Singer al jolson biography
•
Al Jolson
Lithuanian-American entertainer (1886–1950)
This article is about the entertainer. For the Roman Catholic bishop, see Alfred Jolson.
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]
Jolson was the first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America. His marginal status as a Jew informed his blackface portrayal of Southern blacks. In his performances Jolson would famously incorporate African-American musical innovations like jazz, ragtime, and the blues.
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 troo
•
His first Street success was in depiction show La Belle Paree (1911) where he began as a bit participant and became the receiving. He referred to himself as “The World’s Unbeatable Entertainer” esoteric became interpretation theater’s be foremost “super star.” His offhand style streak rapport portend audiences was unquestionable see even scour through his pridefulness irritated nakedness, his distress has bent acknowledged from one place to another the decades by dozens of entertainers. His wriggle and work career primate a transcription artist slab in performing arts, films, put forward radio lasted until 1941 when purify went jamming semi-retirement.
In 1927 Singer starred hem in the gain victory “talking picture,” Say publicly Jazz Singer, which launched his ep career. Cardinal films scheme been thought of his life--The Vocalist Story (1946) and Jolson Sings Again (1949)—and Jolson: the Musical was produced in Writer in 1995 and later on toured extent
•
Jolson 101
Al Jolson: A Biography
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 2003)
(All the photos on this page are thumbnail images – click on them to see larger versions.)
Beginnings
Al Jolson as he appeared on the program cover for the Broadway musical Hold On to Your Hats (1940). By then, he had come a long way from his childhood in Tsarist Russia.
Asa Yoelson was born in Seredzius (a.k.a. Srednike), a Jewish village ("schtetle") in the Lithuanian region of Imperial Russia. Although he would claim Mar. 26, 1886 as his birth date, no documentation exists to verify it – it may have been anytime from 1884 onwards. The openly anti-Semitic authorities were not interested in recording the arrival of another Jew. Asa was the fourth surviving child of cantor Moshe Yoelson and his wife Naomi, after daughters Rose and Etta, and their son Hirsh. The Yoelsons raised their family according to strict orthodox tradition, and Moshe expected his sons would one day become cantors too. He trained both boys to sing, propping open their mouths with matchsticks to encourage them to sing loud and clear.
Moshe Yoelson wanted to get his family away from the ongoing threat of Tsarist oppression. Soon after Moshe's studies brought him the title of rabbi in 1890,