Word: jolson
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...good son of a bitch," George Jessel said about Singer Al Jolson, who died in 1950, "but he was the greatest entertainer I've ever seen." According to a new biography by Freelance Michael Freedland, the greatest encore of Jolson's career was his tours for the U.S.O. during World...
...urgent phone call from Mamie Eisenhower, who dictated a note to be delivered to her husband: "Dear Ike: Al will give you this note and give you a sweet kiss from me-and also a swift kick, because you haven't written for so long." Jolson delivered the message to General Eisenhower, commander in chief of the Allied Forces in North Africa. "Well," said Ike, "when you get back home, give Mrs. Eisenhower back that kiss. As for the other ..." Ike bent over, lifted the flap of his jacket and told Jolson to carry out his wife...
...Margery Cohen's readition of "That's Him," from One Touch of Venus, is impressively suited to Ogden Nash's lyrics. Lanning runs into trouble, however, with his "September Song." His jut-jawed, toothless version is obviously patterned after Walter Huston, but comes out sounding so much like Al Jolson that you expect him to genuflect and cry out "Mammy" at the end. Cohen and Lander do a witty, sultry, perfect interpretation of Langston Hughes's lyrics from Street Scene...
Died. Gilbert Seldes, 77. author, critic and longtime booster of the popular arts; of a heart attack; in Manhattan. In 1924 Seldes stirred a sensation with his The Seven Lively Arts, in which he argued that Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, jazz, the circus and burlesque had it all over the Barrymores, the Metropolitan Opera or the works of Cecil B. DeMille. Indeed, he made a case that Krazy Kat, the comic strip, was the most satisfactory work of art then produced in America-all of which enraged serious critics of the day and titillated Seldes' many fans...