Al Jolson

AL JOLSON d1950. American singer, comedian and actor dubbed in his heyday "The World's Greatest Entertainer". His performing style was brash and and he popularized a large number of songs that benefited from his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach". During the 1930s, he was America's most famous and highest paid entertainer. Between 1911-1928, he had nine sell-out Winter Garden shows in a row, more than 80 hit records and 16 national and international tours. Although he's best remembered today as the star in the first (full length) talking movie "The Jazz Singer" (1927), he later starred in a series of successful musical films throughout the 1930s. After a period of inactivity, his stardom returned with the 1946 Oscar-winning biographical film, The Jolson Story with Larry Parks playing Jolson with the songs dubbed in with Jolson’s real voice. A sequel Jolson Sings Again was released in 1949 and was nominated for three Oscars. After the attack on Pearl Harbour he became the first star to entertain troops overseas during WW2 and again in 1950 became the first star to perform for GIS in Korea doing 42 shows in 16 days. He died just weeks after returning to the US partly due to the physical exertion of performing ...........