so there's no Al Jolson thread?

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