By Steve Crum

Al Jolson was 29 years old when he played KC in Oct., 1915. The Shuberts’ touring show, “Dancing Around,” this time billed Jolson’s Gus character as “a man of many parts.” Jolson’s song repertoire included “When the Grown Up Ladies Act Like Babies,” “Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers,” and “Everybody Rag With Me.”

After the 12-scene “musical spectacle” made its Broadway run, Oct. 10, 1914-Feb. 13, 1915, “Dancing Around” toured the USA (and Canada) from Feb. 15 to Dec. 4, 1915–pretty much the entire year. Traveling south after two days in Omaha, Jolson and troupers played to Kansas City audiences, Oct. 3-9, before heading to St. Louis. 

In a KC Star article published Oct. 6, “No Joke on the City Now,” Jolie laments the demise of Kansas City’s Union Depot (and what it means to comedians), and reminisces about playing in KC with Dockstader’s Minstrels. That is a rather stately looking pose of Jolson in the article’s engraving. A more typical Jolson pose, in blackface, is included within the display ad. Jolie is labeled, “The New York Winter Garden’s Surprise Achievement.” 

Oct. 6, 1915 [in town for DANCING AROUND]

Interview:

NO JOKE ON THE CITY NOW

Al Jolson deplores the passing of the old Union Depot

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Many an act has been saved by the local reference–comedian’s father at last admitted he must be good

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The old Union Station brings a pang of sorrow to Al Jolson every time he thinks of it. The old station meant bread and butter to many and many an actor.

“It was a shame to lose that one,” he says. “It used to set them wild. Every actor in the country knew it. It made Kansas City famous. Personally I never thought it was funny, but the people here would double up howl every time it was sprung. I used to tell it with Dockstader’s Minstrels when we played the Grand ten years ago. If an act was going flat, a reference to the Old Union Depot would save it. The poorest comedian in the world could bring them up out of their seats with it. It was a scream.

“I don’t know why people laugh at local jokes, but they do. My idea of fun is to get into a joshing frame of mind with the audience and work to win a group, if they warm up to you. I wish I had confidence in myself, but I haven’t. Really, I’m always afraid they’re not going to like me, and if I do flop at any performance I’m no good for three days.”

SHY ABOUT HIS OWN FACE

Jolson is a boyish chap of 29. He’s been married eight years and he got his start in burlesque and from there went on to minstrelry, vaudeville and musical comedy. In New York he frequently appears on stage in white face, but is timid about trying it in the West, where he is not so well acquainted. 

“Sometimes I think I must be fooling the public,” he remarks. “I can say without egotism that I usually keep them laughing, but I don’t understand it. When I was in vaudeville I showed my father my contracts, week by week, for each house. I was getting two or three hundred dollars a week then and it dazed him. After he’d looked them all over he looked me up and down from head to foot. ‘Al,’ he said, ‘you must be good, they can’t all be crazy.’ 

“You know, I think I’m developing a temperament. Honest I do. It used to be they could unload a ton of scrap iron back stage when I was working and I’d shout a little louder to drown the noise and never mind it. I thought I was good then. The other night a man came in late, and when I saw him coming down the aisle it sent me up in the air. I almost blew up. If that isn’t temperament, what is it?”

AUDIENCE MAKES HIM WORK

“Another thing, I’m against the movies. I had a big offer to go into the pictures but I turned it down. Imagine me up there trying to be funny with nothing in front of me but a man turning a crank. I wouldn’t do it. You can’t act without an audience. I like a friendly, human crowd out in front, and it’s no joke–I’ll work my head off. That applause stuff gets to me. They can all say they don’t like it and all that, but it sure puts the ginger in me. Another thing, I never pick out a funny looking man in the audience and try to kid him. The fresh actor makes more enemies than he does friends. Half the time I just make up things to say and it seems to please as much as the jokes I have prepared. Get ‘em laughing once and they’ll laugh at everything. It isn’t what you say but how you say it. That’s a bromide, but it’s gospel.”

Jolson has a touch of negro dialect off the stage. He attributes it to his early career as a newsboy in Washington. 

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