Al Jolson
Al Jolson was one of America's most popular entertainers on stage, film, radio, and records. Born Asa Yoelson in 1886 in Lithuania, Jolson's family emigrated to the United States when he was still quite young. His father became a cantor for a synagogue in Washington, D.C. At the age of thirteen Jolson ran away from home to join the circus, literally. His father brought him back home, but within a few years Jolson had become an integral part of America's stage as a singer, first in burlesque, then vaudeville, and then in Broadway musical revues. The Shubert Brothers signed Jolson to help open their Winter Garden Theatre in New York in 1911. Performing in black face, and with his signature position of down on one knee with arms outstretched, Jolson introduced a number of American pop music classics, including: "April Showers," "California, Here I Come," "My Mammy," "Rockabye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody," "Swanee," and "Toot Toot Tootsie (Goodbye)". In 1927, Jolson helped make film history in Hollywood's first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer, with the line that Jolson often used on stage after singing a song: "You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet!" His next film, 1928's The Singing Fool, would be the top grossing film for the next eleven years. (It was finally surpassed by Gone with the Wind.) Jolson returned twice to Broadway, in 1931 and 1940, but without the black face. His career was revived by the 1946 biopic The Jolson Story, starring Larry Parks but with Jolson's voice dubbing the songs, even though he had had lung surgery two years before. The movie become so successful it was followed three years later by Jolson Sings Again. Al Jolson died in 1950.
