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Re: AL JOLSON

PostPosted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 6:15 pm
by duncan
cataclyzm wrote:urban myth trajectory ... was carried out in one single night's work on the basis of a bet.


this sounds like another possible urban myth, that the word Quiz came into common usage after a Dublin theatre owner bet he could make a new word overnight. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=quiz

could your reliable source be confusing his urban myths?

hidelee ho

PostPosted: Sat Mar 13, 2004 10:23 pm
by cataclyzm
He was a She, and we've never been to Dublin. Are you still going with the patholigical busker type scenario then?
I didn't say it was gospel, only that it was a possibility, I have no idea what the truth is regarding the motivations of the graphic artist. I was merely passing on information that is many years old now, but hey....anything is possible.

al jolson

PostPosted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 12:17 pm
by cumbo
Excelent reserch Modern Fossel
Halfway to Paradise was excelent friday night just after the pub viewing
The guy who presented it was a Glasgow actor and he presented the show like he was the bouncer on a club door. But what was his name????
Thank you for rembering this program and helping me retrace my steps through the drunken late 80's your a star!

Re: al jolson

PostPosted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 6:46 pm
by james73
cumbo wrote:Excelent reserch Modern Fossel
Halfway to Paradise was excelent friday night just after the pub viewing
The guy who presented it was a Glasgow actor and he presented the show like he was the bouncer on a club door. But what was his name????


Iain McColl? Dodie from Rab C Nesbitt?




James H

Re: Al Jolson

PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 1:11 pm
by JayKay
cumbo wrote:I don't think he did sing!
I thought it was a mime.He had a tape recorder and a trilby hat to collect the money .


That's right, he used to mime. ISTR He would normally "Perform" in Argyle Street in the pedestrian precinct more or less opposite Marks and Spencer.

Re: al jolson

PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 7:07 pm
by Fossil
james73 wrote:
Iain McColl? Dodie from Rab C Nesbitt?

James H


I think your right…

On another point I was in Glasgow today and noticed a silhouette
of a vacuum cleaner sprayed on 2 port-a-cabins in Wilson Street. I'm sure they are else where. What’s that about?

vacuum cleaners

PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 7:54 pm
by duncan
these are in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and probably elsewhere. it's promotion for a club.

PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 2:57 am
by dee
he was a old busker from the place on duke st
around 86/87

PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:54 am
by cumbo
I spoke to a bloke from Parkhead He used to play a game going home from work on the bus. He would count the number of Al Jolsons spray painted on walls,his record was 18 he thinks
I'm still not convinced that it was the same person as our busker friend,
any more ideas?

PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 1:43 pm
by DickyHart
could it be that , people started copying it once they had seen it.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:14 am
by Dexter St. Clair
My mate met him on a 37 bus after Al had signed on at the broo in Springburn.

Al movie star

PostPosted: Sat May 13, 2006 11:54 pm
by Toby Dammit
An old topic now, I know. I filmed "Al" busking in the Clydebank Shopping Centre back in 1988/89 (round about). He was miming to recorded music played on a ghetto blaster.

I shot him on black and white Super 8 film (only about 20 seconds worth), and very odd looking he was too. If I ever get my old movie stuff onto a digi format I'll post a link of Al ( and my other old Bankie stuff) at You Tube. Hopefully this will happen sometime before the year 2020. :oops:

Al

PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2006 1:27 am
by kpstar
my grannie said that Al Jolson was in the first "talkie" shown in Glasgow, btw...

PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2006 1:56 am
by Toby Dammit
The subject of the "first" sound film is always a bit of a thorny one. Films with sound on disc were made as early as 1901, similar to the Al Jolson "Vitaphone" production THE JAZZ SINGER, often claimed to be the "first" sound films ever made by so many histories (not true).

Usually though, all they did was to show musical performances, rather than dialogue, and were screened as novelties. The first ever sound film screened in Glasgow is therefor (as in most cities) lost in the mists of time, along with most of the films ever made before 1929.

As for mainstream, Hollywood product though, most sources seem to agree that the first fiction feature sound film shown in Glasgow was THE SINGING FOOL, starring (the real) Al Jolson, on January 7th 1929 at the Coliseum on Eglinton Street.

The US gave us a white man in absurd "black face" make up singing about his Mammy. Meanwhile, even as THE SINGING FOOL was being screened in Glasgow, Alfred Hitchcock was filming Anny Ondra stabbing a would be rapist to death in Britain's first synch sound feature film, the vastly superior BLACKMAIL.

Image
Ondra. Psycho

Al Jolson

PostPosted: Sun May 14, 2006 1:19 pm
by frank dawson
:D
Many years ago my now deceased Aunt was an employee in the North British Hotel next to Queen Street Station.
Larry Parks (the actor who played Jolson in the movies) and his wife Betty Garret Were residents at the hotel and when they were leaving my Aunt was presented with a Air Force Type Heavy coat and Expensive Perfume.
I got the coat but of course I did not take the perfume.
::):
Frank