Radio mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

RADIO M IRROR Their Friendship Brought Them Stardom (Continued from page 45) ing in Boston when Goodman's infant son fell suddenly ill, back in New York. It was not supposed to be a serious illness — that is, not at first. Two days passed, and the child grew worse, so much worse that after that evening performance Goodman planned to take a late train back to New York, returning in time for the next night's show. In the last act of "Sinbad" there was a spot in which Jolson rubbed a lamp, like Aladdin, and made a wish. Usually it was a funny wish, one of the big laughs of the show. But this night, when he came on the stage, Jolson's eyes were sad, and as he rubbed the lamp he said: "I'm going to make a silent wish." Something communicated itself to the audience — the tone of Jolson's voice, the look on his comically blackened face. For half a minute it sat silent, confused, not knowing why it was aware of some deeper meaning underlying his words. Down in the pit, Al Goodman understood that meaning. He did not need the telegram Jolson handed him a few minutes later, after the performance, to tell him his son had died. Jolson proved the quality of his friendship in the next few difficult weeks. _ He not only paid the expenses of the child's illness and death, but he took care of the remainder of Goodman's West Coast debts— debts which he had been struggling to pay off during the time since he had come East. Most important of all, he showed his sympathy in a score of quiet, unobtrusive ways. ATI ME was to come when Goodman would remember the staunchness of Jolson's friendship, and would hinder his own career to repay it. Successful musical comedies ran longer in those days than they do now — much longer. Goodman and Jolson were associated for ten years, and in all that time Jolson starred in only three shows — "Sinbad," "Bombo," and "Big Boy" — making an average run of slightly more than three years for each show. Since month after month of doing the same thing gets boring for actors, long runs usually aren't the unmixed pleasures you'd expect them to be; but nobody ever got bored in a Jolson show'. Jolson never gave them a chance. He was always changing, usually on the spur of the moment. He had a repertoire of a hundred or so songs, which his orchestra had to keep always on tap, so that while the audience was laughing at one of his jokes Jolson could lean down and whisper to Goodman the title of the piece he wanted to do next. Sometimes, near the end of a performance, if he had a particularly appreciative audience, Jolson would toss the silly musical-comedy plot aside completely and just go on singing and wise-cracking until eleventhirty. He was always in blackface, of course, and few people know what he looked like without it. One trick he played on the audience once or twice was to enter the auditorium from the rear, after the performance had started but before his first entrance. Without his make-up, nobody recognized him, and he climbed up on the stage and interrupted the show with a barrage of irrelevant chatter. Wandering into the wings, he returned to the stage rubbing black on his face, still talking, still enjoying himself hugely. • "Good grief, Mr. Giraffe, what a perfectly terrific rash you've got! You're broken out all over, even on your tail. And your neck's a sight! When a person has so much neck, it must be awful!" • "J can remember when I used to have rashes.. . Boy, did I itch! In those days before we had Johnson's Baby Powder, there were times when I felt like jumping right out of my skin! • "But take a look at me now! Not a rash or a chafe anywhere since we've been using that soft, downy Johnson's. You try it— and see if it doesn't knock the spots off you, too!" • "Feel a pinch of my Johnson's— isn't it smooth and slick? Not a bit gritty like some powders. It keeps my skin as fine as silk!". . . That's the best protection against skin infections, Mothers! And Johnson's Baby Powder is made of the finest Italian talc . . . no orrisroot. Always keep Johnson's Baby Soap, Baby Cream and Baby Oil in your baby's bath-basket, too! Jitf (J NEW BRUN$WICK Q NEW JEb'sE* 67