so there's no Al Jolson thread?

Long essay and discussion on Glenn Kenny's blog, about the film Wonder Bar but also Jolson in general, here:

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2009/08/tales-from-the-warner-archives-3-wonder-bar-bacon-1968.html

A few years after Wonder Bar, Jolson played a kind of version of himself in The Singing Kid, which opens with an extended medley of Jolson hits, sung both in and out of blackface, before presenting a duet between a Jolson in mufti and genuine African-American singer and bandleader Cab Calloway, who trade verses of "I Love To Sing-a." Is this somehow by way of apology? Not necessarily; Jolson treats Calloway with the respect of an equal, but goes on to black up anyway later in the picture. Nothing is renounced; the notion of blackface as an offensive cultural desecration isn't considered. It's just a showbiz tradition, according to the world of these films.

Which is odd, and unsettling, and ought to be discussed. And is difficult to discuss without having the actual cultural artifacts at hand. And does having the actual cultural artifacts easily at hand give material comfort to contemporary racist forces? I couldn't say what a rigorous survey of those who've bought Wonder Bar and The Singing Kid from the Warner Archives would uncover, but my gut says, "Not so much." Which is not to say that we ought to expect, or even hope for, an official DVD release containing "Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarves" any time soon. And as for Song of the South, forget it.

i actually saw coal black and de sebben dwarves before a screening of allegro non troppo in nyc in the 80's. kind of an inspired disney-esque evening. (you can see coal black on youtube of course. but not in any kind of restored dvd quality.)

i've been listening to various al jolson and "darkie shout" and southern 78s all week and there is a lot to take in there. culturally, artistically, etc. i csn't help but feel pretty far removed from the whole thing, and, yet...there is certainly plenty of mileage left in that old song and dance.

a BRILLIANT stylist. completely compelling.

i know that there are entire books devoted to the subject, but this got an A+ from me:

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200402/?read=article_christgau

this is the album you want btw: http://www.amazon.com/You-Aint-Heard-Nothin-Yet/dp/B0000028ZO/

also Modern-day minstrelry.

rather timely in light of Roger Sterling's black face on last night's Mad Men.

Al Jolson had an overbearing command of song that you can't help but be impressed by. even when he's beating you over the head with it. i dunno, that crazy american stew of his of jewish shmaltz and southern cornpone and god knows what else really is compelling.

maybe overbearing is the wrong word. unabashed? naked, almost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUjj-PbC5Ec

sweetness.

Is trying to separate Jolson's brilliance (particularly wrt things like Jazz Singer) from his blackfacing, most iconic location of this kind of racism (part. as a Jew vis-a-vis Rogan) like trying to separate Hitler killing Jews from Hitler painting paintings? Cause I love Jolson completely and without irony in the first form, even as the second gives me discomfort.

Search: "Blue Skies," "Toot Toot Tootsie," "Back in Your Own Backyard..." basically the entire Jazz Singer album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28hk97-vZdQ

I love that short so much. (God. I'm a racist, aren't I?)

Is trying to separate Jolson's brilliance (particularly wrt things like Jazz Singer) from his blackfacing, most iconic location of this kind of racism (part. as a Jew vis-a-vis Rogan) like trying to separate Hitler killing Jews from Hitler painting paintings?

oh, for fuck's sake. minstrelsy isn't that bad.

I wasn't saying minstrelsy is morally equivalent to genocide.

Artur Knight's Disintegrating the Musical: Black Performance and American Musical Film has a fantastic chapter on Jolson's use of blackface and black musical tropes in his hopefully no long obscure Hollywood musicals.

Arthur Knight, that is

have you ever seen Hallelujah I'm a Bum? Neo-socialist neo-operetta!

I hadn't! but now I'm all psyched. Onto Netflix it goes.

Saw HIAB at the Film Forum recently, along with some Vitaphone shorts. Whole thing was amazing.

Among one of the many amazing things was that the score of HIAB was by Rodgers and Hart.

Teenage Jolson impersonating in the '70s:

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2010/05/physical-evidence.html

so tired of all the brain-scratching about blackface. dude was an amazing stylist.

I come to this thread to recommend the book The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926-1930, by Scott Eyman.

fine, now go away.

xpost Yeah that's a great book. Thanx for bringing it up here, jrb.

The Jolson musicals are pretty easy to acquire now via Warner Archive. In another fantastic book about the era, A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film, Richard Barrios rips mercilessly on The Singing Fool, Jolson's first feature after The Jazz Singer. Dramatically, yeah, it's the pits. But A LOT of it is just Jolson performing so...well, how bad is that?

rewatched Hallelujah, I'm a Bum, where Al is king of the Central Park tramps... songs by Rodgers & Hart, and this one's neat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNFSftTwXwM