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The Seaforth News, 1950-08-10, Page 3Larry Pave s Talks. About Al Jolson For !wanly fifteen years Al Jot - ,un bestrode the Ntw York stage as king of America's Mee:fac a en, rcrr.tainers. "1 -hen came the first utll.ic•, and the whole world heard him say that impromptu litre: "l1ey, ant, listen to this•" The filth had found its tontsit --its jolson', mouth. Al Jolson, In the words of one of his favourite songs, was "shifts' tat top of the world," ',font The Jazz Singer onwards he trade titin after filet, until a fresh load of talent swept hint off the screen in the twiddle thirties, For ten years he was a has-been. During the war he went oversea~ to entertain the troops, batt neither Hollywood nor Broadway would look at hitt twice writes Leonard amsolt its "Aitewtws." A Memory Revived And then, In 1914 Jolson rocket• rd back to fame—and has stayed there ever since, Last June he was sixty-five, but the voice that rang "Sonny Boy" in 1928 is still twirling- round on millions of new records; reeords that be matte since the wen, These bare facts on Itis life are familiar to anyone who went to see that fabulously successful Hol- lywood musical called "The Jol- son Story," In Britain alone, 30 million picture -goers saw it, and thousands more are watching the '.i eehni- colored follow - up called "Jolson Sings Again." Yes, Jolson still has his voice. And the world sings again with !tint - the songs he made fatuous more - than thirty years ago, songs such as "Ma•unty," "California, Here I Come" "April Showers," "Rock -a - Bye," and dozens more. The memory of a great enter- tainer has been revived. And the man who did it was a young actor called Larry Parks who imperson- ated Jolson in both screen biogra- phies—and borrowed his voice for the songs. The old Mammy singer is once again perched on top of the world, but he'd never have made the grade if Larry Parks hadn't hoisted hint up there. A little while ago the London Palladium gallery shouted: "Give us Jolson!" but Larry Parks—now playing in Glasgow—just smiled and went into a duet with his commedi- eunc wife, Betty Garret. Afterwards, Larry said to me as we had supper in his dressing - room; 'I'nt not Jolson, so why should I do his songs? It'd be like telling Bob Slope's jokes," And Betty added: "So if the audience gets restless I tell them that Larry can't do Jolson because I can't imitate Ruby Keeler." .After all, Larry had played in nearly forty films before the Jol- son histories tante along to give hint real fame, and be hopes to make at least forty more. Even so, a great many people still identify him solely with the Al Jolson characterizations. In fact, his portrayal seemed so credible and sincere that one would imagine that "tile man and his memory" knew ach other inside out. When "The Jolson Story" was presented in 1946. Hollywood gave out the news that "malty 'were tested before the part was finally given to Larry Parks, who had impressed his studio heads with tine performances in smaller pro- ductions, :ted endeared himself to Jolson almost immediately. But Larry makes no bones about the fact that Jolson never wanted him to play the part. James Cag• ney was the actor he had asked for, but after. a number of tests • the contract was handed to Larry. • "No, No, Not" "1 guess they finally picked on me becattse I was already on the payroll and would cost less," he remarked with a smile. "shut as fur Jolson, I can hardly tell you any- thing about him, except that he's very rich, Maybe even richer titan Bing Crosby, But then • I don't know. He's never been to my house, and I've never been to his," An interesting scene in "Jolson E1ugs Again" shows Larry Parkes as himself, and Larry Parkes as Ai Jolson, rehearsing together in front of an enormous mirror, but that shot was more interesting than ace1147(te• '1'Vlten 1 was assigned the part." Larry mitt, "1 got very worried about how 1 was going to make out. 1 was n straight actor, 1101 a song - and -dance man, and 1 wasn't sure that I could synchronize with Jol- son') 'Wire, So I got together with hint in a small room and sang 'Rock -a -Bye' the way I thought he'd do it. At the etid, he said: ;co, 00, no, not like that: You're moving around too touch. This is the way to do it.' "Well, by the tiine he'd finished he was practically hanging from the chandelier, and he said to etc: 'See? I didn't move a nutscie." "Froth then on I decided to work things out toy owls way." So Jolson recorded the ntunbet's and Larry Parks rehearsed by him- self. Although Larry's singing voice wasn't heard once on the screen, he sang so many duets with Jolson's records that Ile suffered badly from laryngitis, "You see," he said, "I had to be perfect. Either I was synchronizing or I wasn't, There's no in-between." The two films were before tite cameras for a total of fifteen months, and in that period Larry sang Jol- son's numbers more tines than the Mammy singer did in half a century of show business. But not once has Jolson complimented hint on the way ile handled the part. Facing the Crowd "I can understand it, of course," said Larry. "It can't be very plea- sant for Jolson to have to watch someone else play his part be- cause he's too old to do it himself. I know I'd feel the saute way, "For a long • time Jolson was known as 'the world's greatest en- tertainer; and he went through a hard school to qualify for that title. Thirty years ago there was no such thing as being groomed for star- dom. You had to fight every Inch of the way. And if you weren't filled with a colossal ego and un- tiring driving force you couldn't make it. Then the entertainer was ort his own, with a backcloth be- hind him and a rowdy audience in front" Larry is beginning to have an inkling of what it feels like to stand up and face the crowd. Although he has appeared in several plays, this is only the sixth week that he has faced an audience as Larry Paries, and not as a character in a story. But Betty helps hint along. When the couple return to Holly- wood they plan to co-star in a film to be made by their own newly -formed company. But Larry is still under contract to Columbia, and the latest reports indicate that he will make yet a third Jolson musical. Well, why not? The first two were successful enough for Jack Lenny to say: "If I had my life over again I'd get Larry Parkes to do it for rte!" Sign in shop window: Evening Gown Cut Down Ridiculously Low. Merry Menagerie-ByWalr Disney "What are you planning to do, Labor Day?" "A Little Wider, Please l"—While a nearby elephant chortled and a crowd of children chuckled, this chagrined hippo per- mitted keeper Franz Eck to give his bicuspids the brush-off, The dental doings took place at the Frank£ttrt Germany, zoo, where this two -ton and toothsome giant makes his home, War -Weary And No Wonder.—Utterly exhausted United States soldiers fall asleep on the ground after one of their many dis couraging retreats in South Korea. 6 Men -4300 Miles of Ocean On A Carpet -Sized Raft Six Wren camping on a 30 ft, raft the size of a large carpet crossed 4,300 utiles of Pacific ocean in just over three months! Huge whales nosed under and around them, sharks dogged thein and were caught and hauled aboard. Storms buffeted them. In the end they were battered on a reef and all but drowned! A boy's adventure story? No, a man's—and a true one. Thor Hey- crdahl, a Norwegian, lived in the South Sea Islands studying native life before the war, Local legends convinced hint that the original Polynesians came not from Asia but from America. In Peru he dis- covered another legend which claimed fltat some of the original natives, fleeing from the Inca in- vasion to the coast, sailed west- wards on rafts, led by a high priest named Kon-Tiki, Experts Only Laughed After serving ht the Free Nor- wegian Air Force, he went to the U.S.A. to try out this theory on experts, but they only laughed. "The Indians," they said, "had no boats, only rafts, and there are more than 4,000 miles of open sea between South America and Polynesia. You try crossing that on a raft!" To their astonishment he said he would. And named his raft the lion-Tiki. Four other Norwegians and a Swede joined him in the crazy venture the Washington and Lima governments supported it. The raft was built of nine giant Balsa logs from the Ecuador jungle --because the Indians used this light -as -cork wood for their rafts—and lashed with hemp rojte. Amidships was a small cabin of bamboo and banana leaves to give shelter from the sun. Steering was by a 19 ft. oar at the stern, so heavy that it would sink if it felt overboard. This oar gave them their first headache when they sailed front Callao into roaring sons swept by a trade wind. It swung the steers- man round like a helpless acrobat; not even two men could hold it steady as the seas poured over. Its movement had to be limited with ropes run from the blade to each side of the raft. Terrors of the Deep When a big sea came the helms- men left the steering to the ropes and hung on to a bamboo pole from the cabin roof, flinging them- selves at the oar again before the raft could turn round and the sail thrash about. In the struggle amts and chests were .sore with pressing; the oar knocked them green and blue in front and behind, "Terrors of the deep" were Ito figment to these raftnten. Some- times at night they would be scared by two round shining eyes glaring at then from the sea with hypnotic stare—it might have been the 01d Man of the Sea himself!" Often these were big sionds w.' -t', devilish green eyes; sometimes the eyes of creep water fish which cosy came up at night. Several times when the sea was calm the black water round the raft was suddenly full of round heads two or three feet in diameter . , . motionless .. , staring. Or 3 ft. balls of light would flash at intervals down in the water. Sonte of the monsters—possibly giant ray-fish—looked bigger than elephants in the glimmer of the raft - light. One daylight visitor had .the ugliest face they had ever seen— broad, flat ]read like a frog's, with two small eyes at the sides and a toad -like jaw four or live feet wide, with long fringes drooping from the corners of the mouth. The huge brownish body ended in a long, thin tail with a straight -up pointed fin. It came swimming astern, grinning like a bull -dog. In front swans a crowd of zebra -striped pilot fish, and large remora fish and other parasites sat firmly attached to its body. "Walt Disney himself could not have created a more hair-raising sea monster than that which thus suddenly law with its terrific -jaws along the raft's side," Mr. Heyer- dahl writes in his vivid account of the voyage, "The Kon-Tiki Expedi- tion". It was a rare whale -shark, the world's largest known fish, which weighs 15 tons and may reach 65 ft. in length. Another menace was the octo- pus or squid, which could board the raft or feel about ever corner of it with its long tentacles. Not liking the prospect of groping cold arms about their necks, dragging them out of their sleeping bags at night, the raftnten slept with long machete knives at their side. Young squids were actually found aboard: one with its amts twined round the bamboo by the cabin door, another on the palm -leaf roof. Sharks Aboard Many tines they were visited by whales larger than the raft. One headed straight for the port side, with seven or eight following, then glided right underneath and lay there, dark and motionless. while the men held their breath. One mighty heave, and . , , but, to their intense relief, it slowly sank out of sight. Sharks, six to ten feet long, were baited and hauled aboard. Some- times the captive would jerk itself round itt great leaps and thrash at the bamboo wall of the cabin, using its tail like a sledge -hammer, with its huge jaws opened wide, its rows of teeth snapping at the men's legs as they tugged with all thele might, jumping nimbly aside. Occasionally, for a diversion, two or three of then[ would row out in a rubber dinghy to photograph the raft or just laugh at it—for it looked so ludicrous in that waste of water. Once, when wind and sea were higher than they thought and the Kon Tilci was moving more quickly than they reckoned, the dinghy party had to row desper- ately with their toy oars to regain it and avoid being left behind, "Those were horrible minutes out on the sea before we got hold of the runaway raft and crowded on hoard to the others, home again." From that day it was strictly for- bidden to go out in the rubber dinghy without having a long line made fast to the bows. One there was a frantic cry of "Man overboard!" as Herman, try- ing to save a sleeping bag from slipping into the sea, fell in him- self and was soon far astern, swim- ming frantically after the raft but losing way. Knut dived in atter him with a lifebelt and just managed to reach him in time, while the others hauled on the line and dragged them both to safety. Last Desperate Fight Their worst ordeal carte at the end, when they reached an island east of Tahiti and crashed on a reef pounded by massive rollers. As a 'nighty sea came over, Hey- erdahl clung to a masthead stay, the others to lashed boxes, guy ropes, anything that offered hand- hold. "I determined," he says, "that if I was to die, I would die in this Position, like a knot on the stay. The sea thundered on, oft :tact Fast, and no it toured -by it revealed a hideouts sit;itt 'flat• Kofi-Tiki was wholly chane,•d1, as by the stroke of t. magic .,and. The vessel we itnew front weeks and months at sea teas no more; in a few second.4 our pleasant world •had become tl alta t tried wreck." 'Me cabin itself was crushed like a house of cards. ''hey had a des.: ',crate fight to reach the shore of the small uninhabited well, but they managed it, and after a brief (.'rusoe existence were rescued by natives front another island and eventua ally reached Tahiti. Mr, Ilcyerrlaid had proved that those original natives fleeing front the Incas could have reached the islands by raft. His story, translated by F. 11. Lyon, with excellent pho- tographs of the life aboard, is worthy to rank with the classics of sea adventure: Crazy and Dangerous This crazy and dangerous fad of cluttering up the windshield of car or truck with a lot of swaying doo- dads brings well merited criticism from the Saskatoon Star -Phoenix. It was time something was said about this. Driving today on any street or highway is a job that calls for constant concentration and un- obstructed vision. That is why windshields are trade of glass or other transparent material. For the safety of others, all others who use the highway, as well as the occu- pants of any car, these windshields should be kept clean and clear, Even a small sticker adds some hazard but these imitation birds and dolls which dangle in front of the driver's eyes are a standing in- vitation to suicide and manslauglt• ter. The other day a magistrate fined a motorist who was attempting to comb his hair and also drive. In the interests of common safety most people will approve of that magis- trate's decision and they would also approve of a similar action against those' responsible for these wind- shield puppet shows. LOTS LIKE HIM The lecturer was ranting on bit favorite subject—the evils of to- bacco. "Carefully compiled statistics," he asserted, "demonstrate that every cigar a ratan smokes shortens his life by a week, and each cigarette by three days." A man its the audience rose to inquire, "Are those statistics ac- curate?" "Absolutely accurate, sir," de. Blared the lecturer. "Why??" "It's quite important to me," re- plied the man, "for if they're accur- ate, I've been dead some 287 years," Tasteless Entering a drugstore a girl ask. ed how to take a dose of castor oil without tasting it. The assistant said he would look up some sugges- tions, but meanwhile would the young lady like to try a new lemon• ade powder they had just got in. The young lady would, and when the glass was finished the assistant asked, with a smile: Well, did you taste it?" Good Heavens!" gasped the girl, "Was the castor oil in that lemon- ade? I wanted it for tuv small brother," Newest Light Transport—Six jet rocket units and three engines enable the newest lig•! t assault transport to take olf in a space of less than 500 feet. Weighing 20 tons, the North- rop Raider C-15 was designed to tcattsport 11 eavy loads in and out of small ,unienprove 3 clearings. The photograph was made during one of the ship's test flights. .fix TEit SO Tilll3IS THE COTTAGE rREDRENTED JITTER, GET 50ME WATER FROM'THE LAKE TO PRIME THE - PUMP. WHERE'S JIrrER, mom 4 SENT HIM FOR WATER SEE IP YOU CAN FIND HIM. WOODY AND JITTER` HAVE DISAPPEARED. WILLYOU LOOK FOR -MEM, DEAR? NOW NE's GONE! N. HAVE To GET' THE WATER MYSELF! By Arthur Pointer YOU BET.