bases. The film was never produced.

[edit] Death and commemoration

The dust and dirt of the Korean front, from where he had returned a few weeks earlier, had settled in his right lung and he was close to exhaustion. While playing cards in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, Jolson collapsed and died of a massive heart attack on October 23, 1950. His last words were said to be "Boys, I'm going." Jolson was 64.

He was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. According to Cemetery Guide, Jolson’s widow, Erle, purchased a plot at Hillside and commissioned his mausoleum to be designed by well-known black architect Paul Williams. The six-pillar marble structure is topped by a dome, next to three-quarter-size bronze statue of Jolson, eternally resting on one knee, arms outstretched, apparently ready to break into another verse of “Mammy.” The inside of the dome features a huge mosaic of Moses holding the tablets containing the Ten Commandments, and identifies Jolson as “The Sweet Singer of Israel” and “The Man Raised Up High.”

On the day he died, Broadway dimmed its lights in Jolson's honor. A number of eulogies from friends, including George Jessel, Walter Winchell, and Eddie Cantor can be read at the Al Jolson Tribute site

Jolson has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:

1. at 6622 Hollywood Blvd. for his contribution to motion pictures
2. at 1716 Vine St. for his mark on the recording industry
3. at 6750 Hollywood Blvd. for his achievements in radio

Forty-four years after Jolson's death, the United States Postal Service honored him by issuing a postage stamp. The 29-cent stamp was unveiled by Erle Jolson Krasna, Jolson's fourth wife, at a ceremony in New York City's Lincoln Center on September 1, 1994. This stamp was one of a series honoring popular American singers, which included Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Ethel Merman, and Ethel Waters.

In August 2006, Al Jolson had a street in New York named after him after nine years of attempts by the international Al Jolson Society.

[edit] Movies

• Mammy's Boy (1923) (unfinished)
• A Plantation Act (1926)
• The Jazz Singer (1927)
• The Singing Fool (1928)
• Hollywood Snapshots No. 11 (1929) (short subject)
• Sonny Boy (1929) (Cameo)
• Say It with Songs (1929)
• New York Nights (1929) (Cameo)
• Mammy (1930)
• Show Girl in Hollywood (1930) (Cameo)
• Big Boy (1930)
• Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1933)
• Wonder Bar (1934)

• Go Into Your Dance (1935)
• Paramount Headliner: Broadway Highlights No. 1 (1935) (short subject)
• The Singing Kid (1936)
• Hollywood Handicap (1938) (short subject)
• Rose of Washington Square (1939)
• Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)
• Swanee River (1939)
• Rhapsody in Blue (1945) (brief scene with Jolson in blackface introducing "Swanee")
• The Jolson Story (1946) (double and singing voice for Larry Parks with brief onscreen appearance)
• Screen Snapshots: Off the Air (1947) (short subject)
• Jolson Sings Again (1949) (singing voice for Larry Parks)
• Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) (voice only)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood's Famous Feet (1950) (short subject) (narrator)

[edit] Theater

• La Belle Paree (1911)
• Vera Violetta (1911)
• The Whirl of Society (1912)
• The Honeymoon Express (1913)
• Children of the Ghetto (before 1915)
• Robinson Crusoe, Jr. (1916)
• Sinbad (1918)
• Bombo (1921)
• Big Boy (1925)
• Artists and Models of 1925 (1925) (added to cast in 1926)
• Big Boy (1926) (revival)
• The Wonder Bar (1931)
• Hold on to Your Hats (1940)

[edit] Famous songs

• That Haunting Melodie (1911) Jolson's first hit.
• Ragging the Baby to Sleep (1912)
• The Spaniard That Blighted My Life (1912)
• That Little German Band (1913)
• You Made Me Love You (1913)
• Back to the Carolina You Love (1914)
• Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula (1916)
• I Sent My Wife to the Thousand Isles (1916)
• I'm All Bound Round With the Mason Dixon Line (1918)
• Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody (1918)
• Tell That to the Marines (1919)
• I'll Say She Does (1919)
• I've Got My Captain Working for Me Now (1919)
• Swanee (1919)
• Avalon (1920)
• O-H-I-O (O-My! O!) (1921)
• April Showers (1921)
• Angel Child (1922)
• Coo Coo' (1922)
• Oogie Oogie Wa Wa (1922)
• That Wonderful Kid From Madrid (1922)
• Toot, Toot, Tootsie (1922)
• Juanita (1923)
• California, Here I Come (1924)
• I Wonder What's Become of Sally? (1924)
• All Alone (1925)
• I'm Sitting on Top of the World (1926)
• When the Red, Red, Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along (1926)
• My Mammy (1927)
• Back in Your Own Backyard (1928)
• There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (1928)
• Sonny Boy (1928)
• Little Pal (1929)
• Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away) (1929)
• Let Me Sing and I'm Happy (1930)
• The Cantor (A Chazend'l Ofn Shabbos) (1932)
• You Are Too Beautiful (1933)
• Ma Blushin' Rosie (1946)
• Anniversary Song (1946)
• Alexander's Ragtime Band (1947)
• Carolina in the Morning (1947)
• About a Quarter to Nine (1947)
• Waiting for the Robert E. Lee (1947)
• Golden Gate (1947)
• When You Were Sweet Sixteen (1947)
• If I Only Had a Match (1947)
• After You've Gone (1949)
• Is It True What They Say About Dixie? (1949)
• Are You Lonesome Tonight? (1950)

[edit] References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

• Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-507678-8

[edit] External links

• Al Jolson at the Internet Movie Database
• PBS "Stars over Broadway"
• Collected works of Al Jolson at the Internet Archive
• The International Al Jolson Society
• Esquire magazine article, 1949
• Al Jolson Biography
• Mikes Jolson Site
• Al Jolson at Find-A-Grave
• Complete newsreel also covering Jolson's death and funeral (from the Internet Archive)
• Eulogies for Jolson

[edit] Listen to

• Zoot Radio: The Al Jolson Show (Ten 1943-49 episodes)

[edit] Watch

• Al Jolson movie clip compilations
• Trailer for "Jolson Sings Again"
• Al Jolson's video biography on YouTube