AL JOLSON
That the right kind of music would solve most of Europe’s dreary political trouble is the optimistic theory of Al Jolson, jazz king of America. Although “Bombo” kept the comedian busy here, everybody he knew on the Rialto took a flying trip abroad this past summer.
“And they all came back depressed,” he asserted. “But singing Broadway soon made them themselves again. And that’s just how I discovered that the real difference between America and Europe is their music. I’ll wager my best derby hat against anything you like that Europe could rid itself of a lot of gloom if they would take a leaf from our jazz books.
“The only trouble is, over there they regard only the tragic as art. Now, I have been knocking around some 31 years and it seems tome there is considerable art, not to speak of fun, in American comedy.
“You take ‘Toot, Toot Tootsie,’ the song I sing now—it wouldn’t be considered either dignified or artistic abroad, yet thousands stamp for an encore when I give it here. Now wouldn’t it do Europe good to try as a tonic something they would feel like that about, even if it wasn’t quite art?
“And, anyway, you’ll never get it through my Yankee head that art isn’t what people enjoy rather than what a board of censors say they ought to enjoy.”
From page 3 of the Salisbury Evening Post, Thursday, Dec. 28, 1922
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