"The Jazz Singer" is a videotaped adaptation, starring

Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. As his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in popular culture, pop culture ...

, of

Samson Raphaelson Samson Raphaelson (March 30, 1894 – July 16, 1983) was a leading American playwright, screenwriter and fiction writer. While working as an advertising executive in New York, he wrote a short story based on the early life of Al Jolson, called ' ...

's play of the same title. It was broadcast on October 13, 1959, as the second episode of the American television

anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a dif ...

Ford Startime ''Startime'' is an anthology show of drama, comedy, and variety, and was one of the first American television shows broadcast in color. The program was aired Tuesday nights in the United States on the NBC Television network in the 1959–1960 ...

'' on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

Plot

Cantor Rabinowitz ( Eduard Franz) is upset that his son Joey (

) has left home to pursue a career as a singer/comedian after showing no interest in carrying on the family's tradition of being Cantors in the synagogue. After five generations of doing so, it appears that Joey is more interested in making jokes and singing jazz music. After a few years on his own, Joey, who now calls himself Joey Robbins, gets an opportunity to perform on the television show with Ginny Gibbons (

Anna Maria Alberghetti Anna Maria Alberghetti (; born May 15, 1936) is an Italian-American actress and soprano. Biography Born May 15, 1936, in Pesaro, Marche, in central Italy, she starred on Broadway and won a Tony Award in 1962 as Best Actress (Musical) for ''Ca ...

). Unfortunately, his father falls ill during his rehearsal performance, and he runs to his side, putting show business aside for his family obligations.

Cast

as Joey Robin/Rabinowitz *

as Ginny Gibson * Eduard Franz as Morris Rabinowitz, Joey's cantor father *

Molly Picon Molly Picon ( yi, מאָלי פּיקאָן; born Malka Opiekun; February 28, 1898 – April 5, 1992) was an American actress of stage, screen, radio and television, as well as a lyricist and dramatic storyteller. She began her career in Yidd ...

as Sarah Rabinowitz, Joey's mother *

Alan Reed Alan Reed (born Herbert Theodore Bergman; August 20, 1907 – June 14, 1977) was an American actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on ''The Flintstones'' and various spinoff series. He also appeared in many films, includin ...

as Nathan Gittleson *

Joey Faye Joey Faye (born Joseph Antony Palladino, July 12, 1909 or 1910 or 1902– April 26, 1997) was an American comedian and actor. Born in New York City, he gained fame as a comic in vaudeville and claimed that he created two of vaudeville's more reno ...

as Tony De Santos *

Barry Gordon Barry Gordon (born December 21, 1948) is an American actor and political talk show host. He was the longest-serving president of the Screen Actors Guild, having served from 1988 to 1995. He is perhaps best known as the original voice of Donatello ...

as Larry * Del Moore as Harry Lee * Robert Hutton as television director *

Phil Arnold Phil Arnold (born Philip Aronoff Arnold; September 15, 1909 – May 9, 1968) was an American screen, stage, television, and vaudeville actor. He appeared in approximately 150 films and television shows between 1939 and 1968. Arnold is familiar ...

as Messenger *Sid Cassele as Dr. Miller *Bob Duggan as stage manager *Dorian Grusman as Marilyn *Frances Lax as Ida *Louise Vincent as Rosalie * Oliver Crawford as Moe ;Uncredited * Hal Smith as laughing man in nightclub

Production

''The Jazz Singer'' was produced on color videotape and aired as a one-hour episode of the short-lived TV series ''Lincoln-Mercury Startime'' (aka ''

''). It was preserved on black & white

kinescope Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program on motion picture film, directly through a lens focused on the screen of a video monitor. The process was pioneered during the 194 ...

film. It has never been rebroadcast on NBC. Eduard Franz, who played the role of the aged and ailing cantor battling his son, had played the same role in the similar theatrical film version of the story starring

Danny Thomas Danny Thomas (born Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz; January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an American actor, singer, nightclub comedian, producer, and philanthropist. He created and starred in one of the most successful and long-running sitc ...

that had been released just seven years earlier in 1952.

Home media

The first official home video release, a DVD including both the kinescope and color videotape material from Lewis' personal holdings, was released on February 7, 2012.

References

External links

*
''The Jazz Singer''
(1959) on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Jazz Singer 1959 television films 1959 films American musical drama films 1950s musical drama films Films about Jews and Judaism Films about music and musicians American films based on plays Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City 1950s English-language films 1950s American films