You ain't heard nothing yet! (The Jolson Story / Jolson Sings Again (DVD))

Member Name: jayjolynn

Product:	The Jolson Story / Jolson Sings Again (DVD)
Date:	14/11/06 (684 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Timeless songs!

Disadvantages: none

‘The Jolson Story’ (1946) starring....

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



The Jolson Story
Young Asa Yoelson lives with his parents in Washington (where his family had moved to, from Lithuania in 1894, when Asa was 8 years old) His father is a cantor at the local synagogue.

Asa, is drawn to the theatre and it’s performers, rather than singing in his synagogue, which he had done. He sneaks away often to watch these performances.One night, while watching one particular performer, he grabbed at the chance to respond when Steve Martin asked the audience to sing along and Asa is the only one who stands up and sings. His beautiful voice (Rudy Wissler singing) is echoed across the theatre and Steve Martin asks a spot light put on this young boy.

Steve Martin soon realises that Asa is a born singer, and finds where this boy lives, to ask his parents if he could take Asa on the road with him as part of his act. His Father, the Cantor refuses, but Asa goes off anyway and quickly becomes part of Steve Martin’s act, and this is the start of Jolson’s career.

Years pass. Martin and Yoelson are successful but Asa is getting tired and wants to add something new into the act. Asa has now changed his name to Al Jolson, and Steve sends him over to Lew Dockstader's minstrels. After a couple of years singing with the Minstrels act, Al leaves to look for even bigger things, and with Steve's managerial skills, he guides Jolson to his own stardom, and to start his long and successful career on Broadway.

Jolson works hard getting recognition and it is not long before he is a star in his own right and becomes one of the best performers ever on Broadway! His style and voice were so unique he soon has offers coming from Hollywood, and Jolson makes history by being offered the part in the first ‘talkie’ movie ‘The Jazz Singer’.

Around the same time he meets Julie Benson, played by Evelyn Keys. (Julie was a ficticious name, as he was actually married to Ruby Keeler in reality, but Ruby Keeler refused to have her name be used in the film)

Julie was a performer with the famous Ziegfield Follies, and soon they are married. Julie did not share the same enthusiasm of films as Jolson, even though she was actually starring in her own one at the time. Julie is eager to retire, but for a long time, Jolson resists, as his passion for singing and entertaining was overwhelming. Eventually he gave in to Julie's wishes, and goes into retirement, but it's not long before they realise his heart is still in singing.

After being away from the stage for some time, they attend a party, and Jolson is recognised by the crowd and asked to sing, which Jolson happily jumped at the chance to perform again. Julie realises she could never take the entertaining out of Jolson, and quietly gets up and leaves the venue, and out of his life for good.



Jolson Sings Again—(1949)

After Jolson and Julie split, and eventually divorce, Jolson returns to show business, though he himself finds that singing does not have the same feeling for him anymore, and ends up drifting from one place to the other.

His manager, Steve Martin, talked him into signing up as an entertainer to the Troops during World War 2 but Jolson was reluctant initially, thinking no one would know him now. He was so wrong, and the troops welcomed him with open arms!

During the war, Jolson works tirelessly to entertain the troops, and enjoyed the admiration he got from them.
Unfortunately, he suffered recurrences of Malaria through this time, and had to attend hospital at intervals, and on one of those visits, he met his ‘soon to be wife’ Ellen Clark, a nurse at the hospital where he was having treatment.

Once the war was over, and they had been married, Ellen realises that Al needed to get back into his beloved show business, as his moral was low, but finding anyone who actually wanted the now forgotten Al Jolson was proving difficult.

A Hollywood musical benefit, not too enthusiastically, includes him on its program and his singing at this event proved to be another turning point in the life of Jolson. A Producer, who just happened to be at this event, proposed a film be made about Jolson's life. The rest is history!



These two films must go down in History as one of the classics, mainly because of their songs, including …..

There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (excerpt from ‘The Jazz Singer’),You Made Me Love You, Sitting on Top of the World, My Mammy, Swanee, I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad, Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye, The Spaniard That Blighted My Life, California Here I Come, April Shower, Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away) When You Were Sweet Sixteen ,Waiting for the Robert E. Lee, Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody, Let Me Sing and I'm Happy,
Anniversary Song, Ma Blushin' Rosie (Ma Rosie Sweet) I Want a Girl (Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad), Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye, The Spaniard That Blighted My Life, April Showers, She's a Latin From Manhattan, About a Quarter to Nine, Anniversary Song, Waiting for the Robert E. Lee, Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody.

In the first film, Al Jolson did in fact have a cameo role in the film, singing "Swanee"! This was not known until some time after the film being released, as his face was blackened (his trademark) and the clip was taken from quite a distance back, so it was not too obvious at first that it was indeed the man himself.....Jolson!

Larry Parks spent many weeks with Jolson, getting all Jolson’s mannerisms and style of singing, down to a fine art. He relentlessly watched all Jolson’s films and recordings, and the final outcome was one of the best performances ever to be seen on film, with his lip syncing of Jolson’s singing being hailed as the best ever! This is a brilliant portrayal of one of the best entertainers in the World!

Rudy Wissler was the beautiful singing voice for the young Al Jolson, played by Scotty Beckett.

Jolson sings again (1949). Larry Parks once again, impersonates Jolson impeccably and many of the actors from the original, star again in this sequel to the ‘Jolson Story’.......

This second film could never come up to the standard of The Jolson Story, in my opinion, but nevertheless, these two films being put together on DVD, even though there are a few flaws in the storyline, (as you would know if you were a true Jolson fan!) is terrific!
Overlook the minor flaws, and you have a collection of classic songs and pure entertainment!

After the death of Al Jolson in 1950, it’s even more exciting to capture the basic facts of Jolson's career and preserving it on this DVD.

It shows from his gradual rise to stardom including his appearance in the minstrel acts, stardom on Broadway (being hailed as the best entertainer of all) and in early films (and going down in history as being the first actor/singer to have his voice put to the first ‘talkie’ movie), to his marriage to Ruby Keeler (Julie Benson in the film), the making of The Jolson Story, his entertaining of the troops in World War Two, and then his marriage to Ellen, and finally the making of the second film about his life (Jolson sings again)!

There are generations of us who will admire Jolson for his unique singing voice, therefore I don’t think (for all these films were made in 1946 &1949) this DVD will ever date, and for years to come, we can pass this on through our families for them to treasure ‘The greatest Entertainer in the World’!

For pure entertainment and the songs on this DVD, it is well worth investing in it! I was brought up on Jolson songs, my Father being an avid fan, and now my daughters, who listened to their Grandfathers impersonation of the great Jolson, know just about every word from each of Jolson's classics, and I am sure they will pass down this legacy to their children!

I never tire of watching this, and in my opinion, it should be in everyone's collection, for good all round family entertainment!

Amazon are currently selling this DVD for £8.00 which is worth every penny, considering this is a magical double portion of Al Jolson's biography!
You can buy each film separately, for around the same price EACH, so it makes sense to buy this one, and get two for the price of one!


Number of discs: 1
DVD Release Date: 3 Nov 2003
Run Time: 217 minutes

Summary: Great portrayal of a great entertainer!