|The IAJS|Video Department
Within the tracks of this DVD, Jolson on Celluloid, are images of Al Jolson spanning almost forty years of his life. Including footage never before widely available to collectors, as well as videos specially prepared for this collection, it allows a unique view of an aspect of Al Jolson not seen in his feature film appearances.
There are clips of a young Al Jolson in front of an acoustic recording horn, and the mature man, billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," on his final tour before his favorite audience. Included are rare clips from battlefields during World War II and the Korean War, as well as several short films featuring Al Jolson.
Among the more than twenty segments are the Screen Test footage, shot by Jolson during the making of the film biography of his life, film of the Soldier Field program in Chicago during August, 1949, and home movies shot at the Jolsons' Encino home, featuring Al, Erle, Asa Jr., and Alicia.
There is also newsreel coverage of Al Jolson's funeral, as well as tributes done in his honor after his passing.
Each of these clips is presented in the best possible quality. While several of them were shot without sound, audio tracks have been added to suggest the flavor of the original program. Perhaps the best way to describe this DVD would be to paraphrase Jolson's famous catch phrase: Until you've watched this disc, you ain't seen nothin' yet!
This 1939 musical drama produced by Darryl F. Zanuck for Twentieth Century Fox gives film audiences some of Al Jolson's finest screen moments. Loosely based on the story of Fanny Brice's headline stealing marriage, the beautiful Alice Faye playes Rose Sargent, and Tyrone Power her con-artist husband. Despite getting third billing, Al Jolson, as Ted Cotter, is showcased by director Gregory Ratoff into magnificent performances of some of his classic numbers. Never before available, included in this DVD are Jolson's deleted scenes, and alternate audio takes specially produced for this DVD.
Available in VHS format only, this new compilation is entitled "Al Jolson in the Movies: His Greatest Movie Song Hits". It contains more than two hours of almost every song Al sang in the movies, including several from The Jolson Story and Jolson Sings Again.
Selections include songs from A Plantation Act, The Jazz Singer, The Singing Fool, Say It With Songs, Mammy, Big Boy, Hallelujah, I'm A Bum, Wonder Bar, The Singing Kid, Hollywood Cavalcade, Rose of Washington Square, Swanee River, Rhapsody In Blue, The Jolson Story, and Jolson Sings Again.
This Video was produced by John Wehrman, and is one that you will all want to add to your collection. The price is just $21.50 ppd in the US, and £13 ppd in the UK.
Al Jolson's great performance in The Singing Kid is available on DVD from the Video Department. This DVD includes the trailer for the movie, and the famous I Love To Sing-a cartoon featuring Owl Jolson. This 1936 film co-stars Sybil Jason, and features Beverly Roberts, Edward Everett Horton, Lyle Talbot, Allen Jenkins, and Cab Calloway and his Orchestra. If you have never seen this film, prepare to be thrilled. And if you have seen it, you will want this copy for your collection. See below for ordering information.
On one DVD you can get two of the most significant Jolson Documentaries. The Hollywood and the Stars series from the early 1960s featured Joseph Cotton narrating the story of Jolson's life, told through film clips and story in an episode called "The Immortal Jolson." Although it took its title from the Pearl Sieben book, the information is part fact and part legend, folded into a half hour of black and white television from some 40 years ago.
Also included on the DVD is the British produced South Bank Show, which features Michael Freedland, who himself has written a Jolson biography, as narrator, and many more clips and legends. This show, which runs almost an hour, also includes interviews with Irving Caesar and others who knew Jolson and worked with him, as well as more modern stars who speak of their feelings for the man.
This DVD is certainly an important part of the Jolson history, and belongs in any Jolson fan's collection.
With Al Jolson playing the legendary minstrel E.P.Christy, and Don Ameche as songwriter Stephen Foster, this film paints an affectionate, if fictionalized, biography of the composer of "Oh Susannah," "Camptown Races," and, of course, "Old Folks At Home," which provides the title for this movie, Swanee River.
In this, Al Jolson's only Technicolor feature, he sings, he acts, and he steals the screen in whiteface or blackface, alone or with a full ensemble, as he gives just a hint of what he must have been like to see on stage live. With great vocals, recorded at what may have been the peak of his voice in 1939, this film, in E.P.Christy's words, "has the old OSKIMAZOOLA!"
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