Early life and career
The son of the Rabbi of the Talmud Torah Synagogue (now Ohev Sholom Talmud Torah) in Washington, D.C., Jolson became a popular singer in New York City in 1898, and gradually developed the key elements of his performance: blackface makeup; exuberant gestures; operatic-style singing; whistling and directly addressing his audience.
By 1911, he had parlayed a supporting appearance in the Broadway musical La Belle Paree into a starring role. He began recording and was soon internationally famous for his extraordinary stage presence and personal rapport with audiences. His Broadway career is unmatched for length and popularity, having spanned close to 30 years (1911-1940). Audiences shouted, pleaded, and often would not allow the show to proceed, such was the power of Jolson's presence. At one performance in Boston, the usual staid and conservative audience stopped the show for 45 minutes. He was said to have had an "electric" personality, along with the ability to make each member of the audience believe that he was singing only to them. However, he is best known today for his appearance in one of the first "talkies" The Jazz Singer, the first feature film with sound to enjoy wide commercial success, in 1927. In The Jazz Singer Jolson performed the song "Mammy" in blackface. In truth, Jolson's singing was never jazz, indeed his style remained forever rooted in the vaudeville stage at the turn of 20th century.
Jolson is the first music artist to sell over 10 million records. While no official Billboard magazine chart existed during Jolson's career, their staff archivist Joel Whitburn used a variety of sources such as Talking Machine World's list of top-selling recordings, and Billboard's own sheet music and vaudeville charts to estimate the hits of 1890-1954. By his reckoning, Jolson had the equivalent of 23 No. 1 hits, the 4th-highest total ever, trailing only Bing Crosby, Paul Whiteman, and Guy Lombardo. Whitburn calculates that Jolson topped one chart or another for 114 weeks.
Among the many songs popularized by Jolson were "You Made Me Love You," "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody," "Swanee" (songwriter George Gershwin's first success), "April Showers," "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye," "California, Here I Come," "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along," "Sonny Boy" and "Avalon."
Jolson was a political and economic conservative, supporting Calvin Coolidge for president of the United States in 1924 (with the ditty "Keep Cool with Coolidge") unlike most other Jews in the arts, who supported the losing Democratic candidate, John William Davis.
Jolson was married to actress/dancer Ruby Keeler from 1928 to 1940, when they divorced. The couple had adopted a son, Al Jolson Jr., during their marriage, but when he was 14 the boy changed his name to Peter Lowe after his mother's second husband, John Lowe.
After leaving the Broadway stage, Jolson starred on radio. The Al Jolson Show aired 1933-1939, 1942-1943, and 1947-1949, and these shows were typically rated in the top ten. Jolson continued performing until his death in 1950.
The Jolson story
After the success of Warner Bros. film Yankee Doodle Dandy about George M. Cohan, Hollywood columnist Sidney Skolsky believed that a smiliar film could be made about Al Jolson -- and he knew just where to pitch the project. Harry Cohn may have seemed to a lot of people in Hollywood like a crude, loud vulgarian, but he had one soft spot: he loved the music of Al Jolson.
Skolsky pitched the idea of an Al Jolson biopic and Cohn agreed to it. Directed by Alfred E. Green (best known today for the pre-Code masterpiece Baby Face, The Jolson Story is one of the most entertaining of the musical biopics of that era -- an era that included Yankee Doodle Dandy, Till the Clouds Roll By, Words and Music and Three Little Words. With Jolson providing almost all the vocals, and actor Larry Parks playing Jolson, The Jolson Story was released in 1946, and became one of the biggest hits of the year. Parks received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and the film became one of the highest grossing films of the year.
"The Jolson Story," and its 1949 sequel "Jolson Sings Again," led to a whole new generation who became enthralled with Jolson's voice and charisma. Jolson, who had been a popular guest star on radio since its earliest days, now had his own show, hosting the "Kraft Music Hall" from 1947-1949, with Oscar Levant as a sardonic piano-playing sidekick. Despite such singers as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Perry Como being in their primes, Jolson was voted the "Most Popular Male Vocalist" in 1948 by a Variety poll. The next year, Jolson was named Personality of the Year by the Variety Clubs of America. When Jolson appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show, he attributed his receiving the award to his being the only singer not to make a record of Mule Train, which had been a widely covered hit of that year (four different versions, one of them by Crosby, had made the top ten on the charts).
Jolson joked that he'd tried to sing the hit song. "I got the clippetys all right, but I can't clop like I used to."
Jolson's legacy is considered by many to be severely neglected today because of his use of stage blackface, at the time a theatrical convention used by many performers (both white and black), but today viewed by many as racially insensitive. Jolson was billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," which is how many of the greatest stars (including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Jackie Wilson) referred to him. Charles Chaplin wrote in his Autobiography that he was one of the most electrifying entertainers he had ever seen. A life-long devotion to entertaining American servicemen (he first sang for servicemen of the Spanish-American War as a boy in Washington, D.C.) led Jolson, against the advice of his doctors, to entertain troops in Korea in 1950 when his heart began to fail.
Death
Jolson died on October 23, 1950, in San Francisco at a card game, at the age of 64, apparently of a heart attack, and was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California, where a statue of Jolson beckons visitors to his crypt. On the day he died, Broadway turned off its lights for 10 minutes in Jolson's honor.
Al Jolson has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
1. For his contribution to the motion picture industry at 6622 Hollywood Blvd.;
2. For his contribution to the recording industry at 1716 Vine St.;
3. For his contribution to the radio industry at 6750 Hollywood Blvd.
Forty-four years after Jolson's death, the United States Postal Service acknowledged his contribution by issuing a postage stamp in his honor. The 29-cent stamp was unveiled by Erle Jolson Krasna, Jolson's fourth wife, at a ceremony in New York City's Lincoln Center on September 1, 1994. This stamp was one of a series honoring popular American singers, which included Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Ethel Merman, and Ethel Waters. Al Jolson is one of Mr. Burns' (from The Simpsons) favorite actors - he still believes that he is alive.
Jolson's song I'm Sitting on Top of the World was played during the opening montage of 1930's New York City in the 2005 remake of King Kong.
In August of 2006, Al Jolson had a street in New York named after him.
My Mammy
Al Jolson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When you start to roam;
The birds are singin', the day that you stray,
But later, when you are further away,
Things won't seem so lovely
When you're all alone;
Here's what you'll keep saying
When you're far from home:
Mammy,
Mammy,
The sun shines east, the sun shines west,
I know where the sun shines best
Mammy,
My little mammy,
My heartstrings are tangled around Alabammy.
I'm comin',
Sorry that I made you wait.
I'm comin',
Hope and trust that I'm not late, oh oh oh
Mammy,
My little Mammy,
I'd walk a million miles
For one of your smiles,
My Mammy! Oh oh oh
Mammy
My little Mammy.
The sun shines east, the sun shines west,
I know where, the sun shines best!
It's on my Mammy I'm talkin' about, nobody else's!
My little Mammy,
My heartstrings are tangled around Alabammy.
Mammy, Mammy, I'm comin',
I'm so sorry that I made you wait!
Mammy, Mammy, I'm comin'!
Oh God, I hope I'm not late!
Look at me, Mammy! Don't you know me?
I'm your little baby!
I'd walk a million miles
For one of your smiles,
My Mammy!
The lyrics to Al Jolson's "My Mammy" tell the story of a person who is traveling away from home, enjoying the experience at first, but then starts to feel homesick and misses their mother. The person talks about the warmth and comfort their mother brings and how her love is the one thing they need most. The lyrics evoke a sense of attachment and emotional longing for the one person who can provide unconditional love and support, even when they are far away.
The lyrics convey a strong emotional message about the power of love and connections with others. The images of birds singing and the sun shining emphasize the beauty and wonder of the world but also the importance of human connection. The person is aware that, when they're alone, the beauty of the world fades into insignificance.
Overall, the lyrics express the sentiment that, in a world that can be cold and indifferent, the love of a mother is one of life's greatest blessings. The longing for maternal love is something that can be felt by anyone, regardless of their age, gender, or background. The simplicity and sincerity of the lyrics make them enduringly popular with listeners today.
Line by Line Meaning
Everything is lovely
When you start to roam;
Life is exciting and full of possibilities when you're young and exploring new places.
The birds are singin', the day that you stray,
But later, when you are further away,
Things won't seem so lovely
When you're all alone;
Though the world may seem beautiful and inviting at first, the farther you venture from home, the more alone and frightened you may become.
Here's what you'll keep saying
When you're far from home:
When you're lost and alone in a strange place, the only thing you'll want is the comfort of home and the love of your mother.
Mammy,
Mammy,
The sun shines east, the sun shines west,
I know where the sun shines best
Mammy,
My little mammy,
My heartstrings are tangled around Alabammy.
My mother, more than anything else, is the sunshine in my life, and the place where she is (in Alabama) is where my heart feels most at home.
I'm comin',
Sorry that I made you wait.
I'm comin',
Hope and trust that I'm not late, oh oh oh
Mammy,
My little Mammy,
I'm on my way home to you, Mom, and I hope I haven't kept you waiting too long. You mean everything to me.
I'd walk a million miles
For one of your smiles,
My Mammy! Oh oh oh
I love you so much, Mom, that I would do anything to see you happy, even if it meant traveling a million miles just to see you smile.
Lyrics © DONALDSON PUBLISHING CO
Written by: LEWIS, YOUNG, JAMES T DONALDSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@irishmike3514
How fantastic it must have been to see and hear him on Broadway!!
@J.M.Chadwick6
I totally agree. It would have been one of the greatest accomplishments of my life!
@ColtDee
I bet.
@jackspry9736
RIP Al Jolson (May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950), aged 64
You will be remembered as a legend.
@LoneStarLawman
A lot of misconceptions about this man. Early he hung out in black jazz clubs. Fascinated by what Jolson saw and heard, he started using what he had learned, on Broadway, introducing music, to mostly white audiences, in blackface, to be more realistic. He supported black stagehands, in a workers strike, aahebbd he was very public, and outspoken about it. On a radio show, in one broadcast, he stated, that your race, your background, or where you are from, can stop you from achievement. Al Jolson understood prejudice, as he was Jewish. Perhaps his methods were wrong, but out of ignorance, not hate.
@ghostrider-ek8gu
The Jazz Singer .. singing a great hit. A true classic
@mybexchange6330
THE STAR REPORT SENT ME HERE MAMMY 🤣
@raiderbane1011
This shit crazy 🤣 🤣
@exterminatallsimps
Me too 😂😂
@aaronharris9757
Same
OH MAMMY!