Posted
10:57 PM
by Gene
In editing
a post from February on
Hollywood and the Stars I've just learned -- now! -- that there's
a huge memorial in Culver City to Al Jolson, where he is buried, and that Jack Benny delivered
the dedication, which closes thus:
Before I finish, I’d like you to know that this isn’t the only shrine to Al Jolson. Eight thousand miles from here, nestled in the hills of Korea, is an outdoor amphitheater where our troops are entertained. This amphitheater is within a few miles of the disputed Thirty-eighth Parallel . . . and it is called the Al Jolson Bowl. To those boys eight thousand miles away who gather there every day, the memory of Al Jolson, as with us, will never die.
We now know how far Hollywood came, how far it has since come, and why it can never come back. Cue the music again, Elmer.