“It was Jolson more than any other who transformed the (Vaudeville) industry drugged on saccharine, antiseptic renditions of songs like “Bicycle Built for Two” and” I Dream of Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair” and jazz it up with finger-popping hyper-kinetic rags.” 

 

Yowza, yowza, yowza, we are starting out 2007 with a new seven-part interview on Vaudeville with Trav S.D. who recently published a fascinating and entertaining book entitled “No Applause, Just Throw Money.”  This insightful book provides a provocative look at the birth of show business. Trav and I will discuss the musical, comedic, and magical talents of Al Jolson.  But, let’s not forget Eddie Cantor, Bert Williams, Sophie Tucker, Fanny Brice, Harry Houdini, Judy Garland, Mae West, Bob Hope, Buster Keaton, Milton Berle and many, more, more, more.

 

Free Vaudeville Part I Interview Podcast

After collecting audio assets for five Jolson related interviews, I have launched the First Jolson Podcast and you can listen to my 7-part interview on Vaudeville with author Trav S.D. 

 

To listen to the free Jolson and Friends Blog Podcast published audio files

Use http://feed.jolsonblog.com and click on:

 

Jolson and Friends Blog Podcast: Vaudeville Interview Part I

 

To subscribe to the free Jolson and Friends Blog Podcast published audio files

 

Use http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/ or http://www.podcastalley.com or http://bloglines.com/ to set-up account and then search on Jolson and Friends Blog Podcast.

 

If you are currently using a RSS or atom reader add http://feed.jolsonblog.com to you subscribed content list.

 

 

Janet Cantor Gari

Brian Gari, grandson of Eddie Cantor,  just informed me last week that his mother Janet Cantor Gari was mugged in front of Brian’s apartment on the upper west side.  Janet has sustained multiple injuries to both her arm and hip and is still having difficulties walking.  As a personal friend of Janet’s, this is nothing less than outrageous that anyone could viciously attack and steal from such a sweet, special, intelligent and defenseless person.

 

Anyone who would like to extend their personal wishes, for a fast recovery and a happier new year, can send an email to Garisongs@aol.com or a letter or card to:

 

Janet Cantor Gari

c/o Brian Gari

650 West End Avenue

New York, NY
10025>

 

 

 

International Al Jolson Society 2007 Jolson Festival in Toronto

This exciting annual Jolson event will take place on Friday, May 25, 2007 through Sunday, May 27, 2007 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.  Special entertainment will include Tony Babino (The heart of Jolson), Richard Halpern (Mr. Tin Pan Alley), Rudy Wissler (The voice of the young Al Jolson) and William Campbell (Scotland's own Jolson).

 

For more information, go to www.Jolson.org and click on the Click for information on May, 2007, Jolson Festival near Toronto, Canada.

The Magic of Jolson (Continued)

Copyright © 2006 Brian Marcus Decker

 

As an online journalist and blogmaster, I consider myself extremely fortunate in being in the position to provide this blog community with information that is both informative and engaging as it relates to “The Worlds Greatest Entertainer”. 

In my last blog posting, I made it quite clear that I find the term “Impersonators” more offensive than most four letter words. I personally prefer tribute artists whether when discussing talented performers such as Clive Baldwin, Tony Bambino, Richard Halpern or Rick Rogers. 

 

Clive Baldwin among other Jolson tribute artists does stand out for many reasons.  He has starred with Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor in the "Last Great Vaudeville Show" and performed as Jolson, with Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire and Angela Landsbury on a special Tony awards salute to Jolson live from the famous Winter Garden Broadway Theater.

 

Clive is also a very accomplished and dynamic performer, who has mastered Jolson’s technique of whistling and possesses the uncanny, totally natural ability to talk and sing like Jolie (i.e., in the later Decca recordings).  It is also interesting that Erle Krasna, widow of the late Al Jolson was also amazed at the similarity in their vocals and claimed to be one of Clive's biggest fans.  Ruby Keeler, Jolson’s third wife, was quoted on television, “that Clive Guy from England sounds just like him even to the fascinating bird whistle.” 

 

In fact, when I first spoke to Clive on the phone, I was so dumb struck and speechless that I had to constantly remind myself that I was not dreaming.  It was a transcendent experience for me and my curiosity drove me to attend his performance on November 26^th at the Queensborough Performing Arts Center in Queens, New York.

 

As a performer, Clive’s persona is humble and openly acknowledges that he is a merely a tribute artist (and not Al Jolson).  Clive loves every minute performing the music and magic of his muse, the legendary Al Jolson.  He does this through poetry, song, jokes and film. He even took a moment to promote the importance of the International Al Jolson Society in helping to keep the memory of Al Jolson alive (now almost 57 years after his death).

 

This magical venue started with film clips from various Jolson films. This helped set the mood and demonstrate what made Al Jolson the “Worlds Greatest Entertainer.  There were many memorable moments of the concert including a medley of Stephen Foster songs, including “Oh Susanna”, “I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” and “Swanee”.  Historically, these songs inspired Jolson in his career and were written approximately 40 years before he was even born. Note that two of these songs were part of Jolson’s final recording session on July 17, 1950.

 

Clive also brilliantly performed a song in Yiddish that was edited out of the original film release of “The Jolson Story”.  I was fortunate to see this rare film footage of Jolson performing this hauntingly melodic song in a special viewing at an International Al Jolson Society event.

 

Other highlights to this concert included:

·         Virtual duet by playing a 1944 vintage, orchestrated track with Jolson singing "Who Said Dreams Don't Come True?"

·         Hyper-kinetic version of “Toot Toot Tootsie! (Goodbye)” that included the traditional Jolson whistle and shuffle.

·         Entertaining performance of Clive’s signature song” Minstrel Man”.

·         Heartfelt renditions of “Is It True What They Say About Dixie?”, “After You've Gone”, “I'm Just Wild About Harry”, I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover”, “Chinatown”, “Give My Regards to Broadway”, “April Showers”, “California, Here I Come”, “Liza”, “Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody”, and “Mammy”.

·         Amazing encore performance of “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee”.

 

 

Jolson and Friends Blog Special Feature: Clive Baldwin Video Play List

 

For those of you, who have not had the opportunity to see Clive Baldwin perform, the Jolson and Friends Blog will be featuring a few video links on www.youtube.com over the course of the next six-weeks.

 

Click here to view Clive Baldwin’s video performing the Jolson classic, ““Toot Toot Tootsie! (Goodbye)”:

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=TmDH7IUwOXI

 

 

NEW SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Video tape to DVD transfer services

 

My overall mission for this blog is to preserve and archive an important part of our cultural history as it relates to Jolson, as well as related music and the performing arts.  Too often, many of these historical treasures, including people, films, recordings, artwork and theatres have disappeared and have been long forgotten.

 

In our personal lives, many of us have kept copies of videotapes of important friends and family events including vacations, birthdays, weddings and holiday celebrations. After 10 years of lying on the shelf in a closet, you may find out that some of your video tapes are no longer playable and these precious moments are lost forever.

 

As a special service to the Jolson and Friends community, Affinitee LLC is offering an affordable way to preserve these priceless memories digitally for generations by transferring your VHS tapes to DVDs.

 

VHS (unedited) videotape transfers to DVD is $14.95 plus shipping.
Additional DVD copies of the same VHS tape are $9.95.

 

• Return U.S. shipping costs for up to three original videotapes and DVD copies is $9.95 via FedEx Ground or UPS with no signature required.
• These DVD-videos are 100% compliant to the DVD standards and will play on DVD players that read DVD-R media. Almost all DVD players made in the past 3 years play DVD-R media.
• Your tape transfer to DVD will include chapter markers every 10 minutes. Just use the fast forward function on your DVD remote to jump forward or backwards.
• These prices are based on up to two-hours of continuous tape conversions without any editing for VHS format tapes only.
• This service can not duplicate materials that are copy protected including commercial films.

 

To place a videotape transfer to DVD order or request additional information, payments through Pay Pal, please contact: brian@affinitee.com . Please send your contact information (including email, VHS videotapes and checks to:

 

AffiniTee LLC c/o

Brian Marcus Decker

24 Arverne Road

West Orange, NJ

07052>

 

You can still save on limited edition T-shirts up (Includes FREE Shipping)

 

You will be “Sitting on Top of the World” with these limited edition T-shirts.  These are perfect holiday gifts for collectors of nostalgia and a must have for anyone interested in the legendary Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor. Each t-shirt comes with a FREE matching gift card.

 

AffiniTee LLC only uses brand new Hanes Beefy-Ts premium 6.1 oz. heavyweight pre-shrunk 100% cotton.  These unique vintage images are applied using a high pressure industrial heat press and professional grade hot transfers and a proprietary process for extended wear.

 

This unique T-shirts is available in white or black in adult sizes including small (34-36), medium (38-40), adult large (42-44) and XL (46-48) sizes. Additional sizes including children, adult XXL and XXXL are available on a special order basis and are subject to a $3.00 surcharge to prices listed below

 

 

 

     Jolson Singing Fool                       Cantor Tell to the Judge                         Moon Rocket Ride

 

     Jolie                                          Old Time Baseball                     Asbury Park Clowns

           Sherlock Double                          Sherlock Improbable                           Sudoku Puzzle

 

 

 

Here’s the Deal:

 

Al Jolson Limited Edition T-shirt: The Singing Fool

This is a vintage color reproduction of a 1928 theatrical program.

 

Eddie Cantor Limited Edition T-shirt: Tell it to the Judge

This is a vintage two-color reproduction of 1930s board game.

 

Moon Rocket Ride Limited Edition Carnival T-shirt

This is a vintage color reproduction of a hand painted tin carnival sign.

 

Jolie NEW Black & White Limited Edition T-shirt:

This is a vintage B/W illustration of Jolie from the 1920s.

 

NEW Color Old Time Baseball Limited Edition T-shirt:

Forget the Dodgers; this is real deal, a turn of the century Brooklyn Baseball T-shirt.

 

NEW Asbury Park Clowns Limited Edition Boardwalk T-shirt

This clown no longer graces Asbury Park Boardwalk, but this vintage color reproduction lives on.

 

NEW Sherlock Double Limited Edition T-shirt

Looking left and right “the game is afoot” with this vintage, black and white illustrated, Sherlock t-shirt, with no clues overlooked. 

 

NEW Sherlock Improbable Limited Edition T-shirt

Vintage Sherlock, black and white illustrated profile, on t-shirt with famous quote, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

 

NEW Sudoku Clueless Limited Edition T-shirt

Sudoku aficionados can proudly challenge the world with this puzzling T-shirt.

  

 

 

Here’s the Deal: Save up to 10%

 

White or Natural T-Shirt: $18.00 with FREE U.S Shipping and Matching Gift Card (Regular price $20.00)

 

Black T-Shirt: $20.00 with FREE U.S Shipping and Matching Gift Card (Regular price $22.00)

 

Pack of 5 gift cards: with envelopes is $9.00 with FREE U.S Shipping (Regular price $10.00)

 

Pack of 10 gift cards: with envelopes is $16.00 with FREE U.S Shipping (Regular price $18.00)

 

 

For additional information, special orders, discounted shipping outside the U.S.,payments through Pay Pal, please contact: brian@affinitee.com .

 

To order please specify style (Jolson, Cantor, Moon, Jolie, Brooklyn Baseball, Asbury Park Clown, Sherlock Double Profile, Sherlock Improbable, Sudoku), quantity, size, t-shirt color (white/natural or black), type (t-shirts or matching gift cards) and your shipping address. Please send checks to:

 

AffiniTee LLC c/o

Brian Marcus Decker

24 Arverne Road

West Orange, NJ

07052>

 

 

Part I: Vaudeville Interview with Trav S.D.

“At the beginning of the twentieth century Vaudeville was synonymous with show business so that later when you get into radio and movies and TV.  The lion’s shares, of stars in those mediums, were former vaudevillians.” 

 

Yowza, yowsa, yowza. This is Brian Marcus Decker, for the Jolson and Friends Blog located on the web at www.JolsonBlog.com the first tech-nostalgia blog dedicated to the musical influences of Al Jolson and friends.  Starting right now, ladies and gentleman, the Jolson and Friends Blog presents a new seven-part series on Vaudeville direct from downtown Manhattan this new Vaudeville extravaganza starring Trav S.D., an author, journalist, playwright, director and performance artist.  He has recently published a fascinating and entertaining book entitled “No Applause, Just Throw Money” which provides a provocative look at the history and impact of Vaudeville on American culture. 

 

The book also addresses a triage of topics including the performers, the Vaudeville circuit theaters as well as their owners.  Highlighted in this book are the musical, comedic, and magical talents of, of course, our one and only Al Jolson, as well as Eddie Cantor, Bert Williams, Sophie Tucker, Fanny Brice, Harry Houdini, Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Ellen, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland, The Marx Brothers, Mae West, W.C. Fields, Bob Hope, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Milton Berle, Norah Bays, George M. Cohan, Weber and Fields and many, many more. And now for the opening act, guaranteed to be a real crowd pleaser, Trav S.D. 

 

Travis, thank you for taking the time to talk with the Jolson and Friends Blog community and I wanted to start out with a couple of questions. 

 

Why do you refer to Vaudeville as being the birth of show business and one of the most influential entertainment genres in American history?

 

Trav S.D.:  Well one important reason it was influential is the talent pool that trained there.  At the beginning of the twentieth century Vaudeville was synonymous with show business so that later when you get into radio and movies and TV.  The lion’s shares, of stars in those mediums, were former vaudevillians.  Several dozen of them were still players well into the seventies and it was not until the eighties when there was just a handful like Bob Hope and George Burns and Milton Berle and of course those entertainers influenced everyone who came later so that’s one major reason.  Another is that Vaudeville is kind of a nexus of everything else.  It has aspects of circus; it has aspects of saloon entertainment, and legitimate theater.  You could see ballet and opera performers in Vaudeville and then that format was very well suited to radio and television when variety would thrive and the artists themselves reinvented musical theater and influenced silent and talking films, so Vaudeville just kind of seems to be the mother of it all.

 

Brian Marcus Decker:  The Vaudeville era starts in the 1880s and is pronounced dead in the early 1930s.  Historically its origins seemed to evolve from much, much earlier time periods.  Where does the term Vaudeville originate from?

 

Trav S.D.: It’s sort of lost in the mists of time.  There are two competing theories.  One is that, and I’m not a French scholar so forgive my pronunciations, but vau-de-vire something like that, voice of the city, and then there’s another theory that it’s connected to a certain kind of drinking song that evolved in like mediaeval times in Normandy and that phrase was val de vire  a certain region in Normandy, so for a while for a long time Vaudeville was used as a word very loosely to mean light entertainment and still is sometimes, but in the late nineteenth century it started to be used very specifically as like a brand for a very particular kind of entertainment.

 

Brian Marcus Decker:  One of my favorite quotes from your book as it relates to Jolson is, “It was Jolson more than any other who transformed the (Vaudeville) industry drugged on saccharine, antiseptic renditions of songs like “Bicycle Built for Two” and” I Dream of Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair” and jazz it up with finger-popping hyperkinetic rags”.  There are many other witty and contextual references to Jolson throughout the book.  Although you point out that Jolson’s time Vaudeville was relatively short in comparison to the history of Vaudeville, why is he so important to the history of this art form?

 

Trav S.D.: I think of him sort of as like a 1911’s equivalent to Elvis.  He reinvented what it was to be a singer.  He kind of changed the whole expectation of an audience on what a singer would be about.  It’s kind of hard to give an example of the old way of doing things that most people today would recognize.  I think of somebody like Nelson Eddy as being a very late example of the way people used to sing, or like Gordon McCray, but that’s how influential Jolson was.  He kind of changed the way we, you know, we think a singer’s going to perform and then for the rest of Vaudeville’s existence even though Jolson was so influential that most of the top male singing talent were all apples off of Jolson’s tree.  People like Eddie Cantor and Georgie Jessel and Harry Richman, Lou Holtz.  Even though he’s a very different kind of singer Frank Sinatra has even said that Jolson was an important influence

.

 

This is Brian Marcus Decker and thank you for joining us on the Jolson and Friends blog.  This is the first and most important blog dedicated to the life and musical influences of the legendary Al Jolson, The World’s Greatest Entertainer, as well as his many friends.  And please visit us again http://www.jolsonblog.com. 

 

January 18, 2006: Vaudeville Interview Part II

 

• What is fuelling this contemporary interest in Vaudeville as an important art form?
• In your book you share with readers a number of intelligent, quirky, and informative perspectives on Vaudeville.  Can you talk about some of the most unusual acts?
• Why do you think Vaudeville is considered the catalyst for most mass-entertainment mediums, including audio recordings, radio, both silent and talking pictures, television, the book musical, as well as stand-up and skit comedy?

 

Changes to Jolson and Friends Blog

 

In the upcoming months I am looking to continue to evolve the Jolson and Friends Blog and wanted preview some upcoming changes.  I am continuing to promote the sale of Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor and several addititonal Limited Edition T-shirt designs (featured above) and matching gift cards (with free shipping). The sales from these items will help offset the cost of maintaining this blog.

 

Due to the time intensive nature of ongoing research, content development, production and maintaining and the Blog, I will am publishing twice a month instead of weekly. The next blog update will happen on January 18, 2007.

  

I am starting to work on several future Jolson and Friends projects including:

·         New VHS videotape to DVD transfer service.

·         Jolson and Friends Recommended Reading and Viewer Lists including cost-saving shopping links to find new, out-of-print books, videos and more.

·         Expanded global coverage of local events.

·         Future podcasts of upcoming interviews and special performance-based content.

 

To ensure that you are automatically informed about new postings, please enter your email address at the sidebar on the left of this blog page or send an email to my attention, with the subject line “Subscribe”, to: brian@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.

 

There are two ways to share your comments with the Jolson and Friends blog community.  

 

1.      If you would like to have your comments posted on this Blog, use

 

 

http://jolsonblog.com/2007/01/01/part-i-vaudeville-is-alive-and-well-read-on-jolson-and-friends-blog .aspx#AddComment

 

 

2.      If you want to share your comments privately, send via email to

 

brian@JolsonBlog.com.

 

 

Jolson and Friends Blog Required Reading List

No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous (Paperback) by Trav S.D.

Click here to shop and buy this book from Amazon

 

 

My Fifteen Minutes: An Autobiography of a Child Star of the Golden Era of Hollywood (Paperback) by Sybil Jason.

 

Click here to shop and buy this book from Amazon

 

When Jolson Was King: (Paperback) by Richard Grudens.  Richard Grudens has written an entertaining and informative (must read) book for anyone interested in the legendary, Al Jolson "The World's Greatest Entertainer".

“The book contains many facets of Jolson' career including those around him, his competition, employers, and comments from those he inspired enough to form their own careers, the issue of minstrel, blackface performers, fabled stories of the famed Friar's Club, a chapter of the infamous Shubert Brothers, and chapters covering Jolson's experiences in film, radio and his extensive USO travels. Covered too are vignettes of the theatres in which Jolson performed, and of those great theatrical competitors like the Barrymore's and where they were voicing their talents while Jolson was pulling them in at the Winter Garden, and a full feature on Jolson's films from the first talkie, The Jazz Singer to his famed bio-pics The Jolson Story and Jolson Sings Again.” – Richard Grudens

Click here to shop and buy this book from Amazon

 

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