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Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
American actor, singer, dancer and comedian
1
Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
American jazz singer and bandleader (1907-1994)
2
Al Dubin
Al Dubin
Swiss-American lyricist (1891-1945)
3
Adelaide Hall
Adelaide Hall
American-born UK-based jazz singer and entertainer
4
Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
American lyricist, songwriter, singer and music professional
5
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin
Russian-born American songwriter
6
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine
American popular singer (1913-2007)
7
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen
American composer of popular music (1905-1986)
8
Jennifer Holliday
Jennifer Holliday
American actress and singer
9
Herb Jeffries
Herb Jeffries
American singer and actor (1913-2014)
10
Sigmund Romberg
Sigmund Romberg
Hungarian-born American operetta composer
11
Judy Garland
Judy Garland
American actress, singer and vaudevillian (1922-1969)
12
James Darren
James Darren
American actor, singer
13
Eddie Fisher
Eddie Fisher
American entertainer and singer (1928-2010)
14
Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
American jazz and pop musician
15
Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers
American composer of songs and Broadway musicals
16
Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
American singer, recording artist
Al Jolson
American entertainer, actor, and singer (1886-1950)

Al Jolson

Intro
American entertainer, actor, and singer (1886-1950)
Record Labels
Awards Received
star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
News
Member of, past and present
Temple Israel of Hollywood

Temple Israel of Hollywood

Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson; c. 1885 – October 23, 1950) was an American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. Self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer", Jolson is credited with being America's most famous and highest-paid star of the 1920s. He was known for his "shamelessly sentimental, melodramatic approach", and for popularizing many of the songs he performed. Jolson has been referred to by modern critics as "the king of blackface performers".

Although best remembered today as the star of the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), he starred in a series of successful musical films during the 1930s. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he was the first star to entertain troops overseas during World War II. After a period of inactivity, his stardom returned with The Jolson Story (1946), for which Larry Parks played Jolson, with the singer dubbing for Parks. The formula was repeated in a sequel, Jolson Sings Again (1949). In 1950, he again became the first star to entertain GIs on active service in the Korean War, performing 42 shows in 16 days. He died weeks after returning to the U.S., partly owing to the physical exhaustion from the performance schedule. Defense Secretary George Marshall posthumously awarded him the Medal for Merit.

According to music historian Larry Stempel, "No one had heard anything quite like it before on Broadway." Stephen Banfield wrote that Jolson's style was "arguably the single most important factor in defining the modern musical".

With his dynamic style of singing jazz and blues, he became widely successful by extracting traditionally African-American music and popularizing it for white American audiences who were otherwise not receptive to the originators. Despite his promotion and perpetuation of black stereotypes, his work was often well-regarded by black publications and he has been credited for fighting against black discrimination on Broadway as early as 1911. In an essay written in 2000, music critic Ted Gioia remarked, "If blackface has its shameful poster boy, it is Al Jolson", showcasing Jolson's complex legacy in American society.