HOLLYWOOD AND THE STARS
AL JOLSON was called "The World's Greatest
Entertainer" there may never be another performer to claim this title. Al
Jolson's songs thrilled a nation and gave a voice to Hollywood and the Stars.
For nearly half a century he made
America sing, laugh and cry but though he played on our emotions with unabashed
sentimentality he felt within himself an emptiness that no personal relationship
could fill, he was insecure and plagued by self doubt.
Jolson felt alive only when he
heard the cheers of an adoring crowd and the love music of applause. A
Biographer summed him up in these words "As a human being he left much to
be desired, but he was the greatest entertainer that the world as ever
known". This then was Al Jolson the humble canter's son who became a
phenomenal figure - a legend in his time and in ours. Though he sang of
"Mammy and Magnolias" in a broad southern accent Al Jolson
never even saw the Swanee river.
Born in Lithuania in 1886,
his name is Asa Yoelson the second son of a Jewish peasant family.
The Yoelson's emigrated to America
when Asa was 8 years old, they settle
in Washington DC. His father had secured a position as Rabbi in an impoverished
orthodox synagogue.
Asa and older brother Hirsch will
soon rebel against their fathers stern old country traditions, they begin to
call themselves Al and Harry and they further shame their father by avoiding
religious services to sing for pennies on the street. At the age of 12 Al runs
away from home cutting all family ties and leaving wounds that will never heal.
He follows his brother to New York where the boys will find a new way of
life..., show business.
At first Al supports himself by
singing for tips in Bowery saloons, then a bit part in a play called
"Children of the Ghetto" gives him is first taste of the stage.
When Al is 15, he and his brother
create their own vaudeville act called "The Hebrew and the Cadet".
They change their name to JOLSON and with singer Joe Palmer form a new act which
tours the country for two years, when the act breaks up, Al sets out on his own
as a singing blackface comedian.
At first he uses this traditional
caricature to hide his nervousness but it will soon become his trademark.
Vaudeville is in its heyday, and for the young Jolson theatres across the
country became his classroom, home and playground.
His friends and tutors were baggy
pants comics, acrobats and chorus girls. For years he worked, he watched, he
listened, he learned. Jolson scored his first real success with Lou Dockstater's
minstrels, he started has a featured performer but his dynamic personality
quickly made him the star.
After 10 years on the stage he
knew all the tricks of the trade and was ready for the big time. In 1911 at the
age of 26 Jolson reaches Broadway as a supporting act in a musical review and
overnight the unknown singer became a sensation. Jolson now tasted the heady
wine of public adulation that would drive him for the rest of his life, cheers,
applause, his name in lights.
He pushed to the top with drive,
cockiness and exuberant charm. For two decades all through the roaring twenties
Al Jolson will surpass even his wildest dreams, $15,000 a week...the highest
paid star in theatre history, he became king of Broadway.
The immigrant boy from the
Lithuanian ghetto saw whole new worlds open before him, even presidential
candidates seek him out. He took his shows on the road and mingled with the
great stars of the silver screen Valentino, Pickford, Barrymore and
Fairbanks.... even in those early days among such giants, Jolson still believed
that he was king but away from the reassurance of the crowds and audiences he
was lonely and insecure.
He had very few real
friends; at times he was extravagantly kind, at others callously cruel. He had
married and divorced twice, he boosts his ego by being seen with pretty girls
and he revels in his reputation as a lady-killer. There was but one overwhelming
passion in Jolson's life the audience...other stars played to an audience but Al
Jolson made love to it.
Only the adulation of the crowd
gave him the warmth, the approval, the sense of importance he so desperately
needed.
His friend Eddie Canter said,
"This great personality never learned how to live, the minute the curtain
came down he died".
In 1927 at the peak of his career
Jolson left Broadway to take a tremendous gamble...to star in the motion
picture, which would make history by bringing sound to the cinema. For Al Jolson
this is a golden opportunity now he can sing not for just few hundred but for
millions all over the world and with "The Jazz Singer", Jolson made
history.
The Jazz Singer opened a new era,
the public demand more talkies and Hollywood studios frantically convert to
sound. The king of Broadway becomes
the king of Hollywood and now Al Jolson stars in a series of screen musicals,
unfortunately they all follow the same unpredictable pattern, the maudlin plots
are not helped by Jolson's acting which one critic described as flat, wooden and
embarrassing
Ever since he first sang
"Mammy" on the stage Jolson and mother love meant big box office but
his appeal began to wear thin as the producers repeated his sentimental gimmicks
in picture after picture.
To boost his waning popularity
producers switched from mothers to glamour girls but it just did not work, in
desperation they surrounded him with thousands of extras in great production
numbers but in only his 7th picture Al Jolson's intensely personal appeal is
lost, submerged in a mob filled musical extravagancy.
For the first time in 30 years Al
Jolson's spectacular career is heading for trouble.
The Thirties is a fabulous era for
Hollywood but for Al Jolson it will be a decade of frustration, his 3rd wife is
dancer Ruby Keeler and even though she is 20 year younger than he, Ruby would
prefer a quiet home life but she is swept up in her husbands compulsive search
for excitement.
Jolson soon finds himself in an
intolerable situation, his ego suffered while he declined in pictures while his
wife's career was booming. His fame helped her get started in the movies but
Ruby Keeler's fresh young talent, beauty and charm quickly make her a star in
her own right.
In 1935 the Jolson's adopt a baby
boy and friends hope this will stabilise their shaky marriage, at first Jolson
delights at being a father but this new role can not sustain him, he grows
depressed as he continues to slip as king of showbusiness.
This is the only role that makes
his life worth living. Jolson's ego will take further punishment; he stars with
his wife in the movie "Go Into Your Dance", the Jolsons looked good as
a team but it will be the only movie they will ever make together.
A year later the mammy singer made
a special mark for posterity, his knee prints in cement at Hollywood's Graumanns
Chinese Theatre, for Jolson it is a moment of glory but it will have an ironic
hollow ring. His wife will soon leave him and producers will soon forget him and
never again would Al Jolson play a starring role in a motion picture.
As the decade ended Jolson found
himself a lonely millionaire. His friends and critics said his star was dimming,
he was no the longer number one, he was getting old.
Then a sudden and dramatic turning
point. December 7th 1941 a day, which will live in infamy, the Empire of Japan,
attacked Pearl Harbour and again America goes to war. Al Jolson becomes the
first American performer to entertain American servicemen overseas. They needed
cheering up and the legend named Jolson, the star people were calling old
suddenly became young again. Now a new generation of Americans thrilled to the
old songs and the even older jokes of an exciting entertainer most had never
seen before.
After an attack of malaria and
pneumonia and surgery to remove one lung Jolson cannot resist this newfound
audience and against doctors orders went back entertaining the troops
In 1945 at nearly 60 Al married 21-year-old x-ray
technician Erle Galbraith.
Despite his popularity with the
GI'S Jolson was still a forgotten man, producers considered him a relic and they
laughed when newspaper columnist Sidney Skolsky tried to sell Jolsons life story
as a movie.
One night Jolson was a last minute
addition to the list of top entertainers at a Charity Benefit, though he
followed Hollywood's brightest stars...that night Jolson gave them all a lesson
in showmanship they would never forget and proved beyond all doubt that despite
his age he still had the same old magic.
His
sensational performance was the talk of Hollywood and Columbia pictures were
finally convinced that such a film on his life would be very successful. Jolson
being Jolson was amazed and hurt that the producers would not let him play
himself in the movie and was not too pleased that an unknown actor would portray
him the actor was Larry Parks and as a result of his miming and the Jolson voice
the film became a box office hit.
The Jolson Story was the greatest
comeback in theatrical history Jolson was discovered by a new generation and
again cherished by the old every personal appearance was a mob scene. He sold
millions of his records and his new radio show (Kraft Music Hall) was the most
popular on the air with all the big stars wanting to be his guests. Columbia
pictures made a sequel "Jolson Sings Again"(as if he had ever
stopped). Jolson strutted like a conquering hero. (To this day Jolson is the
only entertainer to have had two films made about his life). The man nobody had
wanted was hailed once again as king of show business. Now Jolson's professional
success was for the first time matched by personal fulfillment. Friends said
that the few years he had with Erle and his two adopted children were the
happiest of his life and he told reporters that despite his success he now
wanted to sit down and play but did not know how to.
1950 found America again in armed conflict, this time
Korea, once more Al Jolson was the first top performer to go overseas and
entertain the troops. He even paid his own way and did 42 shows in just 16 days,
singing and joking for his favourite audience
the American serviceman. The 64 year old trooper suffers a severe bronchial
infection and doctor's warn him to stop, Jolson refused to recognise that he is
no longer the dynamic minstrel who electrified Broadway nearly 40 years before,
he refused to quit and finished his tour a sick exhausted old man. 3 weeks later
Al Jolson is dead.
Al Jolson was the greatest minstrel of them all, his
style and personality left an indelible mark on show business, today's greatest
stars proudly claim there is a little bit of Jolson in all of us. Even after 30
or 40 years.
Adapted by Tony Farnfield
From the script of “ Hollywood And The Stars “ narrated by Joseph Cotton.