Online Test

Al Jolson, the Jazz Singer

Al Jolson was born Asa Yoelson in Lithuania in 1886. His family moved to Washington, D.C. in the United States in 1894. Jolson's career was influenced by several factors, including his religious Jewish upbringing, the death of his mother when he was ten, and his father's work as a singer of religious music.

In 1900 Jolson left for New York where he learned his trade. [1. …] He then spent several years in San Francisco, California, singing in clubs. Jolson's singing and stage manner were different from anything audiences had seen. [2. …] He rolled his eyes with a sentimental grin. He sometimes blacked his face, a popular theatrical convention of the time. He created emotion in the audience.

[3. …] In October 1927 Warner Brothers presented the world's first talking-picture feature, The Jazz Singer. The story of a rabbi's son who becomes an actor against his father's wishes, it was a great success. [4. …] Despite The Jazz Singer’s popularity, Jolson did not succeed in film. His personal appeal to an audience never really came through on the screen. [5. …] However, he continued to perform on radio and entertained soldiers during World War II.

Jolson was married four times, and had three children. [6. …] It was the night before a planned radio taping with actor/singer Bing Crosby.

The cartoonist
Matt Green explains what it’s really like to earn a living drawing cartoons for a daily newspaper.

Getting paid a fortune for drawing a cartoon a day, going to the office for an hour or two, then disappearing to a cafe to chat with other cartoonists and to have a laugh — that’s how it might seem to those who’ve never spent an entire day perfecting a single idea. Matt Green, front-page cartoonist of a national newspaper, is used to this envious view of the lifestyle of cartoonists. ‘The first question people ask me is “What else do you do in the day?”,’ says Matt. ‘The other day my little daughter returned from school with five large drawings. She really couldn’t believe that all I’d done during my day at the office was one little drawing.’

Contrary to what people think, Matt insists he works a longer day than most of us. Also, the rare occasions he does go out with his fellow cartoonists are not always happy events. ‘It can be gloomy, with people going on about how hard it is to be a cartoonist and how no one understands them. We say things like, “You’ll never believe it — I tried this excellent joke and my editor didn’t think it was funny at all”.’

Matt studied at St Martin’s School of Art and wanted to be in turn an artist, book illustrator, graphic designer and film director. After art school he made ends meet by working as a waiter. ‘Before long I knew I had to earn a living that wasn’t serving pizzas. When I heard that magazines paid £60 for a cartoon joke, I set myself a goal of doing one a week. At the time, I was paying £40 a week rent and I reasoned that if I could do one joke a week, I could just about live. However, when I saw my first cartoon published in the magazine New Lights, I was hooked.’

Matt’s next move was to contact a newspaper called Daily Life in 1988, where he got his big break after hearing about a mistake they had made. ‘One day there was a big fuss because they had printed the wrong date on the paper — it said Thursday 25th instead of Wednesday 24th. Several readers wrote in complaining, “We went on holiday on the wrong day!” Because Daily Life said it was Thursday, they assumed it must be Thursday. The next day they published a front-page apology written by the editor, Doug Eastbourne. I did a cartoon of one man saying to another, “I hope I have a better Thursday than I did yesterday.” It made light of what was an embarrassing mistake. Doug thought it was great, and from then on I was on the front page on a near regular basis.’

A typical day for Matt begins at 9.00 a.m. ‘I start by reading all the papers and thinking of a topical subject for a cartoon. This can be a painful experience. My first reaction when I see a funny cartoon by one of my rivals is jealousy followed by rage, despair, then misery and depression. To get started, I write down all the really terrible ideas just to get them out of my system; then, as I keep thinking, the better ideas come.’ Work finishes around 7.30 p.m. when he ends up showing around six or seven finished cartoons to the night editor, who may in turn ask for a cartoon on a new story that has turned up. ‘Sometimes the idea I had at 9.00 a.m. is the one that is used, but more often than not it’s the last one I draw.’

For those contemplating becoming a cartoonist, Matt advises: ‘You can succeed as a cartoonist if you are very funny but only average at drawing, but not the other way round. The big advantage of becoming a cartoonist is you don’t need to go to interviews or pass exams. Anyone can just send cartoons off and the funniest ones will get in.’