Al Jolson

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Al Jolson <tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3"> Billed as the 'World's Greatest Entertainer". </td></tr>
Background information <tr><td>Birth name</td><td colspan="2">Asa Yoelson</td></tr><tr><td>Born</td><td colspan="2">May 7, 1885 or 1886, Seredžius, Lithuania</td></tr><tr><td>Died</td><td colspan="2">October 23, 1950</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Vaudeville Pop standards Jazz Pop</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1911–1950</td></tr><tr><td style="padding-right: 1em;">Label(s)</td><td colspan="2">Columbia Brunswick Decca</td></tr><tr><td>Website</td><td colspan="2">The Al Jolson Society</td></tr>

Asa "Al Jolson" Yoelson (born in Seredžius, Lithuania on May 26, 1886 and died in San Francisco, California on October 23, 1950) was an acclaimed American singer and actor 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 and Eddie Fisher.

1 Early life and career
2 The Jolson Story
3 Death
4 Filmography
5 Stage work
6 Select recordings
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Jolson's parents were Jewish immigrants, Moshe Reuben Yoelson and Naomi Etta Cantor - the original family name was Hesselson. His father was the Rabbi of the Talmud Torah Synagogue (now Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah) in Washington, D.C. Jolson became a popular singer in New York City, beginning as early as 1898, when he and his brother entertained troops in the Spanish American War. He gradually developed the key elements of his performance: blackface makeup; exuberant gestures; operatic-style singing; whistling and directly addressing his audience.

By 1911, he had parlayed a supporting appearance in the Broadway musical La Belle Paree into a starring role. He began recording and was soon internationally famous for his extraordinary stage presence and personal rapport with audiences. His Broadway career is unmatched for length and popularity, having spanned close to 30 years (1911-1940). Audiences shouted, pleaded, and often would not allow the show to proceed, such was the power of Jolson's presence. At one performance in Boston, the usual staid and conservative audience stopped the show for 45 minutes. He was said to have had an "electric" personality, along with the ability to make each member of the audience believe that he was singing only to him or her. However, he is best known today for his appearance in one of the first "talkies", The Jazz Singer, the first feature film with sound to enjoy wide commercial success, in 1927. In The Jazz Singer Jolson performed the song "Mammy" in blackface. In truth, Jolson's singing was never jazz, indeed his style remained forever rooted in the vaudeville stage at the turn of 20th century.

Signing with the Warners for a series of "speakies", Jolson made The Singing Fool (1928) — another tearjerker, 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 3 million copies.

Among the many songs popularized by Jolson were "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)", "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody", "Swanee" (songwriter George Gershwin's first success), "April Showers", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye", "California, Here I Come", "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along", "Sonny Boy", and "Avalon".

Jolson was the first music artist to sell over 10 million records. While no official Billboard magazine chart existed during Jolson's career, their staff archivist Joel Whitburn used a variety of sources such as Talking Machine World's list of top-selling recordings, and Billboard's own sheet music and vaudeville charts to estimate the hits of 1890-1954. By his reckoning, Jolson had the equivalent of 23 No. 1 hits, the 4th-highest total ever, trailing only Bing Crosby, Paul Whiteman, and Guy Lombardo. Whitburn calculates that Jolson topped one chart or another for 114 weeks.

Al Jolson wearing blackface and white gloves in The Jazz Singer, 1927

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 Jews in the arts, who supported the losing Democratic candidate, John William Davis.

Jolson was married to actress/dancer Ruby Keeler from 1928 to 1940, when they divorced. The couple had adopted a son, Al Jolson Jr., during their marriage, but when he was 14 the boy changed his name to Peter Lowe after his mother's second husband, John Lowe.

After leaving the Broadway stage, Jolson starred on radio. The Al Jolson Show aired 1933-1939, 1942-1943, and 1947-1949, and these shows were typically rated in the top ten.

[edit] The Jolson Story

After the success of Warner Bros. film Yankee Doodle Dandy about George M. Cohan, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky believed that a similar film could made about Al Jolson -- and he knew just where to pitch the project. Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures, may have seemed to a lot of people in Hollywood like a crude, loud vulgarian, but he had one soft spot: he loved the music of Al Jolson.

Skolsky pitched the idea of an Al Jolson biopic and Cohn agreed to it. Directed by Alfred E. Green (best known today for the pre-Code masterpiece Baby Face, The Jolson Story is one of the most entertaining of the musical biopics of that era -- an era that included Yankee Doodle Dandy, Till the Clouds Roll By, Words and Music, and Three Little Words.

With Jolson providing almost all the vocals, and actor 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.

The Jolson Story and its sequel Jolson Sings Again (1949) led to a whole new generation who became enthralled with Jolson's voice and charisma. Jolson, who had been a popular guest star on radio since its earliest days, now had his own show, hosting the Kraft Music Hall from 1947-1949, 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."

Image:Anybondstodaybugsblackface.jpg

Jolson's legacy is considered by many to be severely neglected today because of his use of stage blackface. Jolson was not a racist, and blackface as a theatrical convention was used by many performers (both white and black); some critics argue the make-up acted as a mask for Jolson, giving his performances a greater spontaneity. However, the make-up had roots in minstrelry (where Jolson got his start) and is today viewed by many as racially insensitive. Jolson was billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," which is how many of the greatest stars (including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Jackie Wilson) referred to him. Charles Chaplin wrote in his Autobiography that Jolson was one of the most electrifying entertainers he had ever seen. A life-long devotion to entertaining American servicemen (he first sang for servicemen of the Spanish-American War as a boy in Washington, D.C.) led Jolson, against the advice of his doctors, to entertain troops in Korea in 1950, when his heart began to fail.

[edit] Death

While playing cards, Jolson collapsed and died of a massive heart attack on October 23, 1950. At time of his death, he was staying at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Jolson was 64. He was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California, where a statue of Jolson beckons visitors to his crypt. On the day he died, Broadway lowered its lights for ten minutes in Jolson's honor.

Al Jolson has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:

For his contribution to the motion picture industry at 6622 Hollywood Blvd.;
For his contribution to the recording industry at 1716 Vine St.;
For his contribution to the radio industry at 6750 Hollywood Blvd.

Image:Jolson Way.jpg Forty-four years after Jolson's death, the United States Postal Service acknowledged his contribution by issuing a postage stamp in his honor. 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. Al Jolson is one of Mr. Burns' (from The Simpsons) favorite actors - he believes that he is still alive.

Jolson's song "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" was played during the opening montage of 1930's New York City in the 2005 remake of King Kong.

In August of 2006, Al Jolson had a street in New York named in his honour after nine years of trying by the international Al Jolson Society [1].