Al Jolson: You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet!

by Robert Oberfirst

Al the Jazz Singer, star of stage, screen, radio, and vaudeville, an American success story. Probably the most dynamic performer of his time, by dint of talent and energy alone he climbed from obscurity and poverty to international fame and great wealth. And yet, as this singularly perceptive and revealing biography explains, his life -- even during his years of celebrity -- was marked by unhappiness and even tragedy. Unlike lesser celebrity profiles that do little more than praise the accomplishments of their subjects, this volume unflinchingly portrays the rich and complex character of the man while describing the achievements of the star. It concentrates on his emotions, his pain, his joy, his struggle, his hopes, and his final compromise with life. It permits readers to "get inside" Jolson and some of the important people in his life, to identify with his plight, and share, to a far greater extent than show business biographies usually allow, his experiences -- both high points and disappointments. This is a deeply personal, moving treatment of a public figure that few outside his immediate circle had a chance to know this well. Biographer Robert Oberfirst has written a kind of docudrama, with numerous photographs to illustrate significant points. Jolson's entire life is traced, from his birth and childhood, through his meteoric rise in show business, his many ups and downs professionally, and his numerous personal crises, to the shattering moment of his death. In a narrative as riveting as a good novel, Oberfirst delineates Jolson's tumultuous relationships with his family. This very special book presents the all too human drama of a gifted entertainer subject to all the temptations and weaknesses that can challenge and even overwhelm human purpose and enterprise. You ain't heard nothin' yet until you've heard the whole story of this remarkable person as told in this remarkable book.

341 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1980

Reviews

[Bill Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative and enjoyable

[Evan]

Bought this the other day at Half Price Books at the same time I ran across a copy of Kenneth Anger's "Hollywood Babylon II," and I'll be damned if both don't have the quaint, funky serpentine kind of '70s font that you see in a lot of fluff movie books of the period. I kind of hate it; it seems more suitable for captions than for pages of text, but at least it's large. It somehow cheapens the words, which may not really be an issue in the case of the Anger... But I fixate on font issues sometimes...