The Jolson Story is a 1946 American biographical musical film, a highly fictionalized account of the life of singer Al Jolson, produced by Columbia Pictures and directed by Alfred E. Green. It stars Larry Parks as Jolson, Evelyn Keyes as Julie Benson (approximating Jolson's wife, Ruby Keeler), William Demarest as his performing partner and manager, Ludwig Donath and Tamara Shayne as his parents, and Scotty Beckett as the young Jolson. Some of the film's episodes are based on fact but the story is extremely simplified, with people disguised or combined into single characters.
Plot Stage-struck Asa Yoelson wants to sing in burlesque performer Steve Martin's act. Cantor Yoelson, his father, refuses to consider it. After Asa runs away but is found in Baltimore, the Yoelsons grudgingly consent. Martin eventually gives him billing, under a new name: Al Jolson. Soon afterward, an entertainer named Tom Baron, who is in the same show as Martin and Jolson, passes out drunk, and Jolson goes on in his place. Jolson receives a job offer from minstrel-show master Lew Dockstader, who is in the audience, and Martin releases Jolson.
Al succeeds with the minstrel troupe and is invited to join a Broadway show (thanks to Martin, behind the scenes). Al becomes the leading player and takes the show on tour. Al hires his old mentor Martin, now unemployed, to be his manager. (In real life, Jolson never had a manager with this name. Jolson had three managers over the course of his career- Steve Martin is a composite of all three.)
Jolson's career prevents him spending much time at home. He had always thought that someday he would marry his childhood friend, Ann Murray, but she eventually accepts a proposal from Roy Anderson, another childhood friend.
Soon afterward, Al meets up-and-coming dancer Julie Benson. It is love at first sight for Al, who proposes to her that night. (Al Jolson was actually married four times. The character Julie Benson is modeled on his third wife, Ruby Keeler.) Julie does not love him immediately, but Al refuses to take no for an answer, and she eventually agrees to consider it. After Al misses a show in order to attend the opening of Julie's first show, she realizes his feelings for her are genuine and they marry. Al electrifies the show world with his first feature film, The Jazz Singer, and eagerly signs for more movies. His wife wants to quit show business and settle down, but Al persuades her to continue with her career. Julie becomes a movie star, but eventually can't stand any more of Al's nonstop, show-biz lifestyle. Al realizes that the only way to keep Julie is to quit show business.
Al refuses all job offers and absolutely will not sing, even for family and friends. Papa Yoelson persuades his son to join him in a songthe music he and Mama Yoelson danced to at their weddingand Al gets caught up in it. They adjourn to a nightclub, where the audience demands a song. Al agrees to a single number but the crowd yells for more. Julie, seeing Al happier than he's been in years, leaves while he's performing. She walks out of the nightclub and out of his life, leaving Al to his first love: singing.
Cast Larry Parks as Al Jolson Evelyn Keyes as Julie Benson William Demarest as Steve Martin Bill Goodwin as Tom Baron Ludwig Donath as Cantor Yoelson Scotty Beckett as Asa Yoelson/Al Jolson as a boy Tamara Shayne as Mrs. Yoelson Jo-Carroll Dennison as Ann Murray as an adult Ann Todd as Ann Murray as a girl John Alexander as Lew Dockstader Edwin Maxwell as Oscar Hammerstein Ernest Cossart as Father McGee Harry Shannon as Officer Reilly Eric Wilton as Henry, the Jolsons' butler Robert Mitchell Boys' Choir as the church choir (as Mitchell 'Boychoir') William Forrest as Dick Glenn, movie producer Eddie Kane as Florenz Ziegfeld Buddy Gorman as Jimmy, theater call boy Rudy Wissler, singing voice for Scotty Beckett (uncredited) Al Jolson, singing voice for Larry Parks (uncredited)
Musical numbers
"Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" "On the Banks of the Wabash" "Ave Maria" "When You Were Sweet Sixteen" "After the Ball" "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" "Blue Bell" "Ma Blushin' Rosie" "I Want a Girl" "My Mammy" "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" "You Made Me Love You" "Swanee"
"Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Goo' Bye)" "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" "April Showers" "California, Here I Come" "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)" "There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" "Avalon" "She's a Latin from Manhattan" "About a Quarter to Nine" "Anniversary Song" "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody"
Production Development The film was the idea of Sidney Skolsky. In 1943 he pitched a Jolson biopic to Warner Bros, for whom Jolson had made The Jazz Singer, but Jack Warner was unenthusiastic, as Jolson's career was in a slump at the time. No other studios were interested either apart from Harry Cohn at Columbia. He agreed to make the movie and assigned Sidney Buchman to oversee it.Skolsky p 101-104 It is generally agreed regardless of the credits that Buchman was the prime creative force behind the movie.
Skolsky sold the project to Cohn without first securing the rights from Jolson himself. When Columbia approached Jolson, the performer announced he had received an offer from Warner Bros. for $250,000 and a promise that the film would be directed by Michael Curtiz, who had just made Yankee Doodle Dandy for Warners. Columbia counter-offered 50% of the profits and promised that the film would receive special attention from the studio. Jolson chose Columbia, provided he was paid $25,000 for recording his songs.Skolsky, pp. 105-110.
The biography was announced in December 1943 under the title Minstrel Boy, with Jolson set as both star and producer.Variety, Dec. 1, 1943, p. 3. The title had to be changed because PRC was then producing its most elaborate musical, Minstrel Man (released in 1944), starring Jolson contemporary Benny Fields.
Script Skolsky wrote the biggest problem with the film was to make Jolson a "lovable showoff". He claimed he came up with the idea of Jolson being someone who needed to see people's faces being happy while he sang.Skolsky, p. 111. Many different writers worked on the script. Sidney Buchman claimed he felt the secret to the film was making it a love story, where Jolson was in love with applause.Thomas, p. 66.
According to Skolsky the "best material" came from writer Stephen Longstreet but that "at least three-fourths" of the final script was written by the uncredited John Howard Lawson.Skolsky, pp. 119-120.
Accuracy Much of the plot was fictionalized. There is no evidence that Jolson ever appeared as a child singer. His mother is shown as still alive at the end of the picture. In fact, she died in 1895, when he was nine years old, and he was brought up by his sister. His brother Harry is eliminated. as is much of his early career. Jolson actually had three managers, notably A. C. Olson, who were combined into the William Demarest character "Steve Martin".
Ruby Keeler, Jolson's third wife, disliked Jolson so much that she refused to allow her name to be used, so the writers used an alias, "Julie Benson". Columbia paid her $25,000 to agree not to criticize the film.
Casting The 59-year-old Jolson wanted to play the lead himself but Columbia refused, as the story encompassed his years as a young man. Jolson then requested James Cagney or an equivalent star but Cagney turned the role down, as did popular nightclub star Danny Thomas.Skolsky, pp. 116-117.
Larry Parks had been a fixture at Columbia for four years, first as an actor in screen tests, then as a featured player in major films and as the star of minor ones. In November 1944 he was the first actor tested for The Story of Jolson, as the project was then titled. Then the studio tested dozens of other candidates -- including future producer Ross Hunter -- until, as Parks recalled, "someone said 'Let's test that first guy again.' I had the dubious honor of making the first and last tests for the role."Larry Parks to Dorothy O'Leary, "The Parks Story", Screenland, Mar. 1947, p. 46. His casting was announced in October 1945.
Evelyn Keyes was a contract player at Columbia, often entrusted with roles calling for intelligence as well as attractiveness. Scotty Beckett was recommended by Jolson.Skolsky, p. 117.
Parks's vocals were recorded by Al Jolson himself; Scotty Beckett's songs were recorded by Rudy Wissler. Jolson, determined to appear onscreen somehow, persuaded the producer to film him instead of Parks for the blackface "Swanee" number. Jolson is seen entirely in long shot; he performs on a theater runway, recreating his famous fluttering dance step. Jolson had a 50% share of the profits, but was uncredited for his dubbed vocals. He was paid $25,000 for the use of his voice.
Filming Filming started in October 1945 with the film in black-and-white. H. Bruce Humberstone was borrowed from 20th Century-Fox to direct but, according to Variety, he had to drop out when the shooting dates kept being pushed back. Humberstone later claimed he quit because Buchman kept rewriting the script.McClelland, p. 63.
Filming was shut down. Studio chief Harry Cohn, encouraged by the dailies, decided to restart the project as a Technicolor production, ordering bigger sets to be constructed and more songs added.McClelland, pp. 63-64. Cohn had been impressed by director Joseph H. Lewis's handling of the musical numbers in the 1944 PRC feature Minstrel Man, and asked Lewis to take over the direction. Lewis was already committed to direct So Dark the Night but agreed to direct the musical sequences.McClelland, p. 64. Filming started again on October 24, 1945 and eventually Alfred E. Green was hired to direct.
A scene where Jolson sang "Sonny Boy" was cut out because it slowed the action despite rights to the song costing $50,000.Skolsky, p. 119. The song was ultimately used three years later in a sequel, Jolson Sings Again.
There are varying accounts of the final cost. Skolsky said it was budgeted at $1,150,000 but after filming he authorized the construction of more elaborate sets and the re-recording of certain songs, raising the final budget was $2,500,000.Skolsky, p. 118. According to Variety the negative cost was $2 million but this went up to $2.8 million after Columbia paid for film prints, advertising, and overhead.
Larry Parks found the leading role challenging -- because Jolson himself was on the set watching his every move, and "Jolson was never too happy with me"Larry Parks to Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times, reprinted in the Los Angeles Times, Sept. 18, 1968, p. G13. -- and difficult, because Parks had no firsthand knowledge of Jolson's stage mannerisms. "All Jolson's movies were Warner Bros. and we were making The Jolson Story for Columbia. So Harry Cohn, the studio boss, asked Jack Warner if we could borrow the Jolson films so I could study them. And Jack Warner, in a heartwarming display of reciprocity, said 'Hell, no.'"Parks to Ebert, 1968.
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