I would never have travelled to hear lectures pre covid. Now I just need to register and I get to listen to and watch presentations on a huge range of subjects. Tonight it was Al Jolson
Born in a small town in Lithuania in 1886 the son of a rabbi (below).
The rabbi travelled to America to find a position and later brought his wife and four children to join him in Washington DC. Tragically the rabbi’s wife died giving birth to their fifth child when Al Jolson (still known as Alas Jolsonas) was only 8 years old. His father sent back to Lithuania for a new wife to take care of the family.
Although the rabbi trained his two oldest boys to sing, hoping they would become cantors in the synagogue, both Harry (Hersch) and Al (Alas) changed their names and went on the stage.
and when I was a child the Black and White Minstrel show was a regular feature of prime time BBC television running for 20 years until the 1970’s! Extraordinary and shameful.
Jolson became an extremely successful entertainer and songwriters knew that if he recorded their songs it would guarantee them success. In the 1920’s he was the highest paid performer in America and also dubbed “ The World’s Greatest Entertainer”. In 1927 Warner Brothers released the first talking movie, The Jazz Singer, starring Jolson. This film ended the era of silent movies and Jolson became what we would call, these days, a superstar.
When America entered the Second World War the intensely patriotic Jolson immediately volunteered and was the first performer to entertain the troops overseas. After the war two films were made using Jolson’s singing but a younger actor playing him in The Jolson Story and Jolson Sings again.
In 1950 Jolson travelled, at his own expense, to entertain the American troops fighting in Korea. 64 shows in 16 days led to Jolson returning home sick and exhausted and he died from a heart attack three weeks later aged 64.
Jolson’s fourth wife, Erle Galbraith, applied to his estate for the funds to move his body to a memorial that she commissioned in a cemetery in Los Angeles at a huge cost of $75000 then ($800000 today).
