|
|
 |
   
FOUR PIONEERS WITH YIDDISH ACCENTS
By Thomas Hischak
Of the many gifted and dazzling artists seen and heard in the documentary FROM SHTETL TO SWING, few were as beloved in their day as four pioneering Jewish performers who became mainstream stars: Al Jolson, Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker, and Eddie Cantor. Although they might be classified as "ethnic" performers, they all found a wide audience in vaudeville, on Broadway, in nightclubs, on records, in the movies, and on radio. And, most remarkably, they did this without denying or hiding their ethnicity. All four were essentially comics as well as singers, and they were able to break down barriers by slyly undermining the restrictions put on ethnic performers when they crossed over to the Big Time.
Sophie Tucker was the first of the foursome to find acclaim. She was born Sonia Kalish in Russia and was brought to America as a baby. She grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, where as a child she began singing in her family's restaurant. By 1906 Tucker was on the vaudeville circuit, billing herself as the "Last of the Red Hot Mamas" and wowing audiences with her brassy voice, buxom figure, and brash persona. Legendary Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld put her in his "Ziegfeld Follies of 1909," and she followed it up with roles in some dozen Broadway musicals over the next 20 years. But it was in cabarets, in nightclubs, and on records that Tucker really shone. She always played herself, a confident, sassy woman of the world with a touch of irony in her performance of songs that were laced with elements of jazz as well as the blues. Among the songs she made famous were "After You've Gone," "My Yiddishe Mama," and "Some of These Days," which she recorded four times; it was her theme song throughout her long career. Tucker was sexy and bawdy in a self-mocking way -- a sort of precursor to Mae West. Her unique delivery, sometimes singing off the beat and using breaks in the vocal line, was probably learned from African-American musicians and singers she worked with in nightclubs. Yet she remained unmistakably Jewish, even ad-libbing Yiddish phrases in her act.
Al Jolson would also copy African-American performers, but he was more inspired by minstrel shows. He was born Asa Yoelson in Lithuania, the son of a cantor, and came to America as a child. Jolson ran away from his Washington, DC home to sing in vaudeville. "Blacking up" as minstrel performers did, he developed into a knee-slapping, eye-rolling Mammy singer who mesmerized audiences in Broadway musicals (most of which were built around Jolson and his blackfaced persona), on records, and in the movies, most memorably in the first talkie, THE JAZZ SINGER (1927). Widely considered the greatest performer of his era, Jolson was exuberant, bombastic, and unabashedly sentimental. Today, his style of performance may seem hammy or overblown; yet no one could thrill an audience like Jolson, and those who saw him never forgot the experience.
Top banner photos: Judy Garland in THE WIZARD OF OZ, Benny Goodman, and Fanny Brice. |
|
 |
 |
Sophie Tucker as Alice Clayton in BROADWAY MELODY OF 1938. |
 |
 |
|
Al Jolson as Ted Cotter in ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE. |
|
 |
|
This program is not available on VHS or DVD. |
|
|
