"Jessel had some exposure to Vitaphone and making talking pictures and so on. There was a tremendous amount of publicity announcing Jessel as the star of the upcoming The Jazz Singer. So, this was a public expectation in 1926, very early 1927. However, when the Warner brothers saw the reaction to Al Jolson A Plantation Act, which was nothing short of electric, it’s just incredible even today. And then simultaneously, Jessel started hinting that since he was now expected to sing and talk instead of just silently act, that he must get some more money, the Warner brothers in actual fact, used his complaint to say, "You know what, we really want Jolson now. We don’t want Jessel. We see what Jolson can do."

Yowza, Yowza, Yowza. This is Brian Marcus Decker, for the Jolson and Friends Blog located on the web at www.JolsonBlog.com, which is the first tech-nostalgic blog dedicated to the musical influences of Al Jolson and Friends.

Well folks, it's now time to continue with Part IV of our outstanding Jazz Singer interview with Ron Hutchinson, one of the co-founders of the Vitaphone Project. Due to their extensive efforts working with private collectors, university film archives, the Library of Congress, Warner Bros. and Turner Entertainment they have successfully preserved hundreds of early Vitaphone and Vitaphone Variety film performances. Included in this illustrious Vitaphone catalog include performances by the legendary Al Jolson, Burns & Allen, Baby Rose Marie, Ruth Etting, Weber & Fields, The Seven Little Foys, Georgie Price, George Jessel, Joe E. Brown, Sissle & Blake, Jack Benny, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, William Demarest, Joe Frisco, Jack Norworth, Molly Picon, Rudy Vallee and many, many more.

We will also have an opportunity to discuss with Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project the overall involvement with the recent Commemorative 80th Anniversary Edition of the legendary film, The Jazz Singer: This three-disc deluxe DVD EDITION is nothing short of fantastic. For Jolson fans and anyone interested in early 20th century performing arts, music, film and nostalgia, this is a must buy. This incredible three-disc collection includes more than several hours of digital transferred and immaculately refurbished soundtracks from the original Vitaphone Sound on Disc recordings. This special collection also includes behind the scene Jazz Singer photo cards, souvenir programs that include reviews, news articles, a Vitaphone brochure, replicas of postcards that even Al Jolson sent to Jack Warner following the death of his brother and more.

80th Anniversary DVD Edition of THE JAZZ SINGER

Click here to shop for this three-disc DVD from Amazon

Free Jolson and Friends Podcasts

You can listen to the entire series of interviews including my current eight-part interview with Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project, Rich Conaty of the Big Broadcast radio show, Asa the Magnificent Minstrel, the Vaudeville series with author Trav S.D. and our favorite child actress, Sybil Jason.

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

just click on the listen to podcast icon on the top of this blog post.

Save up to 25% on Limited edition T-shirts (With 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, Baseball and Eddie Cantor. Each t-shirt order comes with FREE Shipping.

AffiniTee LLC only uses brand new premium 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 it to the Judge                     Moon Rocket Ride

                        Jolie                                 Old Time Baseball                             Amusing Boardwalk




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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.

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Jolie Black & White Limited Edition T-shirt: This is a vintage B/W illustration of Jolie from the 1920s.

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

Amusing Boardwalk T-shirt: This clown no longer graces the Jersey Shore Boardwalk, but this vintage color reproduction lives on.

Houdini Limited Edition T-shirt "King of Cards": No slight of hand with this vintage reproduction of a historic King of Cards poster.

Houdini Limited Edition T-shirt "Escape Artists": Try breaking out of this vintage reproduction of publicity photo of Houdini in chains.

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White or Natural T-Shirt: $14.00 with FREE U.S Shipping (30% off regular price of $20.00)

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To order please specify style (Jolson, Cantor, Moon, Jolie, Houdini King of Cards, World's Greatest Mystery Man, History of Old Time Baseball, Amusing Boardwalk, Sherlock Double Profile, Sherlock Improbable, Sudoku), quantity, size, t-shirt color (white/natural or black), type (t-shirts or gift cards) and your shipping address. Please send checks to:

AffiniTee LLC c/o:
Brian Marcus Decker
24 Arverne Road
West Orange, NJ 07052

Jolson Blog: Jazz Singer and Vitaphone Interview with Ron Hutchinson Part IV

"The Singing Fool, by this time there were probably about 3,000 to 5,000 theaters that could play the film, instead of a few hundred with The Jazz Singer. This was a hugely, hugely successful film. It was financially the most successful motion picture until Gone With the Wind, financially. So this was just beyond belief. This absolutely forced the remainder of Hollywood studios’ hand that there’s no turning back now. We’ve got to just bite the bullet and get into talking pictures. So, The Singing Fool was just incredibly successful."


Brian Marcus Decker: There are so many mythos associated with the 1927 version of The Jazz Singer. Most people are clearly under the misconception that The Jazz Singer was the very first talking picture. In fact, Al Jolson had already appeared in a few silent movies and a short talking picture in 1926 entitled A Plantation Act. Since the Vitaphone project had a great deal to do with restoring that, can you give us a little context to that?

Ron Hutchinson: It’s one of these things where it’s eerie in retrospect how this developed. But, a year before The Jazz Singer, September of 1926, Jolson signed with Warner Bros. to make one short. Now, at this point, the feature, Don Juan, was about ready to appear and with it were seven or eight shorts, operatic. There’s a banjo guy and different people. Will Hays speaks to the audience. And the plan was for Warner Bros. to have features with Vitaphone music and sound effect, but no talking, accompanied by seven or eight shorts. Increasingly, more and more were vaudeville and Broadway stars.

So, in September of 1926, at the Manhattan Opera House, where the Warner brothers had set up for filming talkie shorts, Jolson was paid $25,000 to make this 10-minute short called Al Jolson in A Plantation Act and in blackface on a farm set, he sings three songs. Our research indicated by late 1929, it had already been withdrawn by Warner Bros. It was kind of an old-fashioned looking short by 1929, even though it was only three years old. And by 1933, the records indicated that Warner Bros. didn’t even think they had either their disc or the picture anymore, because there were some inquiries at the time. So, for all intents and purposes, this was a lost short from 1933 on.

Fast forward to 1991 when the Vitaphone project is formed and we made our little wish list of what do we really want to find and work on, and that was one of them, because two of the four members were huge Jolson fans, had big collections and so on. And, of course, seemed to be a pipe dream that was never going to happen, because in 1991, no picture, no sound, nothing existed whatsoever.

Then, incredibly, and I like to think maybe because of the Vitaphone project being formed and somebody on high said, "Well, now, it’s time to start finding the pieces," around 1993, I believe, the Library of Congress found a film can that was marked "Jazz Singer trailer." And when they took the film out and ran it, the people down at the Library of Congress archives said, "This isn’t The Jazz Singer trailer. We’ve seen The Jazz Singer trailer. This isn’t it. This is Jolson without sound singing in blackface. I know what this is. This is A Plantation Act, albeit without any sound."

So, immediately, we were contacted by Robert Gitt and the Library of Congress saying, "Hey, we found the picture. Now we’ve got to find the sound." Now, this is like beyond a needle in a haystack, phonograph needle in a haystack, even. This is, where are you going to find one disc in the whole world for a particular film. Well, doing a lot of research we were able to find that, 10 years earlier, one of the founders, Dave Goldenberg, had been contacted by an old Bell Labs guy, who said he had five discs, one of which was A Plantation Act.

Well, since this time, the fellow had passed away. We had to do a lot of research. I won’t bore you with all the details, but we had to find the widow, who didn’t have a telephone, call the next door neighbor. And the next door neighbor knocked on her door and said, "Hey, somebody wants to talk to you," wanted to find out is the disc there. And it was sitting in the barn in Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. So, John Newton drove down furiously and found the discs and indeed, one of the discs is for Al Jolson  A Plantation Act.

The problem was, it was broken in five places, epoxied together such that the grooves didn’t line up. So, you had this wonderful disc. It was unplayable. It would play for about 1/4 of a second and then skip, so it was horrible. What to do? Bring in a fellow by the name of Jim Cooprider, who’s a guy known for being able to take a crumbled 78, practically, and restore it so it can be played. So, we gave it to him and he thought about it for about two months, before he even touched the disc, how am I going to do this, because you can’t just separate it, because the grooves will flake apart and now you can’t do anything with it.

So, he finally came on the idea of putting it between two heavy sheets of glass in the sun, letting it sit for an hour or two, seeing if the glue would soften. And eventually, just at the right point, he was able to slowly move the pieces up and down and separate them without flaking the grooves off. Eventually, he was able to line them up, put them together with some non-permanent adhesive and we were able then back in New Jersey up at the Shanachie Studios in Newton, New Jersey, tilt the turntable, put a couple of quarters on the needle head, so it would track. And all of us were sitting there when for the first time in over 70 years; we were the first ones hearing Jolson’s performance again. And it played all the way through once.

It was digitized, cleaned up by UCLA. And about a year later, they synchronized it with the picture and the rest is history. But, if you listen close on the DVD, you can still occasionally hear those little bumps where those five big cracks were. So, it was like nothing in 1991, something found and within three years, everything kind of came together, so that people could enjoy this performance again.

Brian Marcus Decker: That’s a great story.  Continuing, there are obviously many other stories that had to do with how Jolson actually accepted the lead role in this pioneering film, The Jazz Singer. One of them as the story goes, Georgie Jessel had appeared in a very successful theatrical version of the movie and was obviously, one of the stronger contenders for the movie role. Even Eddie Cantor was considered for the role, according to Brian Gari, Eddie Cantor’s grandson. As it goes, we talked a little bit before about the misnomer about Warner Bros. struggling financially and the mythos goes that they were not prepared to pay Jessel what he was asking. And Jolson became interested in the project. After all, the original story was loosely based on his life to begin with. Made an offer to Warner Bros., which they could not refuse, which had to do with some money, but also taking some Warner Bros. stock. From your research, can you separate for us the truth from the myth?

Ron Hutchinson: This is another one of these stories, which kind of gained credence over time and when you start digging, you kind of find out the real story. And it relates partly to A Plantation Act. And here’s why. First of all, on the program that had Al Jolson, A Plantation Act, one of the other acts was George Jessel. His was one of the other shorts. So, Jessel had some exposure to Vitaphone and making talking pictures and so on. There was a tremendous amount of publicity announcing Jessel as the star of the upcoming The Jazz Singer. So, this was a public expectation in 1926, very early 1927.

However, when the Warner brothers saw the reaction to Al Jolson A Plantation Act, which was nothing short of electric, it’s just incredible even today. And then simultaneously, Jessel started hinting that since he was now expected to sing and talk instead of just silently act, that he must get some more money, the Warner brothers in actual fact, used his complaint to say, "You know what, we really want Jolson now. We don’t want Jessel. We see what Jolson can do." So, they used that as the excuse.

Jessel stayed under contract to Warner Bros. for about another year, making silent features, no talking in them. So, what happened was, Jessel kind of gave them the excuse to go over to Jolson. Jolson was obviously even then the much, much bigger star. Jolson was paid much more than Jessel was going to be paid, so this theory that they couldn’t afford to pay Jessel doesn’t hold water. Part of the compensation was indeed in stock, which was brilliant on Jolson’s part. But, it was not a case that he worked for free and was given stock instead and might be doing the performance for nothing. So, the reality was that Warner Bros. knew that with Jolson they were going to have a likely hit with talking pictures and a future in talking pictures and they wouldn’t have that with Jessel.

Brian Marcus Decker: What were some of the other Warner Bros. Vitaphone produced films that Jolson did star in after The Jazz Singer?

Ron Hutchinson: Well, immediately after the success of The Jazz Singer, which was in circulation from October of ’27 really through 1928, his next film was The Singing Fool. The Singing Fool was, I’m going to say, about 80% talking. It comes across almost like a full talkie, if you watch. But, there are passages where it’s silent. But, it’s largely talkie. I think there were only a couple hundred words in The Jazz Singer and there are obviously a lot more in The Singing Fool.

The Singing Fool, by this time there were probably about 3,000 to 5,000 theaters that could play the film, instead of a few hundred with The Jazz Singer. This was a hugely, hugely successful film. It was financially the most successful motion picture until Gone With the Wind, financially. So this was just beyond belief. This absolutely forced the remainder of Hollywood studios’ hand that there’s no turning back now. We’ve got to just bite the bullet and get into talking pictures. So, The Singing Fool was just incredibly successful.

Afterwards, the other films made money, but nothing could compare to The Singing Fool. And his subsequent film, Say It With Songs, was somewhat criticized and then the criticism started creeping in that some of it was more of the same. The original effect of seeing Jolson talking for the first time on screen had somewhat worn off. They had seen a few films now, so the novelty was somewhat off. So, Say It With Songs was not anywhere near as successful financially.

He also did Mammy, which I think his performances get better and better and more and more comfortable as his career at Warner Bros. progresses, even has some recently-restored Technicolor scenes, which are just breath-taking. And then he also did Big Boy, which is a re-creation of a performance he had on Broadway.

But, the films were nowhere near as financially successful and by 1930, he and Warner Bros. parted company for the first time. He returned later in the 30’s, but those were the films. He did a couple of other shorts, which were mainly promotional for his features.

Brian Marcus Decker: The Jazz Singer includes several seminal Jolson songs including Dirty Hands, Dirty Faces, Toot Toot Tootsie (Goodbye), Irving Berlin’s classic Blue Skies, Mother of Mine, I Still Have You and of course the classic rendition of My Mammy. What are some your favorite Jolson films and songs and why?

Ron Hutchinson: Well, I think when you get into The Singing Fool that is where the real effect of Jolson’s performance on the screen and record sales, because I started with the Vitaphone project, primarily as a record collector. My wife, Judy, and I collect 78’s, have about 12,000, 1925 to ‘35, mainly. And among our first records we acquired were Jolson’s Brunswick 78’s from the 20’s. And one of our favorites at the time, when we first started collecting, was I’m Sittin’ on Top of the World, and was a million seller and it was as much because it was something performed by Jolson on screen. And that’s certainly one of them that I really, really love. I think we have all of Jolson’s 78’s from ’25 on and some of the earlier ones. There’s one that was cut though from; and you correct me if I’m wrong, I think from Say It With Songs, but it’s I’m Crazy for You.

Brian Marcus Decker: Great song.

Ron Hutchinson: Great song. It was cut because there was some dispute or whatever. But, the soundtrack discs still exist and it’s just wonderful and again, a little more obscure. And he did one later, which he did not record, called Hooray for Baby and Me. But, it’s hard to find any performance from that period of Jolson that isn’t really just full of life. Very often, he’ll comment to the band members during the recording, "Come on, get hot," and that kind of thing. So, it’s kind of like audio verite, sometimes, but just some great, great performances.

Jolson Blog: Vitaphone Project Interview Part V: July 31, 2008

• There were many film genres that were part of the early tests with recorded sound films. Why was it that the real success of sound movies started with the musical and the musical comedy?

Wait a Minute, wait a minute, wait a minute:
Jolson and Friends Blog Required Viewing and Reading List

80th Anniversary DVD Edition of THE JAZZ SINGER

This three-disc deluxe DVD EDITION is nothing short of fantastic. For Jolson fans and anyone interested in early 20th century performing arts, music, film and nostalgia, this is a must buy. This incredible three-disc collection includes more than several hours of digital transferred and immaculately refurbished soundtracks from the original Vitaphone Sound on Disc recordings. This special collection also includes behind the scene Jazz Singer photo cards, souvenir programs that include reviews, news articles, a Vitaphone brochure, replicas of postcards and more.

Click here to shop for this three-disc DVD from Amazon

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

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, Houdini, History of Baseball and several other unique Limited Edition T-shirt designs (featured above) and matching gift cards (all with free U.S. shipping). The sales from these items help offset the cost of maintaining this blog. Your continued support is greatly appreciated and besides they are great T-shirts.

Due to the time intensive nature of ongoing research, content development, production and maintaining and the Blog, the next blog update will happen on July 31st. I am continuing to work on several future Jolson and Friends projects including:

• Jolson and Friends Recommended Reading and Viewer Lists including cost-saving shopping links to find unique books, videos and more.
• Expanded global coverage of local events.
• Future podcasts of upcoming interviews and special performance-based content.

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Yowza, Yowza, Yowza. This is Brian Marcus Decker, for the Jolson and Friends Blog located on the web at www.JolsonBlog.com, which is the first tech-nostalgic blog dedicated to the musical influences of Al Jolson and Friends.

Well folks, it's now time to continue with Part III of our outstanding Jazz Singer interview with Ron Hutchinson, one of the co-founders of the Vitaphone Project. Due to their extensive efforts working with private collectors, university film archives, the Library of Congress, Warner Bros. and Turner Entertainment they have successfully preserved hundreds of early Vitaphone and Vitaphone Variety film performances. Included in this illustrious Vitaphone catalog include performances by the legendary Al Jolson, Burns & Allen, Baby Rose Marie, Ruth Etting, Weber & Fields, The Seven Little Foys, Georgie Price, George Jessel, Joe E. Brown, Sissle & Blake, Jack Benny, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, William Demarest, Joe Frisco, Jack Norworth, Molly Picon, Rudy Vallee and many, many more.

We will also have an opportunity to discuss with Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project the overall involvement with the recent Commemorative 80th Anniversary Edition of the legendary film, The Jazz Singer: This three-disc deluxe DVD EDITION is nothing short of fantastic. For Jolson fans and anyone interested in early 20th century performing arts, music, film and nostalgia, this is a must buy. This incredible three-disc collection includes more than several hours of digital transferred and immaculately refurbished soundtracks from the original Vitaphone Sound on Disc recordings. This special collection also includes behind the scene Jazz Singer photo cards, souvenir programs that include reviews, news articles, a Vitaphone brochure, replicas of postcards that even Al Jolson sent to Jack Warner following the death of his brother and more.


Perfect Fathers Day Gift: 80th Anniversary DVD Edition of THE JAZZ SINGER

Click here to shop for this three-disc DVD from Amazon

Free Jolson and Friends Podcasts

You can listen to the entire series of interviews including my current eight-part interview with Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project, Rich Conaty of the Big Broadcast radio show, Asa the Magnificent Minstrel, the Vaudeville series with author Trav S.D. and our favorite child actress, Sybil Jason.

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

just click on the listen to podcast icon on the top of this post.

Fathers Day Special: Save up to 25% (With 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, Baseball and Eddie Cantor. Each t-shirt and matching card order comes with FREE Shipping.

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 it to the Judge                 Moon Rocket Ride

                       Jolie                                 Old Time Baseball                     Amusing Boardwalk

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Jolson Blog: Jazz Singer and Vitaphone Interview with Ron Hutchinson Part III

"It made well over $2 million. And keep in mind, because as the theaters that could play this grew, by this time, Jolson’s next film, The Singing Fool, was out and so on, so there is a point where his newer films were going to take over from his older films. So, the return was incredible, nothing like his next film, which was hugely successful, The Singing Fool. But, it was a 400-500% return on investment, pretty good."



Brian Marcus Decker: Prior to the release of The Jazz Singer, it was rumored that Warner Bros. was having severe financial difficulty and was potentially even facing bankruptcy. How risky was that Warner Bros.’ investment in Vitaphone and is that story even true?

Ron Hutchinson: It’s absolutely untrue. It’s one of these wonderful myths. It makes a great story. Who knows when it was originally told. And then, later what happens, it gets retold and told, so it must be true.

Pretty much, here’s the real story. Warner Bros., while being at the time a second string studio, it was not a poverty studio. They had John Barrymore under contract. They were doing well. They had terrific financial backing from major banks. Goldman Sachs was a major bankroller. They were not in any way, shape or form, hurting. And Goldman Sachs bought into this whole idea of what was initially going to be, not talking pictures, but giving music and sound effects so that the smallest theater in the middle of the country could have the same kind of accompaniment that you would have in a major theater in New York or California.

So, there was no real risk. Certainly, all the other attempts at talking pictures had failed, so it was still not a sure thing. But, if The Jazz Singer didn’t succeed, Warner Bros. would still have remained a major studio. They were just unbelievably successful financially after The Jazz Singer.

Brian Marcus Decker: Can you give us a context of exactly how financially successful The Jazz Singer was?

Ron Hutchinson: Well, The Jazz Singer cost, I believe, just under $500,000, which for a feature film with a major star, albeit then not a Hollywood star, but a major known name, that was an average budget. That was not a big budget film. It wasn’t cheap. It was probably an average for an ‘A’ picture. So, even though it had sound, it wasn’t incredibly more expensive. And if you look at the film, there are a lot of scenes that are in small sets and so on. So, there’s not a tremendous amount of big budget scenes and so on.

It made well over $2 million. And keep in mind, because as the theaters that could play this grew, by this time, Jolson’s next film, The Singing Fool, was out and so on, so there is a point where his newer films were going to take over from his older films. So, the return was incredible, nothing like his next film, which was hugely successful, The Singing Fool. But, it was a 400-500% return on investment, pretty good.

Brian Marcus Decker: In 1926 Charles Divine from the Evening Telegraph called "Vitaphone-the miracle of sound." Another contemporary journalist at the time referred to Vitaphone as "the eighth wonder of the world".

First of all, do you consider the technology behind Vitaphone revolutionary or evolutionary?

Ron Hutchinson: It was evolutionary. What you had was a merging of a bunch of technologies, most of which were through Bell Laboratories and Western Electric. And it was really a merging of electrical recording, in other words, recording sound on a disc not from the force of your voice through a horn, which is how home recordings or recordings for commercial 78’s were made, where the strength of your voice vibrated a needle that cut the wax. This was doing it electrically. So, instead of a very narrow range of sound, which made for an unrealistic reproduction, this was very natural sound, a very deep, full bass, high treble and so on, a fairly natural sounding sound quality. So, now, you had natural sounding quality.

Western Electric came up with a way of synchronizing the 33 1/3 disc with the picture reliably, instead of having two motors or pulleys that Edison had or all these other contraptions. It was a fairly reliable system to keep the picture and sound in sync. And then, you had the way to reproduce it in a large theater. Edison’s attempts to have a cylinder phonograph fill a theater of 500 were futile. But now, you had loudspeakers. So, all the technology came together. But, it was an evolution from acoustic recording, from all these other attempts, and it kind of merged all these things together.

Most people had never heard electrical recording. It was just starting to be introduced at the time of The Jazz Singer into homes. So, very often, people forget one of the reasons The Jazz Singer was so awesome was they were hearing really naturally recorded sound, singing and so on, in a theater, whereas before, all they heard was this very truncated, acoustic kind of muffled sound before that.

Jolson Blog: Vitaphone Project Interview Part IV: June 26, 2008

• Continuing, there are obviously many other stories that had to do with how Jolson actually accepted the lead role in this pioneering film, The Jazz Singer. One of them as the story goes, Georgie Jessel had appeared in a very successful theatrical version of the movie and was obviously, one of the stronger contenders for the movie role. Even Eddie Cantor was considered for the role, according to Brian Gari, Eddie Cantor’s grandson. As it goes, we talked a little bit before about the misnomer about Warner Bros. struggling financially and the mythos goes that they were not prepared to pay Jessel what he was asking. And Jolson became interested in the project. After all, the original story was loosely based on his life to begin with. Made an offer to Warner Bros., which they could not refuse, which had to do with some money, but also taking some Warner Bros. stock. From your research, can you separate for us the truth from the myth?

•  What were some of the other Warner Bros. Vitaphone produced films that Jolson did star in after The Jazz Singer?

• The Jazz Singer includes several seminal Jolson songs including Dirty Hands, Dirty Faces, Toot Toot Tootsie (Goodbye), Irving Berlin’s classic Blue Skies, Mother of Mine, I Still Have You and of course the classic rendition of My Mammy. What are some your favorite Jolson films and songs and why?

Wait a Minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Looking for great Fathers Day Gifts: Jolson and Friends Blog Required Viewing and Reading List

This three-disc deluxe DVD EDITION is nothing short of fantastic. For Jolson fans and anyone interested in early 20th century performing arts, music, film and nostalgia, this is a must buy. This incredible three-disc collection includes more than several hours of digital transferred and immaculately refurbished soundtracks from the original Vitaphone Sound on Disc recordings. This special collection also includes behind the scene Jazz Singer photo cards, souvenir programs that include reviews, news articles, a Vitaphone brochure, replicas of postcards and more.

Click here to shop for this three-disc DVD from Amazon

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

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, Houdini, History of Baseball and several other unique Limited Edition T-shirt designs (featured above) and matching gift cards (all with free U.S. shipping). The sales from these items help offset the cost of maintaining this blog. Your continued support is greatly appreciated and besides they are great T-shirts.

Due to the time intensive nature of ongoing research, content development, production and maintaining and the Blog, the next blog update will happen on June 26th. I am continuing to work on several future Jolson and Friends projects including:

• Jolson and Friends Recommended Reading and Viewer Lists including cost-saving shopping links to find unique 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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"The Jazz Singer is incredibly important... What was important was, after decades of attempts to make talking pictures successful, every one of which were miserable failures, from Edison's cylinders, going on to other kinds of other attempts, what happened with this film was a wedding of technology and, in this case, the World's Greatest Entertainer to make an event that from then on, there was no turning back and remaining with silents."


Yowza, Yowza, Yowza. This is Brian Marcus Decker, for the Jolson and Friends Blog located on the web at

Well folks, it's now time to start anew with another insightful journey down memory lane. Today I am fortunate enough to be in the home of Ron Hutchinson, one of the co-founders of the Vitaphone Project. Due to their extensive efforts working with private collectors, university film archives, the Library of Congress, Warner Bros. and Turner Entertainment they have successfully preserved hundreds of early Vitaphone and Vitaphone Variety film performances. Included in this illustrious Vitaphone catalog include performances by the legendary Al Jolson, Burns & Allen, Baby Rose Marie, Ruth Etting, Weber & Fields, The Seven Little Foys, Georgie Price, George Jessel, Joe E. Brown, Sissle & Blake, Jack Benny, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, William Demarest, Joe Frisco, Jack Norworth, Molly Picon, Rudy Vallee and many, many more.

We will also have an opportunity to discuss with Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project the overall involvement with the recent Commemorative 80th Anniversary Edition of the legendary film, THE JAZZ SINGER: This three-disc deluxe DVD EDITION is nothing short of fantastic. For Jolson fans and anyone interested in early 20th century performing arts, music, film and nostalgia, this is a must buy. This incredible three-disc collection includes more than several hours of digital transferred and immaculately refurbished soundtracks from the original Vitaphone Sound on Disc recordings. This special collection also includes behind the scene Jazz Singer photo cards, souvenir programs that include reviews, news articles, a Vitaphone brochure, replicas of postcards and more.

Commemorative 80th Anniversary Edition of the legendary film, THE JAZZ SINGER

Click here to shop for this three-disc DVD from Amazon

Free Jolson and Friends Podcasts

You can listen to the entire series of interviews including my current eight-part interview with Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project, Rich Conaty of the Big Broadcast radio show, Asa the Magnificent Minstrel, the Vaudeville series with author Trav S.D. and Sybil Jason.

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

just click on the listen to podcast icon on bottom of this post

International Al Jolson Society 2008 Jolson Festival in Orlando

Thursday, May 22, 2008 through Sunday, May 25, 2008 at the Holiday Inn Select

This exciting annual Jolson event will take place on Friday, May 22nd through Sunday, May 25th in Orlando, Florida. Featured performers include Richard Halpern (Mr. Tin Pan Alley), Tony Babino (The heart of Jolson), William Campbell (Scotland's Own Jolson) and a special tribute to the late Rudy Wissler
(The voice of the young Asa in The Jolson Story).

The admission price for this complete weekend package is $175 per person, including dinners and shows, access to the memorabilia rooms, showings of Jolson films, Jolson material for sale, auction, and raffle, and the chance to mingle with others who are helping perpetuate and proclaim the fame of the World's Greatest Entertainer: Al Jolson.
.
For more information on this great event, go to www.Jolson.org . 

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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, World's Greatest Mystery Man, History of 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:

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Jolson Blog Goes to the Talkies: Vitaphone Interview Part I

"The Jazz Singer premiered at Warner's Strand in New York City on October (23), 1927, a date enshrined in film history, with all the dread decisiveness of Waterloo, Sarajevo, and Pearl Harbor. On this date the death knell of the silent movies was sounded, and the talkies were born. It had died one night in a theater when people were mesmerized by a Mammy singer. According to film historians, however, it was not Jolson the singer who shook the medium to its foundations, but Jolson the talker." - Andrew Sarris (Great quote, wrong date)



Brian Marcus Decker: Yowza, Yowza, Yowza. This is Brian Marcus Decker, for the Jolson and Friends Blog located on the web at www.JolsonBlog.com , which is the first tech-nostalgic blog dedicated to the musical influences of Al Jolson and Friends.

Well folks, it's now time to start anew with another insightful interview. Today I am fortunate enough to be in the home of Ron Hutchinson, one of the co-founders of the Vitaphone Project. They have discovered and helped preserve a vast number of early Vitaphone and Vitaphone Variety film performances, due to their extensive efforts working with private collectors, university film archives, the Library of Congress, Warner Bros. and Turner Entertainment. Included in this illustrious Vitaphone catalog include performances by the legendary Al Jolson, Burns & Allen, Baby Rose Marie, Ruth Etting, Weber & Fields, The Seven Little Foys, Georgie Price, George Jessel, Joe E. Brown, Sissle & Blake, Jack Benny, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, William Demarest, Joe Frisco, Jack Norworth, Molly Picon, Rudy Vallee and many, many more.

We will also have an opportunity to discuss with Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project the overall involvement with the recent Commemorative 80th Anniversary Edition of the legendary film, THE JAZZ SINGER: This three-disc deluxe DVD EDITION is nothing short of fantastic. For Jolson fans and anyone interested in early 20th century performing arts, music, film and nostalgia, this is a must buy. This incredible three-disc collection includes more than several hours of digital transferred and immaculately refurbished soundtracks from the original Vitaphone Sound on Disc recordings. This special collection also includes behind the scene Jazz Singer photo cards, souvenir programs that include reviews, news articles, a Vitaphone brochure, replicas of postcards that even Al Jolson sent to Jack Warner following the death of his brother and more.

Ron, first of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to talk with me and the Jolson and Friends blog community.

Ron Hutchinson: It's my pleasure.

Brian Marcus Decker: Ron, can you tell us about the origins, some of the founding members and many of the important accomplishments of the Vitaphone project?

Ron Hutchinson: Well, the project started, Brian, in 1991, and the idea that I had at the time was to leverage the record collectors worldwide to see what Vitaphone sound track discs; the 16-inch, 33 1/3 sound track discs that accompanied early talkies, and find out what was in private hands, in record collectors' hands because over the years, I had a few and I knew other collectors; when they were collecting 78's at flea markets and so on, had acquired these things.

And this is kind of pre-Internet. The Internet really came into its own in the late 90's. So, this was letter writing. It was letters to the editor in record collector magazines and so on. And we started with me, John Newton, who has a wonderful Jolson collection. John Lutis in Delaware is a record collector, the late David Goldenberg, another big Jolson fan and Vitaphone enthusiast, and Sherwin Dunner, who is a record and DVD Producer. They put a lot of jazz and blues out. And the four of us really started mobilizing, getting the word out.

Incredibly, within a year, we had already uncovered about 600 or 700 discs in private hands. So, these were not known before this. And at the same time, we were able to work with Warner Bros., which is still the only studio that kind of welcomes collectors and enthusiasts with open arms, and said, "Look, if somebody finds a disc and loans it for the restoration of a short, don't you think it would be appropriate for them to get their own personal copy? They can't sell it, but they ought to be able to at least get the finished product." It sounds like an obvious thing, right, but it's not. And to this day, no other studio will do that. And Dick May, who was then Head of the Warner Bros. and Turner Entertainment Archives, said, "Of course," because collectors were notoriously concerned that I'm going to say I got this disc and they're going to say it's my property. The studio will abscond with it and that's the end of it. And that happened in the 50's and 60's, with some studios.

So, armed with that reassurance from Warner Bros. and starting the ball rolling, we were able within a year or two to uncover a disc for the first restoration, which was Baby Rose Marie, the Child Wonder; this wonderful seven-year-old performer, later known as Rose Marie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Hollywood Squares and Murphy Brown. She's still working today. And we were able to find the disc in Delaware, worked with the Library of Congress and Warner Bros., which had the mute, silent film portion. And they were wedded together at UCLA, which has really worked with us to restore almost 85 shorts now, Robert Gitt is the head of the archive there, and basically recreated a sound-on-film short with Rose Marie. And we were able to sit with her in 1993, when for the first time in 70+ years, the short where she sings three wonderful songs with a very adult, bluesy, jazzy voice; this is not a Shirley Temple-type voice at all.

Brian Marcus Decker: Very sassy.

Ron Hutchinson: Yes. She's on the DVD set, so you can see what I mean. And to see her performance on the big screen again, after all those years, obviously, everybody was looking over at the 75-year-old woman sitting in the audience, watching herself on the screen and then back and forth. And it was just a wonderful kickoff of the Vitaphone Project.

Since then, we've, of course with the help of the Internet and screenings and lots of other publicity we've found in private hands, incredibly, over 3,500 of these 16-inch, shellac sound track discs in private hands, worked with the Library of Congress, Warner Bros., UCLA, British Film Institute and, of course, private collectors, who generously loan their discs or film and we've done about 85 restoration of shorts, some of which are in the set, mainly vaudeville, jazz, little playlets and comedy and so on, as well as about 12 features.

So, right now, I'm happy to say that there are some 50 more shorts that are in the pipeline that will be completed in about the next 18 months. So, what we always do is look for what film exists with no sound and hopefully, we can find some sound to go with the picture and marry it up.

Brian Marcus Decker: Andrew Sarris, the famous film critic, historian and author of the seminal, You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, talks about, "The Jazz Singer premiered at Warner's Strand in New York City on October 23, 1927, a date enshrined in film history, with all the dread decisiveness of Waterloo, Sarajevo, and Pearl Harbor. On this date the death knell of the silent movies was sounded, and the talkies were born. It had died one night in a theater when people were mesmerized by a Mammy singer. According to film historians, however, it was not Jolson the singer who shook the medium to its foundations, but Jolson the talker."

These observations by Andrew Sarris, about the importance of the Jazz Singer, are brilliant; even discounting the fact that the October 23, 1927 New York premiere date is actually the wrong date.

Ron Hutchinson: Right, it's the 6th, right? Yeah.

Brian Marcus Decker: Obviously October 6th. What is clear is that this original 1927 film did start, in fact, a cultural revolution.

What is your perspective on the historical importance of the movie?

Ron Hutchinson: The Jazz Singer is incredibly important. I think if you stood back and just said, "Well, as a film is it the greatest film of all time," I think even then the reviewers said, "You know, we have a schmaltzy performance," and none of that mattered even then in all of the reviews. What was important was, after decades of attempts to make talking pictures successful, every one of which were miserable failures, from Edison's cylinders, going on to other kinds of other attempts, what happened with this film was a wedding of technology and, in this case, the World's Greatest Entertainer to make an event that from then on, there was no turning back and remaining with silents.

And let me explain what I mean. Up until that time, there really weren't any processes to, first of all, fill a theater with sound. The sound quality of the other attempts was acoustic, so these were kind of not realistic sounding sound tracks from cylinders and so on. And we can kind of get into later about some of the previous history. But, basically, the technology finally caught up with radio development, microphones and so on.

So, you had the technical part and the synchronization part finally fixed with Western Electric's system that Warner Bros. called Vitaphone, but how to put it over, whereas all the other attempts failed. Well, this time, what you had was this entertainer who was hired specifically in his contract, not only to just sing, but in Jolson's contract, both for The Jazz Singer and his earlier short, A Plantation Act, it says he will sing and speak.

And Warner Bros. knew that if this personality could really be captured, it was going to be mesmerizing to audiences and really convince them that this medium was finally here to stay and this is the future of motion pictures. And certainly, the Jolson persona, which was largely known from his touring and his appearances in big cities, was now going to be seen and heard everywhere. So, the fact that he not only sang; because his singing voice was known from commercial 78's, but was seen, did a pretty good job of acting in the film, if you look at the restored film today, and spoke and sang, and you had the whole package.

So, from a historical perspective, it's really the pivotal point where within two years, if you were making a film in Hollywood, it either talked or you were out of business. And you can just chart from that moment the complete change and revolution in motion pictures. It was a big change, obviously a costly change. But, you can target it to October 1927 and see everything stem from that.

Brian Marcus Decker: The movie has also been referred to as the First Movie Heard Around the World. What impact did this film have on the global film business?

Ron Hutchinson: Well, huge. Keep in mind that the silent film was an international business. And by simply changing subtitles, a feature made in Hollywood could be made to play throughout all the theaters in the world. And very often, half or more of the revenue from a film was garnered from overseas ticket sales. The concern certainly at the beginning was that sound pictures were going to kill all of that. And initially, of course, there was no dubbing. Subtitles weren't really known.

So, the films that were successful were first of all, the musical ones, because nobody cared in Germany or France if you were hearing Jolson singing in English. They expected that. So, the early Jolson films generally were not really impacted. But, the dramatic ones were. And only a few stars, Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton; kind of interesting that they were mainly comedians, would actually refilm their shorts or features by reading phonetically off of slates right off of camera range. And they would do their entire film; Keaton did three and four versions of his features at MGM, in different languages. And they were hugely [sounds like] successful. They were paying, I think, $25,000 per version and they were probably bringing in another $200,000 or $300,000 each in each country.

So, the initial impact was that the most successful talkies were the musical ones, so, the band shorts, the singers and so on, where there was no need to make other versions. But, in 1929, in the Brooklyn studios, Warner Bros. Vitaphone Studios did start making foreign language shorts in German, French, Italian and so on, which is really not known today. Eventually dubbing came in. Subtitles came in. And they were able to recover some, but not all, of the business. But, initially, it had an impact.

Jolson Blog: Vitaphone Project Interview Part II: April 27, 2008

• Can you provide us with any context for this type of negative sentiment for The Jazz Singer and other early Vitaphone sound films?
• Are there other examples of important silent movies beyond Chaplin's Modern Times that were released after The Jazz Singer in 1927?
  
  

Jolson and Friends Blog Required Viewing and Reading List

Commemorative 80th Anniversary Edition of the legendary film, THE JAZZ SINGER
 

This three-disc deluxe DVD EDITION is nothing short of fantastic. For Jolson fans and anyone interested in early 20th century performing arts, music, film and nostalgia, this is a must buy. This incredible three-disc collection includes more than several hours of digital transferred and immaculately refurbished soundtracks from the original Vitaphone Sound on Disc recordings. This special collection also includes behind the scene Jazz Singer photo cards, souvenir programs that include reviews, news articles, a Vitaphone brochure, replicas of postcards and more.

Click here to shop for this three-disc DVD from Amazon



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

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, Houdini, History of Baseball and several other unique Limited Edition T-shirt designs (featured above) and matching gift cards (all with free U.S. shipping). The sales from these items help offset the cost of maintaining this blog. Your cont