History of The Musical Stage
1920s: Part V
Three Landmarks
by John Kenrick
(Copyright 1996 & 2003)

• Good News
• Al Jolson
• Show Boat

"Do the Varsity Drag"
The program title page for the original Broadway production of Good News.

Good News (1927 - 557) was not the first musical comedy about college life, but it was such a hit that it became the definitive example of this lighthearted sub-genre. The plot about a football hero who has to pass an exam so he can play in the big game and win the girl he loves inspired a slew of imitations on stage and screen, but none could match the infectious score composed by Ray Henderson with lyrics by Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown. Their dance-happy songs included "The Best Things in Life Are Free," "Lucky in Love" and "The Varsity Drag," a Charleston-style number that became an international dance craze.

The libretto was a loose affair, allowing members of the cast to offer audience pleasing specialties with little connection to the plot. Produced for approximately $75,000 (typical for a Broadway musical at that time), Good News remained popular for decades, with a film version in 1932, and a hit Technicolor remake in 1947. A stage revival toured with Alice Faye in the 1970s. Depicting the "roaring 20s" as people would like to remember it, this show remains one of the definitive theatrical events of 1920s.

Al Jolson: "The World's Greatest Entertainer"
Al Jolson and his black-face alter ego "Gus."

America's top musical star of the 1920s was born in a Russian shtetl in the 1880s. Soon after his family emigrated to the United States in 1894, young Asa Yoelson decided to become an entertainer and changed his name to Al Jolson. After winning fame in minstrel shows and vaudeville, Jolson made his Broadway debut at The Winter Garden Theatre in the Shubert Brothers production, La Belle Paree (1911). The show was a little more than a variety acts held together by a thread of plot, but the scene stealing Jolson became the toast of New York.

Audiences packed The Winter Garden, responding with enthusiasm to Jolson's charismatic singing. The Shuberts tailored a series of stage musicals for Jolson's outsized talents, and built a runway into the Winter Garden audience so Jolson could move right into the midst of his fans. His shows toured the country for years at a time, making him a star from coast to coast. Jolson's charismatic blend of comedy and pathos had an almost sexual effect on audiences. His booming voice could fill any theater, a major asset before electrical amplification. So it was with justifiable pride that the Shuberts billed Jolson as "the world's greatest entertainer."

Three of Jolson's biggest hit musicals were built around "Gus," a likeable blackface character Jolson had been using since his years in minstrelsy –

– Sinbad (1920 - 164) had Gus as a porter who lands in a variety of historic settings. Jolson interpolated "Rock-a-bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody," "Swanee" and "My Mammy" into the otherwise disposable score.

– Bombo (1921 - 219) turned Gus into a deckhand for Christopher Columbus. Jolson kept audiences cheering by adding "Toot, Toot Tootsie," "April Showers" and "California Here I Come" to the show. None had anything to do with the plot.

– Big Boy (1924 - 180) had Gus as a jockey, featuring live horses racing on treadmills. Jolson interpolated "Keep Smiling at Trouble" and reprised the best of his past hits. With occasional interruptions, Jolson traveled in Big Boy for more than three years.

The only thing bigger than Jolson's talent was his ego. When audiences were enthusiastic, he would dismiss the supporting cast and sing solo for an hour or more. However, if Jolson felt an audience was unresponsive, he gave a half-hearted performance and skipped refrains to get the curtain down early.

Jolson is best remembered today for his use of blackface makeup. As offensive as blackface seems today, it was an accepted theatrical device used by many white and black performers in the early 20th Century. Behind a mask of burnt cork, one theoretically became an "everyman" triumphing over trials and heartaches. He claimed that blackface makeup gave him the emotional distance he needed to unleash himself as a performer. Since his most effective filmed moments involve him singing in blackface, it is impossible to dismiss the role this makeup played in his success Jolson was not a racist. Sensitive to discrimination of all kinds, he championed the rights of black performers on several occasions. 

Al Jolson's fame has dimmed with time, but no review of the popular culture of the 20th Century can afford to overlook his presence. Who else could claim a career that s panned stardom in minstrelsy, vaudeville, Broadway, Hollywood and radio? Jolson was one of the greatest stars show biz will ever know, and he would have been the first to insist that history should remember him. (For more, see our special feature, Al Jolson 101.)

Show Boat: The Musical as Epic
A caricature of Show Boat's original stars, taken from the title page of the program.

One of the most powerful and popular musicals ever written, Show Boat (1927 - 572) was the collaborative effort of three theatrical giants -- producer Florenz Ziegfeld, composer Jerome Kern and lyricist-librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. Telling the epic tale of the inhabitants of a Mississippi show boat from the 1880's to the 1920s, it deals with racism and marital heartbreak – subjects that had been considered taboo in musicals.

The ground-breaking libretto was matched by an innovative, character-driven score with such hits as "Make Believe," "Old Man River" and "You Are Love." Singer Helen Morgan had the greatest success of her career with "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" and "Bill," introducing the latter while sitting atop an upright piano. Although many identify "Old Man River" with Paul Robeson, the song was introduced on Broadway by Jules Bledsoe – Robeson later performed the song in the 1928 London production and the 1936 film version.

Show Boat was a tremendous gamble. Nothing like it had ever been tried on Broadway before, and Ziegfeld had serious doubts about the show's commercial prospects. Even so, he spared no expense, giving this sweeping saga the visual grandeur it needed. After the opening night performance at the Ziegfeld Theater, a stunned audience filed out in near silence. Ziegfeld thought his worst fears had been confirmed. He was shocked when the next morning brought ecstatic reviews and long lines at the box office. Show Boat was an unqualified triumph, the most lasting accomplishment of Ziegfeld's career.

Show Boat could be appreciated at various levels. To most, it was an epic tale of undying love, but on a deeper level it showed how human sufferings and triumphs fade away as time -- embodied by the Mississippi -- "just keeps rolling along." This innovative masterpiece spawned no trends, but it showed what musical theater could aspire to -- aspirations that Hammerstein would re-ignite sixteen year later when he and Richard Rodgers gave birth to Oklahoma!. With three film versions and four acclaimed Broadway revivals, Show Boat's appeal has survived the test of time. With each generation emphasizing different aspects of the story, no two productions have been exactly the same.

By 1929, some things were not "rolling along" as they had before. The disastrous stock market crash in October of that year ended "The Roaring 20s" and plunged the world into the worst economic depression ever known. Despite the hard times (and, in part, because of them), musical theatre managed to grow and develop. People needed the emotional satisfaction of good entertainment more than ever. And how did the musical theater oblige?

Next: Stage 1930s