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The Jolson Story
''The Jolson Story'' is a 1946 American musical biography film which purports to tell the life story of singer Al Jolson. It stars Larry Parks as Jolson, Evelyn Keyes as Julie Benson (approximating Jolson's wife, Ruby Keeler), William Demarest as his manager, Ludwig Donath and Tamara Shayne as his parents, and Scotty Beckett as the young Jolson. The Columbia Pictures production was written by Sidney Buchman (uncredited), Harry Chandlee, Stephen Longstreet and Andrew Solt. The dramatic scenes were directed by Alfred E. Green, with the musical sequences directed by Joseph H. Lewis. A sequel called ''Jolson Sings Again'' was released in 1949. Plot American burlesque performer Steve Martin offers to play a song for his audience, if they agree to sing along. Only one person does sing, a young boy named Asa Yoelson. Steve is bowled over by the boy's voice, but Asa realizes he should be singing at the synagogue with his father, Cantor Yoelson. Asa arrives late, and is later reprima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred E
Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series *Alfred (Arne opera), ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne *Alfred (Dvořák), ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlude)" and "Alfred (Outro)", songs by Eminem from the 2020 album ''Music to Be Murdered By'' Business and organisations * Alfred, a radio station in Shaftesbury, England *Alfred Music, an American music publisher *Alfred University, New York, U.S. *The Alfred Hospital, a hospital in Melbourne, Australia People * Alfred (name) includes a list of people and fictional characters called Alfred * Alfred the Great (848/49 – 899), or Alfred I, a king of the West Saxons and of the Anglo-Saxons Places Antarctica * Mount Alfred (Antarctica) Australia * Alfredtown, New South Wales * County of Alfred, South Australia Canada * Alfred and Plantagenet, Ontario * Alfred Island, Nunavut * Mount Alfred, British Colu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamara Shayne
Tamara Shayne (25 November 1902 – 23 October 1983), also known as Tamara Nikoulina, was a Russian-born actress and long-time resident in the United States. Early life Tamara Shayne was born Tamara Veniaminovna Olkenitskaya on 25 November 1902 in Perm, Russia, to the family of a Jewish actor Veniamin Olkenitsky-Nikulin (aka Benjamin Nikulin). Her older brother Konstantin was also an actor.Doug McClelland ''Blackface to blacklist: Al Jolson, Larry Parks, and The Jolson story'', Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1998, pg. 154 Career Shayne appeared in European films before migrating to the United States in 1927 with her future husband, the actor Akim Tamiroff;"Tamara Shayne, 80, Actress; Was Jolson's Mother in Films" '' |
Swanee (song)
"Swanee" is an American popular song written in 1919 by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Irving Caesar. It is most often associated with singer Al Jolson. The song was written for a New York City revue called ''Demi-Tasse'', which opened in October 1919 at the Capitol Theater. Caesar, who was then aged 20, claimed to have written the song in about ten minutes riding on a bus in Manhattan, finishing it at Gershwin's apartment. It was written partly as a parody of Stephen Foster's "Old Folks at Home", including the title in its lyrics. It was originally used as a big production number, with 60 chorus girls dancing with electric lights in their slippers on an otherwise darkened stage. Jolson versions The song had little impact in its first show, but not long afterwards Gershwin played it at a party where Al Jolson heard it. Jolson then put it into his show ''Sinbad'', already a success at the Winter Garden Theatre, and recorded it for Columbia Records in January 1920. "After that" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Mitchell (organist)
Robert Mitchell (October 12, 1912 – July 4, 2009) was an American organist and choir director whose career spanned 85 years, from 1924 to 2009. He was one of the last original silent film accompanists, having accompanied films from 1924 to 1928. Mitchell revived the art from 1992 until his death in 2009, usually to wild acclaim. During the 1930s, he organized the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir, who were cast in many films from the 1930s to the 1960s. Early life and career Mitchell's Victorian-era mother found the new art form of silent film "cheap and vulgar". However, as an avid music lover, she allowed him to take music lessons with the reasoning he could accompany church services. At the age of 12 he was allowed to take a stint at The Strand Theatre in Pasadena, California to play Christmas carols between showings of films. However, he did not stop playing once the film started, and his career as an accompanist began. He played for four years until the arrival o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernest Cossart
Ernest Cossart (born Emil Gottfried von Holst, 24 September 1876 – 21 January 1951) was an English-American actor. After a stage career in England, he moved to the US, appearing on Broadway and all around the country. In the 1930s and 1940s, he appeared in films, specializing in playing butlers, valets, and similar roles, but playing a range of other parts. Life and career Cossart was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, the younger of the two children of Adolph von Holst (1846–1901), a professional musician, and his first wife, Clara (née Lediard; 1841–1882).Matthews, Colin"Holst, Gustav" Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 19 March 2013 The elder child, Gustavus, later known as Gustav Holst, became a leading English composer. Emil attended Cheltenham Grammar School and then became a clerk in a wine company's office. When he decided to pursue an acting career, he took the stage name Ernest Cossart, appearing on stage in Britain before moving to the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Alexander (actor)
John Alexander (November 29, 1897 – July 13, 1982) was an American stage, film, and television actor. Early life He was born on November 29, 1897, in Newport, Kentucky. His father owned steamboats and his mother was a telegraph operator. Career He had career spanning more than 55 years on Broadway with his first role as the title character in ''Elmer Brown, the Only Boy in Town'' in 1908/1909. He is best remembered for his performance as Teddy Brewster, a lunatic who thinks he is Theodore Roosevelt, in the 1944 classic film '' Arsenic and Old Lace'' opposite Cary Grant. He had previously portrayed that role in the 1941 Broadway play of the same name on which the film was based. He went on to play the "real" Roosevelt in the 1950 Bob Hope comedy '' Fancy Pants'' and reprised his role as Teddy "Roosevelt" Brewster in the 1955 TV adaptation of ''Arsenic and Old Lace'' in the anthology series ''The Best of Broadway''. Among his other notable film roles, Alexander played Steve Ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jo-Carroll Dennison
Jo-Carroll Dennison (December 16, 1923 – October 18, 2021) was an American actress and model who was Miss America 1942. Early years Dennison was born on December 16, 1923, in Florence, Arizona, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Brownd) and Harry Arthur Dennison, who ran a travelling medicine show in Texas. She was born in the infirmary of a men's state prison in Arizona, delivered by the prison doctor as he was the only medical help her travelling parents could find. Her father had wanted her to be born in California so the couple had been driving west from Texas when her mother went into labour. Her family later lived in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, California, and Tyler, Texas. She graduated from Hale Center High School in 1940, and was a stenographer in Tyler. Pageantry Dennison was crowned Miss America September 12, 1942, after having entered the contest as Miss Texas. She had earlier won both the talent and the swimsuit competitions in the contest. As Miss America dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammy Archetype
A mammy is a U.S. historical stereotype depicting black women who work in a white family and nurse the family's children. The fictionalized mammy character is often visualized as a larger-sized, dark-skinned woman with a motherly personality. The origin of the mammy figure stereotype is rooted in the history of slavery in the United States. Black slave women were tasked with domestic and childcare work in white American slaveholding households. The mammy stereotype was inspired by these domestic workers. The mammy caricature was used to create a narrative of black women being happy within slavery or within a role of servitude. The mammy stereotype associates black women with domestic roles and it has been argued it, combined with segregation and discrimination, limited job opportunities for black women during the Jim Crow era, approximately 1877 to 1966. History The mammy caricature was first seen in the 1830s in antebellum proslavery literature as a way to oppose the descri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lew Dockstader
Lew Dockstader (born George Alfred Clapp; August 7, 1856 – October 26, 1924) was an American singer, comedian, and vaudeville star, best known as a blackface minstrel show performer. Dockstader performed as a solo act and in his own popular minstrel troupe. Biography He was born George Alfred Clapp on August 7, 1856, in Hartford, Connecticut, to Chester Clapp and Sarah Reed. He married Lucin Brown on December 20, 1883, in Hartford and had a daughter, Mildred Havlin Clapp, who married Warren Palmer. He legally changed his name to Lew Dockstader in 1887. In 1898 he teamed up with George Primrose to form Primrose and Dockstader's Minstrel Men, which toured the vaudeville circuit till 1904. He appeared on film in a number of comedy shorts from 1904 to 1907. On May 20, 1904 Dockstader was detained by the New York City Police Department for attempting to distribute a film "intended to caricature President Theodore Roosevelt and the office you hold." The film was "in the poss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oscar Hammerstein I
Oscar Hammerstein I (8 May 18461 August 1919) was a German-born businessman, theater impresario, and composer in New York City. His passion for opera led him to open several opera houses, and he rekindled opera's popularity in America. He was the grandfather of American playwright/lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II and the father of theater manager William Hammerstein and American producer Arthur Hammerstein. Early life Oscar Hammerstein I was born in Stettin (capital of the province of Pomerania), Kingdom of Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland), to German Jewish parents Abraham and Berthe Hammerstein. He took up the flute, piano, and violin at an early age. His mother died when he was fifteen years old. During his youth, Hammerstein's father wanted him to continue with his education and to specialize in subjects such as algebra, but Hammerstein wanted to pursue music. After Oscar went skating in a park one day, his father found out and whipped him as punishment, goading Hammerstein to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Burlesque
American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in America in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By the late 1920s, the striptease element overshadowed the comedy and subjected burlesque to extensive local legislation. Burlesque gradually lost popularity beginning in the 1940s. A number of producers sought to capitalize on nostalgia for the entertainment by recreating burlesque on the stage and in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the 1960s. There has been a resurgence of interest in this format since the 1990s. Literary and theatrical origins The term "burlesque" more generally means a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jolson Sings Again
''Jolson Sings Again'' is a 1949 American musical biographical film directed by Henry Levin, and the sequel to ''The Jolson Story'' (1946), both of which cover the life of singer Al Jolson. It was the highest-grossing film of 1949 and received three Oscar nominations at the 22nd Academy Awards. Synopsis In this follow-up to ''The Jolson Story'', we pick up the singer's career just as he has returned to the stage after a premature retirement. But his wife has left him and the appeal of the spotlight is not what it used to be. This time Jolson (Larry Parks) trades in the stage for life in the fast lane: women, horses, travel. His father (Ludwig Donath) becomes increasingly concerned about his frivolous lifestyle. With the death of his mother (Tamara Shayne) and the beginning of World War II, Jolson comes back to earth—and returns to the stage. Once again teamed with manager Steve Martin (William Demarest), Jolson travels the world entertaining troops everywhere from Alaska to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
