Don’t miss the one and only Richard Halpern in a very special musical performance of songs from the 1920s and early 1930s with Richard Danley at the piano on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 8:00pm at the new Joe Franklin's Comedy Club located at 761 Seventh Avenue (50th St.) in New York City. Tickets are $20.00 plus $12.00 food/drink minimum.

 Tickets are available now by calling Steve Garrin at: (212) 541-8106.



“I've Gotta Get Back To New York”

One more week to enter the July Jolson and Friends Trivia Challenge

I am giving a FREE Al Jolson “The Singing Fool” color T-shirt to the first two people who can answer the following question correctly:

Question:

I was recently shocked to find out that beyond Al Jolson, there was a female and a Jewish male performer  that were referred to as, "The World's Greatest Entertainer" (at different times).  Can you identify both of these famous performers?

Rules: Answers must be e-mailed to Brian@JolsonBlog.com, with “Jolson and Friends Trivia Challenge” in the subject line. Two winners will be selected at random from correct responses and must be received by 12:00 noon (EST) Tuesday, July 31, 2006. Please include your full name and mailing address in your response. Only one response accepted per person per monthly Jolson and Friends Trivia Challenge. These collector edition T-shirts, are provided by AffiniTee LLC, include a vintage color reproduction of a 1928 theatrical program promoting “The Singing Fool” feature film starring the legendary, Al Jolson.

 We Want Cantor: Part V Janet and Brian Gari Interview

Brian Marcus Decker:  Janet, your father received a significant number of awards throughout his career including an academy award for his distinguished services to the film industry, accommodations from FDR in helping to create the March of Dimes.  He was also given another presidential citation from President Johnson in 1964 and the Al Jolson Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  What awards were your parents most proud of?

Janet Cantor Gari:  I would imagine the one from FDR, I guess.  I have never asked them.

FDR believed that people could solve any problem if they worked together. In 1938 Eddie Cantor coined the phrase "March of Dimes" (playing on the popular newsreel feature "The March of Time"). The effort began with a national radio appeal, asking everyone to contribute a dime to fight polio and send their dimes directly to the White House. Along with Cantor, many famous film, theatre, radio, and television personalities helped promote this charity. Because of President Roosevelt’s close association with the charity, Roosevelt was portrayed on the US dime starting in 1946 (shortly after his death in 1945).

Brian Marcus Decker:  Brian, I’m going to turn the question over to you.  What were some of the earliest memories that you had of your grandfather?  I also read somewhere that he once took you to see The Three Stooges at the movies.

Brian Gari:  That’s true, but that would have been a later memory because that was 1959.  That was, ”Have Rocket Will Travel”, and we went to see that together.  He had asked me, "Where would you like to go? You know, if we’re going to out to lunch and a movie, where would you like to go?"  And I loved The Three Stooges and little did I know that they were contemporaries of his and he loved The Three Stooges as well.  So I said, "Oh I want to see The Three Stooges, Have Rocket Will Travel", so we went to see that. 

But my earlier memories, and there were certainly memories of being at the Fontainebleau Hotel which would have been 1957.  It was for my fifth birthday.  That wasn’t the reason we were there but my grandfather flew the family to Florida, to Miami Florida, because he was getting an award there.  So he flew most of the family to Florida and I celebrated my birthday with Jimmy Durante, because we were born about a week apart, not the same the year, but in February, that’s when we were celebrating our birthdays.

Brian Marcus Decker:  Do you know anything about the origins of where the expressions of ‘Apostle of Pep’ and ‘Banjo Eyes” come from?

Brian Gari:  No, because that would have been before my time so, you know, he was known as that for quite a while.  I don’t know if … no, I don’t know where those came from, but ‘Banjo Eyes’ obviously because of the size of his eyes, and ‘Apostle of Pep’ because he certainly had a lot of energy.

Brian Marcus Decker:  "We want Cantor.  We want Cantor".  Supposedly originally to do with the vaudeville period and was used to chase off an opening act before Eddie Cantor appeared on the stage.  Is that a true story?

Brian Gari:  Oh, I’ve never heard that before.  I think it originated from his radio show when they were trying to do that Cantor for President "bit" and that was just part of the routine.

“We want Cantor.  We want Cantor”

Next Week Part VI We Want Cantor: Janet and Brian Gari discuss

• Brian can you share with us some of the controversy and significance behind your father extending the booking of a "newley" discovered guest on the Colgate Comedy Hour?

• Janet, did Florenz Ziegfeld really give your father a Roll’s Royce as a present?

This is Brian Marcus Decker and thank you for joining us on the Jolson Blog.  This is the first blog dedicated to the legendary life and musical influences of Al Jolson, The Worlds Greatest Entertainer and Friends and don’t forget to visit us weekly at www.JolsonBlog.com .

Watch for the Mail, I'll Never Fail

Your feedback is greatly appreciated and truly helps shape future content of www.JolsonBlog.com. I have recently received several engaging emails from this blog community. Keep those comments coming!  Please submit your comments directly to the blog (if you want them posted on the blog) or send via email to brian@JolsonBlog.com .

Subscribe to JolsonBlog.com

Please enter your email address at the sidebar on the left to be notified when new content is added or if you would like to be added to our weekly email reminder list; please send an email to my attention, with the subject line “Subscribe”, to brian@JolsonBlog.com .  See below for our Privacy policy and how to unsubscribe.

Privacy Policy

We value your privacy which is an important issue for all online consumers. JolsonBlog.com and AffiniTee LLC does not sell, rent, barter, swap, share, auction, grant permission or provide your email address with any outside third-party companies.

Unsubscribe

If you believe that you have received our e-newsletter in an error on our part or no longer want to receive it, please e-mail us at brian@JolsonBlog.com to have your name removed from this list or send a written request to Brian Marcus Decker c/o JolsonBlog.com at: 24 Arverne Road, West Orange, NJ, 07052>.