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