In 1926, the Vitaphone Corporation
was formed with the intent of making commercially viable sound motion pictures
in which the sound track would run in perfect tandem with the picture (not yet a
sound strip physically attached to the celluloid). Al Jolson, the most popular
star of the both the Broadway stage and commercial recordings, was recruited to
appear in a one reel short for Vitaphone. The risky, but potentially
revolutionary one reeler, was called, fully, Al Jolson in A Plantation Act.
Jolson (in blackface) appears on what appears to be a rural farm setting. As
early as 1912 in The Whirl of Society, Jolson introduced a black face character
named Gus. Gus was wily, smart, sympathetic, and the hero of his plays, who
generally outsmarted those who were his antagonists. Jolson simply brought his
stage persona and traits onto the screen. A characteristic that had enamored his
audiences was Jolson's intensity with the audience; almost making them part of
the show. He would often, for example, dance up and down a runway running
through the house to get "closer" to the patrons, or in many of his
early vehicles, he often dismissed the cast and spent much of the evening
singing to audiences from directly in front of the footlights or hanging off the
ramps. In this film, Jolson sings three of his hit songs: "April
Showers", "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody", and
"When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along". Historians think
this may be the closest thing existing on film that best captured what he must
have been like on the stage. Jolson, after each song, starts a patter talking
directly to the viewer (as if they were seated in front of him) saying his
humorous trademark, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain't heard nothin'
yet!" (laughter) "You ain't heard a thing!" Following the last
song, Jolson comes out to take a "theatrical" curtain call, then keeps
running back for additional bows, knowing that the movie audience is applauding
wildly! Seeing Jolson in his prime must have been a galvanic experience, as
Jolson's explosive charisma could be likened to that of an Everest in