Al Jolson & Blackface

Al Jolson

Source: Broadway World

Born Asa Yoelson on 26 May 1886 in (now) Lithuania, Al Jolson was an early Jewish burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway and Hollywood performer who was less a jazz singer than the star of the film titled 'The Jazz Singer' released in 1927, that marking the transition of silent films to talkies. Liza Minnelli was another popular singer whom one could append to the jazz genre on the strength of one film alone, that 'Cabaret' in 1972. If Jolson wasn't the jazz vocalist that 'The Jazz Singer' makes him out to be, he more than compensated as a popular singer, sending about 90 issues to the Top Ten between 1912 and 1947. Nor was Jolson the racist that often performing in blackface could make him out to be. Blackface, whiteface and faces in between were bound to happen in a setting of mixed children like Earth and armed with paints. There's nothing evil in that until racism gets invented by someone with a self-important imagination. Call Mother Nature a racist, but white faces and brown faces simply are, and blackface was hardly original with the United States. The intent of blackface, however, could go opposite directions. Ridicule was definitely one of them. Money was another, and not a few popular musicians in the United States found the coon song profitable. Sympathy and identity were other directions blackface could go. Blackface kept matters black on the table and, albeit imperfect in method, made darlings of black folk amidst the American zeitgeist. Who didn't love Aunt Jemima could eat their pancakes dry as well. Black entertainers themselves performed in blackface in what were called "colored" minstrels advertised as the "real thing" while caricaturizing white folk. By the time of 'The Jazz Singer' blackface had been around for a century, but the minstrel show via which blackface had spread throughout the nation had gone into decline with the rise of vaudeville, that is, the variety show. Black musicians had also already begun to dominate blues and jazz by the time of 'The Jazz Singer', making its title relevant for Jolson to use blackface as means of expressing "the other" in a story line involving a conflict between father and son. Looking for racism in a character like Jolson would be natural. Whatever his every thought about race throughout his life I know not, but on the face of it he seems absent overall of the deluded kind of fat self-satisfaction that racism requires, nor needs race to be. In a world largely built upon making appearances there will always be those who stand taller by tearing others down. Jolson's use of blackface in 'The Jazz Singer' was an artistic device in honor, rather than disparagement, of black folk. Between the black situation, jazz, masking, psychology, zeitgest and all else that developed toward Jolson's 'The Jazz Singer' in blackface, he seemed to recognize that without black people 'The Jazz Singer' was nothing. Absent of any belittlement of black folk, 'The Jazz Singer' more announced in irony that the time for blacks had arrived. This view is probably corroborated in that there are multiple instances of Jolson attempting to realize fair treatment of blacks in the actual world.

Jolson had been brought to Washington DC in 1894 with his family, his mother dying the next year, after which he and his brother, Hirsch, began busking the streets. In 1902 he began singing with the Walter L. Main Circus. In 1903 Jolson began doing burlesque, then formed a trio with Joe Palmer and his brother, Hirsch. Blackface followed in 1904 at Keeney's Theatre in Brooklyn. Blackface had originated in minstrelsy in the third decade of the 19th century, becoming popular entertainment by 1850. (Minstrelsy actually tracks back to medieval Europe, a minstrel being simply a musician or singer.) The Museum of Family History has Jolson initially performing blackface to assist with stage fright. Unlike some performers for whom blackface was a temporary step along the paths of their careers, Jolson came to love the minstrel role such that it became of essence to a career in which he performed in blackface often. Highlighting his early days as an entertainer was signing up with Lew Dockstader's Minstrels from 1908 into 1909. He toured vaudeville circuits thereafter until his first Broadway appearance in 'La Belle Paree' at the Winter Garden Theatre in March of 1911.

Jolson's first recordings went down in Camden, New Jersey, on 22 December for 'That Haunting Melody' (Victor 17037), 'Rum Tum Tiddle' (Victor 17037) and 'Asleep in the Deep' (Victor 17915). 'That Haunting Melody' topped the charts in March of 1912. Jolson bagged a total of twenty-one #1 positions during the next 17 years:

That Haunting Melody '12
Ragging the Baby to Sleep '12
The Spaniard That Blighted My Life '13
You Made Me Love You '13
I Sent My Wife to the Thousand Isles '16
I'm All Bound 'Round '18
Hello Central '18
Rock-a-Bye Your Baby '18
I'll Say She Does '19
Swanee '20
O-H-I-O '21
April Showers '22
Angel Child '22
California, Here I Come! '24
I Wonder What's Become of Sally? '24
All Alone '25
I'm Sitting on Top of the World '26
When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' '26
Sonny Boy '28
There's a Rainbow Round My Shoulder '28
Little Pal '29

'That Haunting Melody'   Al Jolson

Victor 17037 recorded 22 Dec 1911 in Camden NJ   #1 March 1912

Jolson sang this in the operetta, 'Vera Violetta', which opened 2o Nov 1911 for a run of 112 shows

Composition: George M. Cohan

'Swanee'   Al Jolson

Columbia 2884 recorded 8 Jan 1920 in NYC   #1 May 1920

Music: George Gershwin   Lyrics: Irving Caesar

This composition launched Gershwin's career as his first major success

'Avalon'   Al Jolson

Columbia A2995 recorded 16 Aug 1920 in NYC   #2 Nov 1921

Composition: Buddy DeSylva / Vincent Rose/ Al Jolson

'Harding You're the Man for Us'   Oscar Brand

'The Official Republican Campaign Song'

Composition: Al Jolson   1920

'Presidential Campaign Songs 1789-1996'

Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 45051

Jolson actually did little composing in comparison to his numerous credits on record labels. His name appeared in credits if he so much as changed a word in a lyric since adding his name to anything increased its market value. Composers with whom he worked accepted the practice since it fattened record sales, thus royalties. Jolson did, however, make substantial contributions, and he did compose. He wrote the music and lyrics for 'Harding You're the Man for Us' in 1920, to encourage voting Warren Harding into the presidency that year. Jolson dubbed his tune 'The Official Republican Campaign Song'. As the United States moved into the Roaring Twenties with its flappers, foxtrots and speakeasies, the early twenties also witnessed the Ku Klux Klan rising to its height, consisting of about fifteen percent of the voting populace or, one out of every seven people. A statistic like that would have made a lot of people uncomfortable, including Jolson.

'Toot Toot Tootsie'   Al Jolson

Columbia A3705 recorded 9 Sep 1922 in NYC

First recording of this famous tune

Widely considered the unofficial anthem of the Roaring Twenties

Composition: Gus Kahn / Ernie Erdman / Dan Russo

Jolson starred in his first talkie film, 'The Plantation Act', in 1926, then the first feature-length talkie, 'The Jazz Singer', by Warner Bros. in 1927. 'The Jazz Singer' was based on the 1925 eponymous play by Samson Raphaelson. Per 'Mammy' below, 'My Mammy' was authored by Walter Donaldson in 1918 with lyrics by Joe Young and Sam M. Lewis. Donaldson was a major composer of early popular music. 'My Mammy' was first performed as a vaudeville act that year by William Frawley of much later 'I Love Lucy' fame w Ethel Merman airing from 1951 to '57.

Medley   Al Jolson   From the film 'A Plantation Act'

Released 7 Oct 1926 in NYC

'Mammy'   Al Jolson   From the film 'The Jazz Singer'

Released 6 Oct 1927 in NYC

Composition: Joe Young / Sam M. Lewis / Walter Donaldson

Jolson's first radio appearance was a rendition of 'Mammy' the following year (1928) on the premiere six-hour variety show, 'Dodge Victory Hour' (NBC), w the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. Jolson worked for NBC variously until the 'Lifebuoy' program for CBS from 1936 to 1939.

'My Mammy'   Al Jolson

Brunswick 3912 recorded 9 Sep 1928 in NYC   #2 1928

Composition: Walter Donaldson / Joe Young / Sam M. Lewis

'I'm In Seventh Heaven'   Al Jolson   From the film 'Say It with Songs'

Columbia 1877-D recorded 5 April 1929 in NYC

(Brunswick 4400 recorded 7 April 1929 in Los Angeles charts at #2)

Composition: Buddy DeSylva / Lew Brown / Ray Henderson / Al Jolson

'Used to You'   Al Jolson   From the film 'Say It with Songs'

Brunswick 4401 recorded 7 April 1929 in Los Angeles   #18 1929

Composition: Buddy DeSylva / Lew Brown / Ray Henderson

'Liza'   Al Jolson

Brunswick 4402 recorded 25 July 1929 in NYC   #9 1929

Music: George Gershwin   Lyrics: Ira Gershwin / Gus Kahn

'One Sweet Kiss'   Al Jolson   From the film 'Say It with Songs'

Brunswick 4402 from matrix E30575 mastered 25 July 1929 in NYC

Composition: Dave Dreyer / Al Jolson

In 1936 Jolson starred in blackface in 'The Singing Kid' with Cab Calloway, while insisting that Calloway receive the same star treatment during its filming as himself. 'The Singing Kid' was Jolson's last film. Columbia Pictures released the biopic, 'The Jolson Story', in 1946. As for television, Jolson called it "smell-evision" and never performed in that medium. (Nor had he made any cylinder recordings, likely finding their fidelity wanting.) He was, however, the first to perform for the USO (United Service Organizations founded 1941) during World War II. While in the Pacific Jolson came down with malaria and had to have a lung removed.

'Keep That Hi De Ho In Your Soul' w 'Save Me Sister'   Al Jolson w Cab Calloway

From the film 'The Singing Kid' released 11 April 1936

Cab Calloway & His Cotton Club Orchestra

'Keep That Hi De Ho In Your Soul' composed by Cab Calloway / Irving Mills / Morris White

'Save Me Sister': Music: Harold Arlen   Lyrics: E.Y. Harburg

'Carolina in the Morning'   Al Jolson

Decca 24109 recorded 11 June 1947 in Los Angeles

Music: Walter Donaldson   Lyrics: Gus Kahn

When Jolson was told by the Secretary of Defense that there were no funds to send him to Korea during that conflict he paid for it himself. Less than a month after his return to the States he died of heart attack in San Francisco on October 23, 1950 [obits: New York Times; Sydney Morning Herald].