For sale is 1928 MUSIC SHEET for the song “SONNY BOY” from The Warner Brother’s theatrical production of “The Singing Fool” starring Al Jolson. Words and Music by Al Jolson, B.G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson. This music sheet is in very good condition with some surface wear. Interior pages have some tape marks. Spine has separated. A great Hollywood collectible.
Al Jolson (May 26, 1886 — October 23, 1950) was an American singer, film actor, and comedian. At the peak of his career, he was dubbed “The World’s Greatest Entertainer”. Numerous well-known singers were influenced by his music, including Bing Crosby, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart and others. In the 1930s, Jolson was America’s most famous and highest-paid entertainer. Between 1911 and 1928, Jolson had nine sell-out Winter Garden shows in a row, more than 80 hit records, and 16 national and international tours. Although he is best remembered today as the star of the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer.
Being the first popular singer to make a spectacular event out of singing a song, he became a rock star before the dawn of rock music. Jolson also enjoyed performing in blackface makeup, a theatrical convention since the mid-19th century. With his unique and dynamic style of singing black music, such as jazz and blues, he was later credited with single-handedly introducing African-American music to white audiences. As early as 1911, he became known for fighting against black discrimination on Broadway.
With Warner Bros., Al Jolson made his first “all-talking” picture, The Singing Fool (1928) — the story of a driven entertainer who insisted upon going on with the show even as his small son lay dying, and its signature tune, “Sonny Boy”, was the first American record to sell one million copies. The film was even more popular than The Jazz Singer, and even though there was still a relatively small number of theaters across the country capable of showing the picture with sound, it held the record for box-office attendance for 11 years, until broken by Gone With the Wind.
