For under this California sky has risen a monument of unmatched beauty, which stands as a memorial to the World's Greatest Entertainer, one of its greatest benefactors ... and our friend.

As I looked upon this glorious shrine, I was struck by two thoughts: what it meant to Mrs. Jolson, and to Al's many, many friends. And then there was the thought of the generations not yet born who will visit here.

I was heartened by the realization that they will not ask why an ediface of this magnitude was built. For this shrine in all its magnificence, is only proper and fitting to the man in whose memory it was erected.

I consider it a high tribute that I was asked to speak at this dedication. I feel the choice was governed largely by the fact that I have recently returned from Korea where Al gave his last full effort to his fellow man.

Before I left Tokyo for Korea I was told, I think as a warning for my personal feelings, that I would hear Al's records being played everywhere I went. Truthfully, I was apprehensive. I was almost prepared for a prolonged emotional depression. But when I got to Korea, this foreboding vanished. Al's voice was everywhere. Wherever I went, Jolson was singing again. His voice rose from the rear areas, the grouping points; the front lines; indeed it seemed at times to spring from those rugged hills. On the faces of the thousands of boys who listened was no sadness, but rather a look of rapture and of gratitude for what had been left them.

To bring laughter and entertainment to the world during one's lifetime is a wonderful and gratifying thing. Those who, during their span of years, have brought happiness to countless millions can find a purpose to their lives enjoyed by a relative few. But to be able to leave behind so much, so much of one's self, so much of one's heart, is a far greater recompense. Thus was Al Jolson doubly blessed.

It is more or less accepted that memory is a fickle thing. That it fades in proportion to time, made necessary by the press of day to day events. To us, whom Al has left behind, time has been unusually kind. It has helped erase the sorrow of his passing, yet has left his memory a bright and living thing. His great gift to mankind, his voice, is with us now and forever.