Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson; May 26, 1886 –
October 23, 1950) was an American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian.
Self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer", Jolson is credited with being America's most
famous and highest-paid star of the 1920s. He was known for his "shamelessly
sentimental, melodramatic approach",and for popularizing many of the songs
he performed. Jolson has been referred to by modern critics
as "the king of blackface performers". 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
Jolson, with the singer dubbing for Parks. 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 shall posthumously
awarded him the Medal for Merit. 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". With
his dynamic style of singing jazz and blues, 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. Despite his promotion and
perpetuation of black stereotypes, his work was often well-regarded by black
publications and he has been credited for fighting against black discrimination
on Broadway] 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. Al Jolson was born Asa Yoelson in
the Jewish village of Srednike (Yiddish: סרעדניק) now known as Seredžius, near Kaunas in Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. He was the fifth and youngest child of Nechama
"Naomi" (née Cantor, c. 1858–1895) and Moses Rubin Yoelson (c.
1858–1945); his four siblings were Rose (c. 1879–1939), Etta (c. 1880–1948),
another sister who died in infancy, and Hirsch (Harry) (c. 1882–1953). Jolson
did not know his date of birth, as birth records were not kept at that time in
that region, and he gave his birth year as 1885. In 1891, his
father, who was qualified as a rabbi and cantor, moved to New York City to secure a better future for
his family. By 1894, Moses Yoelson could afford to pay the fare to bring
Nechama and their four children to the U.S. By the time they arrived—as steerage
passengers on the SS Umbria arriving at the Port of New York
on April 9, 1894—he had found work as a cantor at Talmud Torah
Congregation in the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood
of Washington, D.C., where the family was reunited. Jolson's
mother, Naomi, died at 37 in early 1895, and he was in a state of withdrawal
for seven months. He spent time at the St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys,
a progressive reformatory/home for orphans run by the Xaverian Brothers in Baltimore. After being introduced to
show business in 1895 by Al Reeves, Asa and Hirsch became fascinated
by it, and by 1897 the brothers were singing for coins on local street corners,
using the names "Al" and "Harry". They often used the money
to buy tickets to the National Theater.
They spent most of their days working different jobs as a team.