Al Jolson: Beyond the Spotlight
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- Al Jolson: Beyond the Spotlight: An in-depth look at the life and legacy of Al Jolson, a pioneering figure in American entertainment. This documentary delves into Jolson’s impact on early cinema, his groundbreaking performances, and the complex issues surrounding his portrayal of race and identity. Through archival footage, interviews, and expert analysis, viewers gain a deeper understanding of Jolson’s influence on popular culture and his enduring legacy in the world of entertainment
#aljolson
What most people today don't know about Al Jolson is how much he was loved in the black community back in those days. He was the first performer to have an African American dance troop in one of his shows on Broadway. He was the first to hire black actors for a Broadway show. When he made a movie with Cab Calloway he told the studio that Cab was a star in his own right and that the studio better make sure that he got whatever Al got (the same pay, the same size dressing room, the same fancy food and all the other perks that Al had from the studio). When he was touring in vaudeville he heard that Eubie Blake and his partner couldn't get served in any of the restaurants in town because they were black. He grabbed up Eubie and his partner and took them to a Jewish delicatessen and worked it out with the owner to always let them to eat there when they were in town. Another time there was a black performer that couldn't get served at a restaurant. He told the man to come with him and they went back to the restaurant telling the man, you're with me and if anyone tries to stop us I'll punch them right in the mouth. The major black newspapers in the 20s and 30s were full of articles praising him as a wonderful man that was doing so much for black people. Al's performances in blackface were sympathetic portrayals of black people, racism was never his intent, and the black community saw that. Only today do people disrespect him and it's a shame because their disrespect of him is based on a misconception about his blackface performances.
Their disrespect is based on bigotry.
I agree. I loved Al's music and still don't understand why blackface is now considered offensive.
There is not one Black entertainer during the Jolson era who would ever say anything negative about him. He opened so many doors for Black performers. Always treating them equally, with affection and respect.
Oh I remember these films,such entertainment.😊
Jolie kept winning fans generation after generation. I became a fan and started buying his records after seeing The Jolson Story. They said that Jolson sang with a tear (pronounced teer) in his voice and it brought tears to the eyes of his audience. One of his biggest hit songs was Let Me Sing and I'm Happy. In it he sings if my song can start you crying, tapping your feet or homesick, I'm happy. He lived for the songs and applause. Singing was his drug just as writing is Steven King's drug. I got misty just watching this piece. Thank you TH-cam.
My grandma loved him I remember playing his music as a child and enjoy it as well...
Whether you agree with this type of entertainment, this is history.
@ingridbergman
So is slavery and genocide
@@tedmusson5179 Where's the connection? What are you implying?
@@tedmusson5179 So lets move on.
I first saw this documentary in 1986. Ever since I've been a massive fan of his.
south bank show itv 3 also showed films bio
Although his singing is not as popular as in times past, his songs will live on.
I used to be a professional musician. One night I played a gig in the mid-80’s at an Al Jolson Convention. Guy after guy came up to the stage to sing one of his songs.
Thank you for posting this. I remember watching "The Al Jolson Story" probably in the 1960s on the afternoon movie, which I watched nearly every day. He's one of the greats.
Jolson was a narcissist. He married younger and younger, 4 times. Ruby Keeler was. She became a star, bigger than him. He dumped her, just like Don Trump. Narcissism is a lifelong sickness.
Jolson will always be the worlds greatest entertainer, no matter what decade or century we are in...
I don’t think a J3w singing about his mommy in blackface deserves that title
Judy Garland was much better...just saying.
@@BCNbananas You have no clue... Completely different enterainers, get a life..
Nope. Too weird for nowadays the black face. No one would stand for it.
@@scottrichards3246 you like entertainers that did racist black face?
He's the greatest
I was a young child when I watched him on tv. Black and white minstrel show. I thought nothing of it I just watched because there wasn’t much else on tv
He could make them laugh or cry and old timers say he was the best.
Jolson was The : Elvis, Beatles, Michael Jackson, Bing Crosby, Tom Jones Ect. Equivilants of His Times ! With Huge Biographical Movies of His Career !
May I add Al Bowlly - Britain's first pop star
You just hit the nail on the head, Vince. He really was the world's greatest entertainer.
*Cab Calloway laughing in the corner*
Jolson started to use His Famous Whistle; When He once forgot the Lyrics to a Song He was singing.
Throughout musical entertainment we have a lot to thank the Cantors for.
Great documentary very informative thanks for uploading it
Jolson will be back. He can still get any audience doing anything. It's just a case of finding the correct format
Never again with blackface. No one would stand for it.
@@JoshMaxPower what I mean is, there will come a time, maybe because of a new biopic, that audiences rediscover him & his music & make him popular again, I didn't mean he physically would return
Wonderful documentary by the South Bank Show with Melvyn Gragg thanks for posting a decent copy of this documentary.
I was one of the advisors on that South Bank Show back in 1986.
It's interesting to revisit the past to see what was happening during that period of time and what was celebrated, and then leave it in the past were it belongs .
The intro! Well said!!!
Jolson wanted the second movie made because …
At the end of the first one, “Julie Benson “ was walking out on him; the next one he got married again and he stays happily married from then on , there was going to be a 3rd movie with Jolson playing HIMSELF, but he soon passed on …😮
Jolson’s true title has always been “ The Minstrel of Broadway”. 😊😊
Milton DeLugg (!) on the Accordian and one time Conductor of the Tonight Show Band.
Milton DeLugg and his band with a thug
Jolson’s famous whistling was taught to him by his manager, Louis Epstein. Jolson was always calling him Eppy.
He was very popular when he had the hit song I think it was daddy's little fellow. In 1939 when it played over the car radio people in the street honk their horn.
That sounds like Melvyn Bragg doing the narration
Al Jolson was one of the major Broadway Stars of 100 years ago, a reflection of social attitudes of the time. He had the good fortune to be associated with great songs, and projected a personalty that projected in theaters. But as a singer, may have differing opinions about him since he was extremely nasal, but improved with age as his voice gained more of a bass range. The controversy about Jolson is his connection with the Blackface performances, the necessity being questionable. It is a paradox that Jolson gain such acclaim as an artificial Black man when there were many natural Black entertainers just a talented, but never reaching the levels of acclaim. And while Jolson had a great stage presence, he was one of those stage personalities who did not translate well to film. Aside from his reputation as "The World's Greatest Entertainer" helping to sell THE JAZZ SINGER, which ushered in sound motion pictures forever, his subsequent films became more and more difficult to take, especially placed with a Black cast. The camera was not complimentary for Jolson, and on the big screen he was a bit grotesque to look at, made worse with the black face makeup. Perhaps if he had not fallen back on a Minstrel images, he would have been less controversial aside from his personal issues.
How old do you happen to be please?
It only became controversial in recent years. Back then, it could have been controversial too, but for the opposite reasons. After all, him doing blackface actually helped the black entertainners.
Hallelujah I'm a Bum is actually not a bad film. Its adventurous and has a sad ending which musicals didn't tend to do in those days and no blackface in that one.
Yeah 'Going to heaven on a Mule' is terrible but blame the studio more than Jolson for that one.
@@anbraiii4798: Jolson can’t be blamed at all - zero - for any of his blackface performances on film. He was an “at will” actor who signed a contract with one of the motion picture studios here in Hollywood. Once he affixed his signature to the contract, he had to do whatever they told him to. It’s really that simple.
15:27 -- "...what was to become the first EVER talking picture." Not true at all! (I would hope that this bombastic claim would not be used in better researched documentaries nowadays!) Even Jolson himself appeared in a Vitaphone talking picture short a year earlier called "A Plantation Act." Aside from this, Edison produced talking pictures a decade earlier, and Lee de Forest pioneered successful talking pictures with electrical recording earlier in the 1920s.
It was the first talkie that TOOK OFF.
My grandparents saw it at Stoll's Cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and they impressed on me as a child how electric the effect was, when Jolie burst out into song.
I can still feel that 'buzz' when I watch it today.
We truly HAD 'seen nothing yet'.
have you got the colour 1926 a plantation act ? yes 2 strip colour
I’m a big fan of stars from the 1930s & onwards but I never really got Al. Give him his due though he was a huge star at the time & a lot by the sheer force of his personality as his voice while recognisable wasn’t that great. I agree with some of the earlier comments that he will not be taken on by new generations. The black face & acting like a minstrel is just too cringeworthy. Most remembered now of course 4 the Jazz Singer the first talkie. RIP Al.
@@janmcdonald3896 I hate the new age term cringeworthy. I don’t feel cringeworthy or cringey when I see white performers in blackface. Jolson, Cantor, Judy, Bing and Fred Astaire excelled in blackface entertainment. Why do you feel so “cringeworthy?”
Why we relate to somebody/ and not others is a combination of how the singer whatever? appeals to us, but at the same time how media and all present the whatever and whomever. and how the whatever is going to effect our contemporary acceptance is also going to influence our conclusion. Al Jolson became a national star in 1912, with top selling records and a theatre headliner. by 1928 he was an International headliner., via movies and records and a huge reputation. The technical electronic age for some time robbed him of his true impact/ live. no way enhanced performing, but he still was anything like some forgotten has been, as is wrongly presented. The last 4 - 5 years of his life. yes assisted by somebody playing him in 2 movies. but more so, his own adapting to styles, ways of doing things so vastly different than 1912 or prior. all considered radio ratings. records. movie soundtracks he became the idol of the day/ particularly with younger audiences. Compared to say Tony Benett of more recent times, who found younger fans with Lady Gar Gar etc, and yes he was older than Al, and lived longer, but the CHANGES FROM 1912 to 1946/7 is far more vast than the 1950's to 1990's. Certain great popular stars of record and theatre from the 1910's were voicing pop eye cartoons at best. by the 1940's. AL JOLSON WASN''T! The blackface aspect of him, was something that was outdated by about 1930, and only if it was called for in some historical perspective in a movie. he did not do it. Maybe on the odd occasion in some live performance of some kind for nostalgic reasons? or on radio to fit the script. Over the years though the IMPETUS ON AL JOLSON AND BLACKFACE/ has been FABRICATED OUT OF ACTUAL REALITY. as if HE NEVER WAS WITH OUT IT. AND THE GRETIQUING OF IT. good ,bad or INNDEFERENT has become way out of PROPORTIONS! Basically it was a make up, he and many others, of all nationalities often used from sometime in the mid 19th century to about the mid 20th. THE PROTECTORS OF CONTEMPORARY PROFIT ATTEMPT TO BRAINWASH HUMANITY INTO BELIEVING IT WAS THE BAIN OF HUMANITY. and the defenders of it and AL, try TO PRESENT IT AS THE MOST RESPECTABLE SUPPORTIVE THING EVER DONE FOR ANYBODY"S! IT IS LIKE SCIENCE V RELEGION, IT WILL NEVER BE COMPROMISED, so just leave it in it's historical context. and DONT SHINE ANY EXAMINATION LIGHT ON IT I SAY! As for if Al Jolson could reach younger generations today, well that has, is constantly evolving, and happening. and it goes for everybody, but things have to be assessed in context and perspective of HOW THEY WERE IN THEIR TIME, and NO DOUBT EXPERIENCING THE VISION AND SOUND OF THE LATE 1940's is not going to have an IMPACT OF MOST OF LATER GENERATIONS. not because the ARTISTY HAS IMPROVED, but the TECHNOLOGY. MEANS OF PRODUCTION ETC. and as for going back to the earlier hey day of Al, like up until the early 1930's, it is much worse, you have to be coming from, understanding and appreciating the historical angle. UNFORTUNATELY AS THE ONUS IS ON CONTEMPORARY PROFIT AL JOLSON IS NEVER GOING TO GET THE CHANCE TO BE ACCEPTED BY NOW AUDIENCES,IN ANY MAJOR WAY/ THE SHAREHOLDERS. THOSE IN THE BOARDROOMS/ SPONSORS, MARKETERS ETC ETC are always going to FOCUS MORE ON THE NEGATIVE, and have the likes of you CONVINCED HE WAS NOT THAT GOOD! What Al Jolson did, well it finished in 1950. it is not exactly rock and roll, disco, wrap, hip hop whatever? BUT HE STILL HAD A UNIQUE FLEXIBLE CONTRASTING VOICE, that adjusted and changed and adapted to all the changing musical trends in his lifetime/ plus a career also so vast and contrasting and successful IN all media in his time, Other super stars of his own time or later. Crosby/ Garland. Sinatra/ Presley/ Jackson. the Beatles even may have reached bigger heights than Jolson did, record sales. Movies etc, but none were even in all the DIFFERERENT BRANCHES OF SHOW BIZ AL WAS. Humanity of any given time are going to gravitate to THE THING OF THE TIME, OR AT LEAST MORE RECENT. why not, ii IS SAFER TO FEEL ACCEPTED! ONE PRESUMES MORE ARE GOING TO AGREE WITH THEM, but even the most likely BIGGEST PHENOMENUM EVER - ELVIS PRESLEY. with all the PUSH FOR THE RECENT MOVIE ABOUT HIM HAS NOT MADE IT 1956 AGAIN! the difference with Elvis though compared to JOLIE, is he still has this much more CONTEMPORARY Younger generation persona, than somebody who died decades before and dates back to a time in entertainment./ singing many cannot comprehend ever existed. They still should though get an opportunity to do so, and at the same time experience somebody/ when you put it into the realities of his time. has never been replaced!
@@margaretthomas8899: This has Daryl Thomas written all over it! Hey dude❗️❗️❗️
I disagree. Al Jolson had a fabulous voice and sang multitudes of songs which suited his style.
@@janmcdonald3896: Your comments are ill advised and cringeworthy. You’re undoubtedly a fan of Gangsta Rap. You be the type. No sense of history. You’re not capable of elevating.
lsón cuando dieron las películas de Larry parks
Brilliant entertainment Al Jolson
yes he did black face. back in the day nobody new any better back in the day he was in fact Jewish
Him doing blackface didn't hurt anyone back then, because people weren't as spoiled back then to take such offense. In fact, him doing blackface helped the black entertainners INFINITELY more than any of these useless activists today ever have and ever will.
nobody knew any better?! Are you serious? It was a direct reflection of perpetuating racist stereotypes through dialects, culture and disguising ethnic identity.
The emperor has no clothes. This dude is extremely overrated. Nothing entertaining about him.
@@DEKMAN99: That’s dumb. Really dumb.
@@DEKMAN99 Why are you here then? BE CAREFUL SOMEBODY YOU KNOW MIGHT FIND OUT?
What was the point of doing black face am I missing something why not just be yourself
That is Aaron Copland, isn't it?
No more generations will be 'discovering' Jolson. Some artists do not survive their time.
THEY ARE!! THAT IS WHY THIS IS HERE!!
and you too,
That’s what you’re hoping.
Wrong, Churls. But whatever…
They shouldn't! Horribly racist!
A slight narcissist. Lol Although, I love Him...Lol
@@robertalbano3826: That was part of his charm.
It was just the way society was back in the day, bigotry was looked upon as a normal thing. I didn't say it was right, but it was what it was.
What bigotry?
It’s offensive. Period.
The race card appears yet again
Not to me!
Judy's versions of Al Jolson's songs have aged better than his, IMHO.
When did Judy Garland died, and how old was she, and when did her career begin?
Which recordings are you referring to?
He wore black up to protest against there not being any black people in shows he was very anti racist and supported the black entertainers
@@varietyguy they are all over TH-cam.
@@margaretthomas8899Judy was becoming a legend well into the 1950s , she died in 1969 of an accidental overdose at 47 and she was becoming popular into the late
1930s.
Why would he want to colour up maybe to hide something
Soldiers use camaflage dye
As well!
Many American performers during the early 20th Century started their careers in minstrel and vaudeville shows, where blackface was used. This sometimes included African Americans! It’s awful now, but was matter of fact then.
I realize he was huge and the talent of the time, totally vauudville in style. Even the timber of his voice was a bit much.. That Mammy thing. Yes historic because of the first talking film. For me it doesn't stand up with time. I actually prefer Eddie Cantor. Jolson was so Over done with the black face and very much of an over actor. Corny and cheesey. But of course that was the style. It's Apples and oranges, but a Garbo, she holds up after all the decades. He is a legend of early entertainment.
He couldn't even dance. Go find your own life
Never. Knew he was so. Great ,THANKYOU. For sharing xx