St. Francis Hotel: The Jazz Singer

He is seen out of the corner of the eye for just a fleeting second.

Al Jolson

In October of 1950, Al Jolson—born Asa Yoelson-- a singer and entertainer died of a massive heart attack while playing cards with friends in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.

Jolson who considered San Francisco his home had just returned from entertaining American troops in Korea. He was in town to appear on the Bing Crosby radio show.

Jolson was playing gin rummy with two friends, Martin Freid his arranger and accompanist and Harry Akst, a songwriter when shortly after 10:30 P.M. he collapsed.

His last words are said to have been, “Boys, I’m going.”

Since, witnesses state that Jolson haunts this suite, number 1221, the same suite that was involved in the Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle scandal years before.

St. Francis Hotel 

It is actually said three famous Hollywood Stars haunt this suite at the St. Francis, Jolson, Arbuckle and Barrymore.

From the 1920s until the 1940s Al Jolson was a famous American entertainer. His broad smile and charm became legendary.

He first became popular when he appeared in vaudeville in blackface * singing in old time minstrel shows based upon African American music.

* At this time blacks rarely appeared in front of white audiences so white entertainers would put on blackface makeup and imitate African American singers.

Jolson became a huge star when he was featured in the world’s first talking picture, The Jazz Singer in 1927. In this film he plays the son of an orthodox cantor who choses not to follow in his father’s footsteps but instead becomes a jazz singer.

This role mirrored Jolson’s real life for his father was a rabbi and cantor.

After The Jazz Singer Jolson appeared in a series of box office flops, which doomed his film career. In 1946, he had a brief comeback when he dubbed the singing for the film The Jolson Story—he however did not appear onscreen.

At the time of his death Jolson was about to launch a television career—he was viewed as “the grand old man of show business.”

Witnesses who have seen his ghost at the St. Francis state they only saw him out of the corner of their eyes for a brief second.

He is observed playing cards at a table. His attention is fixated upon the cards in front of him.

The following video shows Jolson’s last film role—a cameo in the George Gershwin’s hit Rhapsody in Blue.

He is singing in blackface—which viewed from today’s perspective, is offensive at best. But I place the video here because it is of Jolson singing Swanee, the only video of him performing this song.