Al Jolson (b. Asa Yoelson),1886- 1950American stage and film performer, Al Jolson was born on May 26, 1886, in Srednick Lithuania. His family emigrated to Washington D.C. where he started his singing career in the synagogue.At the age of 13, he made his first stage appearance in "Children of the Ghetto" in New York. His desire to entertain led him to become a traveling circus and café performer. From an appearance at the National Theater in San Francisco, where he coined the phrase "You ain't seen nothin' yet", he toured in vaudeville with the "Dockstader's Minstrels". Minstrel-style singing in black-face makeup became Jolson's trademark. Success soon came his way and he signed with the powerful Shubert Brothers fothe musical revue, "La Belle Paree", at the Winter Garden Theater in 1911.Jolson achieved wide popularity starring on Broadway in such musicals as "Robinson Crusoe, Jr." (1916), "Sinbad" (1918) , "Big Boy" (1925), and "Wonder Bar" (1931). In 1927, he starred in "The Jazz Singer", the first major motion picture with synchronized sound and the first of many successful films for the star. This film saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy. A grateful Hollywood then starred Jolson in "The Singing Fool" (1928), an even bigger box office hit thanks to the million-selling recoring of the song "Sonny Boy".By the early 1930's, Jolson was one of America's highest paid entertainers, but the next several years were less successful. In entertaining the troops, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Jolson recaptured his power to electrify an audience, and the success of the 1946 film, "The Jolson Story", when he supplied the singing voice to the acting of Larry Parks, heralded a triumphant comeback.Jolson died of a heart attack in San Francisco on October 23, 1950.