To those who wrote to tell us Al Jolson was not "African-American"... please don't read Walt so literally! Walt knows [and so does Ed.] the man in blackface was actually a Russian Jew. [A Jew? In the entertainment industry?! Ed.]Wikipedia tells us that Al Jolson was born as Asa Yoelson in what was then the Jewish village of Srednik (Yiddish: סרעדניק, now known as Seredžius) in the Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire. He was the fifth and youngest child of Moses Reuben and Naomi (Cantor) Yoelson. Jolson did not know the date of his birth, so he later chose to celebrate it as May 26, 1886. In 1891, his father, who was qualified as a rabbi and cantor, moved to New York to secure a better future for his family.
Jolson went on to become a huge star on the American stage. His life inspired the first talking motion picture, The Jazz Singer. From Wikipedia, again...
On April 25, 1917, Samson Raphaelson, a native of New York City's Lower East Side and a University of Illinois undergraduate, attended a performance of the musical Robinson Crusoe, Jr. in Champaign, Illinois. The star of the show was a thirty-year-old singer, Al Jolson, a Russian-born Jew who performed in blackface. In a 1927 interview, Raphaelson described the experience: "I shall never forget the first five minutes of Jolson—his velocity, the amazing fluidity with which he shifted from a tremendous absorption in his audience to a tremendous absorption in his song." He explained that he had seen emotional intensity like Jolson's only among synagogue cantors.
A few years later, pursuing a professional literary career, Raphaelson wrote "The Day of Atonement", a short story about a young Jew named Jakie Rabinowitz, based on Jolson's real life. The story was published in January 1922 in Everybody's Magazine. Raphaelson later adapted the story into a stage play, The Jazz Singer, which was later adapted for the silver screen.
George Jessel -- remember him? -- was originally signed for the lead role, but in the end, Al Jolson wound up playing himself. Describing Jolson as the production's best choice for its star, film historian Donald Crafton wrote, "The entertainer, who sang jazzed-up minstrel numbers in blackface, was at the height of his phenomenal popularity. Anticipating the later stardom of crooners and rock stars, Jolson electrified audiences with the vitality and sex appeal of his songs and gestures, which owed much to African-American sources." [Walt's emphasis]
So there you are. Al Jolson...the well-known "African-American" entertainer.
