The Jolson Story (1946)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Alfred E. Green

Writers:

Harry Chandlee (adaptation)
Stephen Longstreet (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 October 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Music

Plot:

This movie shows the idealized career of the singer Al Jolson, a little Jewish boy who goes against the will of his father in order to be in showbiz...

Plot Keywords:

Face Paint | Painted Face | Blackface | Florenz Ziegfeld | Blockbuster

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Larry Parks	...	Al Jolson
Evelyn Keyes	...	Julie Benson
William Demarest	...	Steve Martin
Bill Goodwin	...	Tom Baron
Ludwig Donath	...	Cantor Yoelson
Scotty Beckett	...	Asa Yoelson / Al Jolson, as a boy
Tamara Shayne	...	Mrs. Yoelson
Jo-Carroll Dennison	...	Ann Murray
John Alexander	...	Lew Dockstader
Ernest Cossart	...	Father McGee
The Robert Mitchell Boy Choir	...	Church choir (as Mitchell 'Boychoir')

Runtime:

128 min | USA:124 min (re-release) | West Germany:104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #11154, General Audience) | West Germany:12

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

When the young Asa Yoelson is at the burlesque theater watching Steve Martin, there is an usher standing behind him and slightly to the right of the frame. Many have speculated that this usher is actually the real Al Jolson himself, this is not true.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Mama Yoelson was already dead at the time Al became a star.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Jeopardy!: (#22.20)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Forty-Second Street

JOLSON: The Man, The Legend and His Songs

THE JOLSON STORY (Columbia, 1946), directed by Alfred E. Green, is a nostalgic tribute to the "world's greatest entertainer," Al Jolson, the man who loved to sing, as portrayed by Larry Parks, covering his life and career from the turn of the century to about 1940.

This Technicolored production opens in Washington, DC, at the turn of the century where a young teenaged boy named Asa Yoelson (Scotty Beckett) and his girlfriend, Ann Murray (Ann E. Todd) are seated in the audience at Kernan's Burlesque House watching an actor named Steve Martin (William Demarest) doing his comedy act. He asks for the audience to sing along as he plays his cello, but it is Asa who is the only one brave enough to stand up and start singing. Amazed by this young lad's natural talent for singing, Martin locates Asa's place of residence to ask the permission of his parents, Cantor and Mrs. Yoelson (Ludwig Donath and Tamara Shayne) to have him as part of his act. Papa Yoelson says no to the idea, and feels that the only place where his son should be singing is not in a theater, but in a Synagogue. Respecting the Cantor's wishes, Martin leaves for his tour. However, young Asa runs away from home, hopping on a freight car to find Martin, and ends up in the residence of a Catholic Church run by a Father McGee (Ernest Cossart). Learning about the boy's background and purpose, the priest sends for both Steve and the Yoelsons, who arrive to find Asa singing in the choir. Not wanting Asa to be constantly running away from home to be with Steve, it is Mama Yoelson's who convinces her husband to have their boy follow his dream. Years pass. The act of Martin and Yoelson prove successful but tiring for Asa (now performing under the name of Al Jolson), who wants to add something new into the act. It is Steve who advances Al's career by sending him over to Lew Dockstader's (John Alexander) minstrels. After a couple of years doing the same act, Al leaves the minstrel show to find himself, and with Steve's help once more, he arranges for Al to start his long and successful career at the Winter Garden on Broadway, now managed by a former "blackface" singer and friend, Tom Baron (Bill Goodwin). Jolson, who has never forgotten Steve, currently unemployed, has him located and hires him as his agent. Now the biggest name in show business, Al Jolson is asked to come to Hollywood to star in "the first talking picture" titled THE JAZZ SINGER. It is during this time Al meets Florenz Ziegfeld's (Eddie Kane) latest attraction, Julie Benson (Evelyn Keyes), star of the musical show, LIZA, whom he eventually marries. Although Al and Julie separately make a name for themselves on the motion picture screen, it is wife Julie who prefers a simple quiet homelife in the country. And after Al Jolson goes into retirement, leaving show business behind, it is Julie who learns the hard way that she is competing with a full-time husband who would rather be a full-time entertainer.

The success of THE JOLSON STORY may not necessarily rely on the plot or its leading stars, but mainly the songs long associated with Al Jolson through his many years in show business. For the motion picture soundtrack, the songs used in this production are: "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy," "On the Banks of the Wabash," "The Sabbath Prayer" (traditional Jewish prayer); Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria," "When You Were Sweet Sixteen," "After the Ball," "By the Light of the Silvery Moon," "Goodbye, My Blue Belle," "Ma Blushin' Rosie," "I Want a Girl, Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad," "Mammy," "I'm Sitting on Top of the World," "You Made Me Love You," "Swanee," "Toot-Toot Tootsie, Goodbye," "The Spaniard Who Blightened My Life," "April Showers," "California, Here I Come," "Liza," "There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder," "Latin from Manhattan," "Avalon," "About a Quarter to Nine," "The Anniversary Song," "Waiting For the Robert E. Lee," "Rockabye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody," and "April Showers" (reprise/finale).

The supporting cast includes: Jo-Carroll Dennison as Ann Murray, as a woman; William Forrest as Dick Glenn; Edwin Maxwell as Oscar Hammerstein; Jimmy Lloyd as Roy Anderson and Will Wright as the sourpuss movie patron during "Jazz Singer" theater opening.

As a musical, THE JOLSON STORY is grand entertainment. No doubt about it. As a biography, however, it plays too much with the facts, adding too many inaccuracies in the screenplay. For example, in a scene in which Al Jolson makes his motion picture debut in Hollywood's "first talkie," THE JAZZ SINGER (1927), the preview audiences are seen being entertained by Jolson singing "There'a a Rainbow Round My Shoulder," which never played in that film but in Jolson's second, THE SINGING FOOL (1928). The storyline mentions Jolson doing his second movie, but title is never mentioned, yet, THE SINGING FOOL, at the time of its release, became the most successful Jolson movie ever made. It's been claimed that the song, "Sonny Boy," introduced in THE SINGING FOOL was cut from the final print. Another misnomer found in the screenplay focuses on Julie Benson (based on Ruby Keeler) making her movie debut in 42nd STREET (1933). True, however, she is seen performing a dance number, "Latin From Manhattan," which was actually introduced in her later film, GO INTO YOUR DANCE (1935). The one fact the writers got right is that Jolson and Benson (a/k/a Keeler) collaborated on screen once, in GO INTO YOUR DANCE, and the number, "About a Quarter to Nine," that accompanies the film, is accurate. Other titles involving Benson's career, SHIPMATES FOREVER, DAMES and GOLD DIGGERS, are mentioned in the montage, but not used in the order of their release. THE JOLSON STORY does offer Evelyn Keyes a rare opportunity to sing and dance on screen, which is a novelty, especially for her. However, her costumes and hairstyles are 1946 modern and do not fit the period the story is set, and neither does the sound of the orchestration, which sounds more like the Big-Band-era than 1920s or 30s. The recording of Jolson's voice, which sounds more deeper and softer than the songs heard from his films from the 1930s, coming out of Larry Park's lips, is perfect synchronization. Parks, a Columbia contract player since 1941, does his best with his impersonation of Jolson, which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Yet, the Jolson magic is evident in THE JOLSON STORY, watching the on-screen audience sitting in either the theater or night club in full attention silently watching as Jolson sings in the spotlight. So successful was THE JOLSON STORY that Al Jolson, then a forgotten entertainer, was rediscovered again, winning the admiration and charm of a new and younger audience. Leaving out the facts that Al Jolson was married and divorced twice before he made Ruby Keeler his third wife, THE JOLSON STORY, as it stands, fully deserves its place in motion picture history as one of the finest and most entertaining bio-pics ever produced. Sequel: JOLSON SINGS AGAIN (1949) which follows Jolson's career during performing overseas during World War II, and the revival of some of his great old songs.

Because of cable television's Turner Classic Movies, the Jolson legend can be rediscovered again by watching the original Al Jolson with the revival of his old musicals made during his Warner Brothers period (1927-1936), especially his best known and historical film, THE JAZZ SINGER. THE JOLSON STORY, which is available on video cassette and DVD, formerly played on the Disney Channel in the mid 1990s, and occasionally can be seen on True Stories other commercial free cable channels.

One bit of trivia: During the "Swanee" sequence, that is actually the real Al Jolson (in long shot) performing that number, not Larry Parks.