Al Jolson

This article is about the entertainer. For the Roman Catholic bishop, see Alfred Jolson.

Al Jolson
Jolson in 1925
Born
Asa Yoelson

May 26, 1886
Sredniki, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire
DiedOctober 23, 1950(1950-10-23) (aged 64)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Resting placeHillside Memorial Garden
Other namesJolie
Occupations
  • Singer
  • comedian
  • actor
  • vaudevillian
Years active1897–1950
Political partyRepublican
Spouses
Henrietta Keller
​
​
(m. 1907; div. 1919)​
Alma Osbourne
​
​
(m. 1922; div. 1928)​
​
​
(m. 1928; div. 1940)​
Erle Galbraith
​
(m. 1945)​
Children3 (all adopted)
Musical career
Genres
Labels
Websitejolson.org

Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson, Yiddish: אַסאַ יואלסאָן; May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-born American singer, actor, and vaudevillian.

He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s,[2] and was self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer".[3] Jolson was known for his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach" towards performing, as well as for popularizing many of the songs he sang.[4] Jolson has been referred to by modern critics as "the king of blackface performers".[5][6]

Although best remembered today as the star of the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), he 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). In 1950, he 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.[7]

According to music historian Larry Stempel, "No one had heard anything quite like it before on Broadway." Stephen Banfield wrote that Jolson's style was "arguably the single most important factor in defining the modern musical."[8]

With his dynamic style of singing, he became widely successful by extracting traditionally African-American music and popularizing it for white American audiences who would be unwilling to listen to it when performed by black artists.[9] Despite his promotion and perpetuation of black stereotypes,[10] his work was often well-regarded by black publications and has been credited for fighting against black discrimination on Broadway[5] as early as 1911. In an essay written in 2000, music critic Ted Gioia remarked, "If blackface has its shameful poster boy, it is Al Jolson", showcasing Jolson's complex legacy in American society.[11]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference PBS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Bainbridge, Beryl (2005). Front row: Evenings at the Theatre. London: Continuum. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-8264-8278-5.
  3. ^ "Radio – Variety shows". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  4. ^ Ruhlmann, William. "Al Jolson". AllMusic. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  5. ^ a b Moss, Robert F. (October 20, 2000). "Was Al Jolson 'Bamboozled'?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  6. ^ Rogin, Michael (Spring 1992). "Blackface, White Noise: The Jewish Jazz Singer Finds His Voice". Critical Inquiry. 18 (3). University of Chicago Press: 417–453. doi:10.1086/448640. JSTOR 1343811. S2CID 162165251.
  7. ^ "Al Jolson Remembered". Archived July 14, 2015, at the Wayback Machine. Paramount News. December 6, 1950.
  8. ^ Stempel, Larry (2010). Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater. Norton. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-3939-2906-5.
  9. ^ "The History of Minstrelsy: Al Jolson". USF Library Special & Digital Collections Exhibits. Archived from the original on April 8, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  10. ^ Wesley, Charles H. (March 1960). "Background and achievement for Negro-Americans". The Crisis. 67 (3): 137. These concepts 'fixed a stage tradition of the Negro as irresponsible, loud-laughing, shuffling banjo playing, singing, dancing sort of a being.' These impressions were continued through the antics of such actors as Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, and the black face concepts of Amos and Andy.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference ferris1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).