| I believe that is Larry Kert doing Jolson in the video. He was avid to play Jolson in a bio-musical. He tried out one such show, titled Joley, at a theatre on Long Island, but it went nowhere. That was in 1979. Right after that, another show, Al Jolson Tonight, was announced, with a book by Nicholas Dante, again starring Kert. It appears to have been canceled. But if memory serves, Kert continued to pursue the idea. You can find on YouTube a 1983 ABC special titled Parade of Stars, featuring Kert as Jolson, although not in blackface. The fact that two sets of producers felt that a Jolson musical was commercially viable even in1979 tells you something. According to the Times, as late as 2000, a guy named Clive Baldwin was still performing as Jolson, in blackface., albeit for small audiences of older Jolson fans. |
