JOLSONMANIA !

The Jazz Singer (1927) playing in Williamsport

normanmclellan@aol.com (Derek McLellan) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:07:00 +0000

Here's a grand old 2,100 seat theater in PA that will be celebrating it's 80th anniversary.

“On Oct. 22, 1928, the Capitol Theatre of Williamsport celebrated its grand opening with a screening of Al Jolson’s ‘The Jazz Singer,’” said executive director of the CAC Rob Steele. “We will have a free screening of ‘The Jazz Singer’ on Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. We are hoping for a big crowd to help celebrate the spirit of the community that rescued a cherished building that has been the keeper of millions of dreams and memories over eight decades.”

Read complete article

Jolsonmania! 1 : Kraft Music Hall 21/10/48 No Guest

normanmclellan@aol.com (Derek McLellan) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:29:00 +0000

36 minutes 4 seconds

The Jolsonmania! radio show/podcast is a celebration of the life and legacy of Al Jolson through classic radio shows and audio documentaries featuring the World's Greatest Entertainer.

In this first podcast I introduce myself and say a little about what you can expect on the show.

The main feature is the complete Kraft Music Hall of 21st October 1948. From 60 years ago this show which features just Al, Oscar Levant and Lou Bring and his orchestra is a good showcase for the incredible talent that was Al Jolson as we remember him in the week of the 58th anniversary of his passing.

Jolson songs

Intro - Let Me Sing And I'm Happy from Kraft Music Hall - 6/11/47

Kraft Music Hall - 21/10/48

For Me and My Gal

More Than You Know
About A Quarter To Nine
Toot Toot Tootsie/You Made Me Love You
Without A Song

Outro - April Showers (instrumental)

Notes : To listen click on duration, to download save target as.

Jolson Sings Again (1949) Composer's Notes by George Duning

normanmclellan@aol.com (Derek McLellan) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:19:00 +0000

One of the most difficult problems that we encountered in the background score to JOLSON SINGS AGAIN was the smooth tying together of the actual songs with the background music. The actual vocal numbers were recorded at various times over a period of almost a year.

The excerpts of the songs in the Santa Barbara preview sequence of course were recorded several years ago for the first JOLSON picture.(The Jolson Story (1946)

Which all meant that there was a certain amount of difference in the sound quality of all these recordings, due to various conditions such as atmospheric conditions, different types of orchestrations, mechanical changes in our recording and dubbing equipment. In other words our background score had to match as nearly as possible the various recordings of the songs.

The medley of songs that Jolson sings on his overseas trip were each recorded as separate songs without endings. It was not until after the picture was in its final cut that we knew what the actual order of the songs would be. Each song was connected by very short bridges written and recorded long after the vocals were made but I doubt whether anyone would be able to detect this fact, I attempted to match the orchestration and recording quality of each song as nearly as possible, and the rest was up to the superb conducting and judgment of Morris Stoloff, head of the Columbia music department.

It has been estimated that Mr. Stoloff spent a total of 109 hours on the scoring stage while doing the pre-recording and the final scoring of JOLSON SINGS AGAIN. Finding thematic material for the background score was relatively simple. I used treatments of APRIL SHOWERS for the scenes which referred to Jolson's first marriage. You may recall that APRIL SHOWERS was used extensively in the first Jolson picture.

In the present picture I used paraphrases of "Baby Face" for the character of Jolson's wife as played by Barbara Hale. This was motivated in the scene where Jolson comes out of his coma in the hospital where he meets the nurse who later became his wife. The rest of the background score I based on short original themes among which was an "action" theme for Jolson, a "show business" theme, and a somewhat nostalgic theme for some of the scenes with Mama and Papa Jolson.

All in all, the scoring of the new Jolson picture was a most interesting job, though a long and tedious one. There were some 75 or more cues written for the picture, including the bridges for the song medleys I have turned out heavy dramatic original scores of an hour in length in half the time it took to do the background score for JOLSON SINGS AGAIN. It was the type of score where you actually spend more time in the projection and dubbing rooms than you do in putting down the notes on paper! By the way, I would like to acknowledge the wonderful job that my orohestrator, Arthur Morton did for me.

JOLSON SINGS AGAIN.. Columbia. Larry Parks, Barbara Hale. Directed by Henry Levin. Music score by George Duning. Technicolor.

by George Duning from Film Music Notes, September-October 1949

Jolson Festival in the UK : Bromley, Kent this Sunday

normanmclellan@aol.com (Derek McLellan) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:39:00 +0000

Listing from the Al Jolson Society Official Website

Program for

Bromley Jolson Festival,October 19, 2008

Bromley Court Hotel, Bromley, Kent

10:00 - 10.45 a.m. Arrival, Registration, Memorabilia Sales etc

10.45 - 11.00 a.m. Official Welcome, Latest Society News

11.00 am. - 12.45 p.m. A presentation by Andrea Oberheiden and Jens Reinke of their film Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer.

12.45 - 2.30 p.m. Lunch Break, film for non restaurant diners.

2.30 - 4.00 p.m. Film selected by guests.

4.00 - 4.45 p.m. Raffle and Tea/Coffee break

4.45 - 5.15 p.m. The Life and Times of Al Jolson - An interactive session with David McCarthy.

5.15 - 5.45 p.m. Michael Freedland on Jolson

5.45 p.m. We'll Meet Again sung by Vera Lynn

Contact:

Godfrey Peacock

'Cotterdale'
Kingswood Lane
Hindhead
Surrey,
England,
GU26 6DQ
phone: (+44) 01428 - 605745.

You Made Me Love You - The Jolson Story (1946)

normanmclellan@aol.com (Derek McLellan) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:35:00 +0000

A neat slideshow of images from The Jolson Story (1946) accompanied by Al's Decca recording of You Made Me Love You from 20th March 1946. Created by Nina McFadden.

Rose of Washington Square and Hollywood Cavalcade on DVD

normanmclellan@aol.com (Derek McLellan) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:03:00 +0000

This blog will be mainly for the Jolsonmania! podcast but I'll also post other things of interest to Jolson fans.

If you are a big fan of the World's Greatest Entertainer you'll likely know of 20th Century Fox's October release of Hollywood Cavalcade and Rose of Washington Square as part of the Alice Faye Collection Volume 2 boxset. Both films from 1939 have Al only in cameo (in Cavalcade he appears only in a recreation of The Jazz Singer (1927) Kol Nidre scene) or supporting roles but its great to see them particularly Rose because he sings many of his biggest hits and the disc is full of extras including the cut Avalon/April Showers medley.

The Faye boxset includes 3 other Fox musicals which are good fun. The most famous is Hello,Frisco,Hello (1943) which introduced the classic standard You'll Never Know.

Its good value at $49.98 for the set though I'm sure it will be available cheaper online. If you are interested only in the Jolson films those can be bought on their own for $19.98 each.

A commentary on Rose might have been the icing on the cake though maybe we are lucky to see it at all. I hope I'm wrong though as you see above it appears the PC brigade meant Fox had to change the cover of Rose from a blackface to whiteface image which doesn't look right. For one thing Al's head looks too big for his body. To me it just looks ridiculous. I mean if you are buying the film its unlikely you will be hung up on the blackface anyway.

Still apart from this a great effort from Fox, now we just need Swanee River (1939) being optimistic I'd love to see it with a documentary all about minstrelsy seen as it should be in the context of its times and with some emphasis on its importance as a precursor of white and black vaudeville. I wonder if anyone would have the courage to make something like that today ?