LARRY PARKS aka: AL JOLSON
by Michael B. Druxman on 02/17/20
2/17/2020
In 1946, when Larry Parks burst onto the screen as “Al Jolson,” in THE
JOLSON STORY, he was considered “an overnight success,” even though he’d
already appeared in close to thirty B and C films during the previous
five years.
Parks’ triumph would be short lived.
Within the next few
years, he would become a victim of the House Un-American Activities
Committee and, although he would just miss becoming a member of the
infamous “Hollywood Ten,” his career was damaged for the rest of his
life. A virtual pariah in Hollywood, he would make only two more films
in his lifetime, both in Europe.
Larry Parks, however, was not one to
quit. When he and his wife, actress Betty Garrett, were not appearing in
live theatre or nightclubs around the USA and abroad, he was building
and renting out apartment buildings in the Los Angeles area, owning
almost twenty at one point.
LARRY PARKS (aka: AL JOLSON), not only
involves the actor’s dealings with the House Committee and its
aftermath, but also his sometimes contentious relationships with both Al
Jolson and Columbia Pictures head, Harry Cohn.
The play also features
many of the now standard songs that Al Jolson made famous.
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