Biography of Al Jolson

An entertainment dynamo who quickly established himself as Broadway's leading star by the dawn of the 20th century, Jolson was America's first superstar, years before the phrase was ever coined. A truly competitive and high-energy performer, his impassioned singing (borrowing much from black ragtime music and early jazz and performed in the then-popular, now taboo minstrel blackface style), jokes and dancing left most of the competition in the dust. His place in popular history was assured when he starred in the first sucessful talking picture, The Jazz Singer, in 1927. His tireless efforts performing for American troops during World War II (he almost single-handedly started The USO) won him a whole new audience who had never seen him perform in his halcyon days. When the film biography of his life became a major hit twenty years later, Jolson's popularity leapt to legendary status, making no one doubt his title of "The World's Greatest Entertainer" ~ Cub Koda