Vaudeville is alive and well on the Jolson and Friends Blog

“One reason I think Houdini stands out from the pack is that he pioneered and monopolized an entire separate field.  He was actually known for being an escape artist, so any competitors he had in that field were only imitators really.”

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.  Ladies and gentleman, we continue with Part VI of our spectacular seven-part series on Vaudeville starring the one and only, 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. 

Free Vaudeville Part VI Interview Podcast
 
After collecting audio assets for five Jolson related interviews, in the last few months I 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 VI

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International Al Jolson Society 2007 Jolson Festival in Toronto

This exciting annual Jolson event is happening next month.  It 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) and William Campbell (Scotland's Own Jolson).

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

Mr. Tin Pan Alley Performs in LA on Sunday Nights in April

Copyright © 2006 Brian Marcus Decker

Richard Halpern takes his audience on a musical journey back to the Jazz Age, on Sunday nights, on April 15th, April 22nd, and April 29th at 7:00 P.M. “Mr. Tin Pan Alley” will be performing the works of great songwriters from the 1910s, 1920s, and early 1930s.

Where: TEN20 Restaurant (Bel Age Hôtel)
1020 San Vicente Blvd.
W. Hollywood, California 90069

For further information, please visit Richard Halpern online at:
www.MrTinPanAlley.com and www.RichardHalpern.info.
 

Jolson and Friends Video Play List: All Future Performances Cancelled

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. YouTube.com has removed most of the movie clips that featured Jolson from their website, “due to terms of use violations”.

Update on Janet Cantor Gari and Our Best for a Fast Recovery

Janet Cantor Gari, youngest daughter of Eddie Cantor, is finally home from the hospital and has a long way to go, recovering from her broken shoulder and hip. 
Anyone who would still like to extend their personal wishes for a fast recovery can still 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

New Series of Houdini T-shirts and for a Limited Time, Save 20% on Special Edition T-shirts (Still 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, Houdini, history of Baseball 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

        King of Cards                  Escape Artist             Man of Mystery

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Try breaking out of this vintage reproduction of publicity photo of Houdini in chains

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There is no escaping from this vintage color reproduction of Death Defying Mystery poster

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 History of Baseball Limited Edition T-shirt:
This is the real deal for Baseball fans, an authentic turn of the century History of Baseball T-shirt featuring the best players from Bostn, New York, Chicago and Detroit.

Asbury Park Clowns Limited Edition Boardwalk T-shirt
This clown no longer graces Asbury Park Boardwalk, but this vintage color reproduction lives on.

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. 

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.”

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

Here’s the Deal: Save up to 15%

White or Natural T-Shirt: $17.00 with FREE U.S Shipping and Matching Gift Card (Regular price $20.00)

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Pack of 5 gift cards: with envelopes is now $8.50 with FREE U.S Shipping (Regular price $10.00)

Pack of 10 gift cards: with envelopes is now $15.00 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, Houdini King of Cards, Escape Artist, Death Defyinig Mystery, Old Time 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 VI: Vaudeville Interview with Trav S.D.

“You know, I thought of two contrasting Irish dads.  One is Jerry Cohan who was George M. Cohan’s father who was known for being gentle, sort of nurturing parent and he raised these two brilliant children, Josie and George M ... The opposite kind of father I think is Joe Keaton, who was Buster Keaton’s father, and they had a knock about acrobatic act in which Buster was a child, he was about five years old or so, and his father would you know hit him with brooms and kick him and throw him out.  Once he even threw him into the audience at some hecklers and once he even knocked Buster out”

Brian Marcus Decker:  Well I have to agree with you vaudeville certainly produced an enormous talent who’s certainly legacy has withstood the test of time.  You know, certainly including Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, I would certainly include Sophie Tucker, Bert Williams, Fanny Brice, Harry Houdini, Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Jimmy Durante, The Marx Brothers, Mae West, W.C. Fields, Bob Hope, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, but there were so many other significant number of performers who just faded away from popular memory.  Can you share some of those people with us?

Trav S.D.:  Sure.  Well one I think of quite a lot because he was hugely influential is a guy named Frank Fay.  I think of him as being sort of the father of modern stand-up.  He was probably the prime MC at The Palace.  He’s one.  Somebody else who’s really important is Ted Healy.  The Three Stooges were his stooges, which means that he was the star of their act and they were you know, comic relief who came up on stage and he hit them but he you know, told jokes and he sang and he was a major star at the time, and why a lot of these people have faded from history is a question.  I think some of the earlier performers like Gus Edwards you mentioned, has to do with the recording arts and the fact that you don’t see them in films and TV and frankly even I’m bored about reading people in books sometimes, but also more troubling to me is people who are really big stars and who are really big stars recently like Jack Benny or Fred Allen who are sort of rapidly fading into oblivion.  And I was even alarmed when Bob Hope passed away recently and the news obituaries kind of took a tone of they felt they needed to explain who he was and you know it’s kind of flabbergasting to me because you know just a few years ago he was a titan, so go figure.

Brian Marcus Decker:  It’s interesting that you mention Gus Edwards.  Certainly he was an important songwriter as well as a recording artist.  He certainly had a voluminous library of recordings that were issued.  He was also responsible for the discovery of more young talent than anyone associated with vaudeville.  Is there anything else you could share with us about Gus Edwards?

Trav S.D.:  Well only that people like Eddie Cantor and Georgie Jessel, Groucho Marx is another one, who were hired as children and he had a very almost like a show within a show.  I think of something like similar to the little rascals, you know kind of a cute rag-tag little company of kids and then they would have several sketches and then they would sing songs and so, vaudeville you know was family entertainment, that’s kind of it’s reason for being period.  So, something for the kids.

Brian Marcus Decker:  Vaudeville was extremely competitive business that starts with Tony Pastor who’s considered the father of vaudeville.  Who were some of the other vaudeville circuit owners and can you share with us a story or two that demonstrate the ruthless nature of the business?

Trav S.D.:  Probably the most important is a man named B.F. Keith who started out in Boston with his manager Edward Albee.  No matter where you are in America now chances are you’ve probably seen some old theater in your town or not far from your town that might still say Keith, or some combination , (i.e., Keith-Albee, Keith-Proctor, Keith Albee, Keith Procter), something like that.  The two of them gradually over the span of several years kind of conquered the whole vaudeville market and made a virtual monopoly out of it.  (Edward Albee by the way is the grandfather by adoption of the playwright, Edward Albee). 
One story about them has to do with the genesis of The Palace.  There was another producer named Martin Beck who was the head of the Orpheum Circuit which was the western circuit based out of Chicago and he is the one actually who started building The Palace; however they sort of maneuvered to get controlling interesting of his stock while he was in Europe booking Sarah Bernhardt, kind of stole it ruthlessly right out from under him.  Another, on the west coast, a story kind of vaudeville wars was two separate producers, one was Alexander Pantages and another was John Sullivan of the Sullivan and Considine circuits, and these guys fought this sort of unprincipled war for conquest of the Pacific northwest believe it or not, and they would literally you know meet the entertainers who were booked to play the other circuit.  They would go and like meet them at the train station and steal them or you know mix up their props or bribe, you know, baggage handlers to screw up, you know.  They fought a very ruthless war.

Brian Marcus Decker:  In your book you discuss many of the famous family acts as well in vaudeville from the Cohans to the Foys to the Keatons to the Chaplins, and sister acts from the Gumm Sisters to the Hilton Sisters to the Cherry Sisters.  Can you share one of your favorite stories about on of these family acts?

Trav S.D.:  You know, I thought of two contrasting Irish dads.  One is Jerry Cohan who was George M. Cohan’s father who was known for being gentle, sort of nurturing parent and he raised these two brilliant children, Josie and George M., with never a hand raised to discipline them, and there’s a very touching story that George M. Cohan told in his later years about kind of mentally seeing the ghost of this father egging him on saying, you know, ‘put it over Georgie’ that kind of thing. 
The opposite kind of father I think is Joe Keaton, who was Buster Keaton’s father, and they had a knock about acrobatic act in which Buster was a child, he was about five years old or so, and his father would you know hit him with brooms and kick him and throw him out.  Once he even threw him into the audience at some hecklers and once he even knocked Buster out, so you know, you have the full range of happy families and unhappy vaudeville families.

Brian Marcus Decker:  Although it was not unusual to see magicians performing on the vaudeville stage, what made Harry Houdini such an extraordinary and successful performer?

Trav S.D.:  One reason I think Houdini stands out from the pack is that he pioneered and monopolized an entire separate field.  He was actually known for being an escape artist, so any competitors he had in that field were only imitators really.  It’s kind of like David Blane today.  He’s not a magician any more he’s the guy who goes in things and doesn’t come out for a while. 
Houdini was one of the top half dozen vaudevillians of all time through a combination of skill and showmanship and you know, I don’t know if you’re aware but today there’s a whole kind of sideshow revival that’s been going on for about 15 years and you’ll see these kids in tattoos and body piercings and they’ll eat fire and swallow swords and things like that, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen somebody escape from a straight jacket in like a minute or two.  They try and make it a big fast punk production, and when Houdini would do it he would take hours, and hours, and hours, and he’d come out and he’d be sweating and the sweat would be pouring off him and you know that’s showmanship, illustrating the drama even if it’s fake, to me somehow that’s a more compelling act if you’re worried, you know, if he’s going to come out of that trunk alive.

April 29, 2007: Vaudeville Interview Part VII (Conclusion)


Trav, you refer to Al Jolson’s 1909 rendition of the song Hello My Baby as surely history’s first recorded phone sex.  It’s a pretty provocative statement.  While vaudeville was considered family entertainment, who were some of the performers who really pushed the blue envelope?

As comprehensive as the book is, you’ve clearly stated in your interviews that neither you nor the book is academic.  Could you explain that to us?

R. Crumb who I consider to be one of the truly brilliant underground artists of the twentieth century recently published Heroes of Blues Jazz and Country with fantastic art, a bonus music CD collection of some really obscure classic recordings from his own personal music collection.  With vaudeville being such a visual and sound focused medium, have you considered creating an audio or video extension to your book?

Trav, in addition to your talent as an author and a journalist you’re also a performer who’s dedicated to keeping this tradition of vaudeville alive.  Can you talk to us about some of your recent theatrical projects?

How can members of the Jolson and Friends online community purchase your book No Applause, Just Throw Money?

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

For a Limited Time, Save 20% on VHS Video tape to DVD Transfers

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.

For a limited time, save 20% on VHS (unedited) videotape transfers to DVD.  Now $11.99 plus shipping (regularly $14.99).  Additional DVD copies of the same VHS tape are now $7.99 (regularly $9.99). 

* 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 .

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.  As of this post, I am promoting the sale of Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor and fifteen new 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 April 29, 2007.

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

* Video tapes to DVD transfer service.
 
* Jolson and Friends Recommended Reading and Viewer Lists including cost-saving shopping links to find 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.

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