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"Well, obviously, our main goal is to continue to seek out these wonderful, 16-inch shellac discs. So, first and foremost anybody knows record collectors, old theaters that are in their area; which is where some of these discs are found, they're closed up for years and somebody just put them in the basement or the attic. Just to describe them, they're 16-inch. They look like an old 78, except they're 16-inch, black discs and on the label, it's going to have a movie studio name, whether it's MGM, Paramount, Vitaphone, Warner Bros."


Yowza, Yowza, Yowza. This is Brian Marcus Decker, for the Jolson and Friends Blog located on the web at www.JolsonBlog.com, which is the first tech-nostalgic blog dedicated to the musical influences of Al Jolson and Friends.

Well folks, we are winding down with Part VIII of our outstanding The Jazz Singer interview with Ron Hutchinson, one of the co-founders of the Vitaphone Project. Due to their extensive efforts working with private collectors, university film archives, the Library of Congress, Warner Bros. and Turner Entertainment they have successfully preserved hundreds of early Vitaphone and Vitaphone Variety film performances. Included in this illustrious Vitaphone catalog include performances by the legendary Al Jolson, Burns & Allen, Baby Rose Marie, Ruth Etting, Weber & Fields, The Seven Little Foys, Georgie Price, George Jessel, Joe E. Brown, Sissle & Blake, Jack Benny, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, William Demarest, Joe Frisco, Jack Norworth, Molly Picon, Rudy Vallee and many, many more.

We will also have an opportunity to discuss with Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project the overall involvement with the recent Commemorative 80th Anniversary Edition of the legendary film, The Jazz Singer: This three-disc deluxe DVD EDITION is nothing short of fantastic. For Jolson fans and anyone interested in early 20th century performing arts, music, film and nostalgia, this is a must buy. This incredible three-disc collection includes more than several hours of digital transferred and immaculately refurbished soundtracks from the original Vitaphone Sound on Disc recordings. This special collection also includes behind the scene Jazz Singer photo cards, souvenir programs that include reviews, news articles, a Vitaphone brochure, replicas of postcards that even Al Jolson sent to Jack Warner following the death of his brother and more.

Perfect Holiday Gift: 80th Anniversary DVD Edition of THE JAZZ SINGER

Click here to shop for this three-disc DVD from Amazon

Free Jolson and Friends Podcasts

You can listen to the entire series of interviews including my current eight-part interview with Ron Hutchinson of the Vitaphone Project, Rich Conaty of the Big Broadcast radio show, Asa the Magnificent Minstrel, the Vaudeville series with author Trav S.D. and our favorite child actress, Sybil Jason.

To listen to the free Jolson and Friends Blog Podcast published audio files, just click on the listen to podcast icon on the top of this blog post.

"We also love to hear from people who are relatives of performers. And again, if we can help the family members, once again, see their relatives' performances, we'd love to do that, anything related to early talkies also, whether it's stills, posters, and so on. It's really, though, a grassroots organization...This is still, I think this is the reason for our success, basically record collectors; film buffs all working together in a very cooperative way with the archives and with the studios in a very unique arrangement, where everybody works together to make these things happen again."


Jolson Blog: The Jazz Singer and Vitaphone Interview with Ron Hutchinson Part VIII

Brian Marcus Decker: You had mentioned before we started the interview that you are working on some potential restorations of things that actually were technically Vitaphone, but certainly early sound films. Can you talk about some of the projects that you're working on right now with Vitaphone?

Ron Hutchinson: Yeah. What happened was, of course it's the Vitaphone project. But that doesn't mean that if it says something else, we're not interested. Pretty much what it's evolved to is anything related to early sound. So, some of the things we've gotten involved with are, first of all, we do hear from a lot of relatives of Vitaphone shorts performers, vaudevillians. They're very often the grandsons and granddaughters of vaudevillians who made a short. Somehow, they find us. And it's really nice when, in fact, it turns out that Grandfather Joe's short can be restored and the families very often step up and fund it.

We work a lot with documentarians. There's a fellow doing a documentary on Earl Carroll's Vanities and George White's Scandals, and we helped him find early material and so on. You mentioned the vaudeville documentary from American Experience on PBS a while ago. They started planning to do that documentary with still pictures. And I said, "Hey, there are loads of Vitaphone vaudeville shorts. And wouldn't it be nice to show Baby Rose Marie and then cut to her today commenting on her performance?" So, we hear a lot from PBS and have worked on a lot of things with Turner Classic Movies and so on.

And then there are also features, Emperor Jones and All Quiet on the Western Front, two non-Vitaphone films, but they did have discs, were restored by the Library of Congress. And by having the discs, you knew everything that was on the sound track and you could take little, missing pieces of film and put it back to create the restored, more complete version. I don't think a week goes by that I don't hear from a relative. Or this morning, I heard from a guy who has six Vitaphone discs. So, it just never ends.

Brian Marcus Decker: Ron, how can this online blog community get involved and support the Vitaphone project?

Ron Hutchinson: Well, obviously, our main goal is to continue to seek out these wonderful, 16-inch shellac discs. So, first and foremost anybody knows record collectors, old theaters that are in their area; which is where some of these discs are found, they're closed up for years and somebody just put them in the basement or the attic. Just to describe them, they're 16-inch. They look like an old 78, except they're 16-inch, black discs and on the label, it's going to have a movie studio name, whether it's MGM, Paramount, Vitaphone, Warner Bros. So, first and foremost, anybody who has them or knows where some are, please let us know. We have a website, www.vitaphoneproject.com. And certainly, they can contact us and we'll let you know if it translates into a possible restoration.

We also love to hear from people who are relatives of performers. And again, if we can help the family members, once again, see their relatives' performances, we'd love to do that, anything related to early talkies also, whether it's stills, posters, and so on. It's really, though, a grassroots organization. My wife laughs. Sometimes, people call. They think we're an arm of the federal government and we have wings in the building where we keep different things. This is still, I think this is the reason for our success, basically record collectors; film buffs all working together in a very cooperative way with the archives and with the studios in a very unique arrangement, where everybody works together to make these things happen again. Nobody's making a lot of money releasing 1927 shorts. But it's very rewarding to kind of rediscover and preserve this stuff again.

Brian Marcus Decker: And if they want to get in touch with you directly?

Ron Hutchinson: Probably the best is my email, which is ron@vitaphoneproject.com . And that email will get to me. We'd love to hear from you and certainly keep spreading the word on the DVD set; because that's going to ensure more Jolson and other stuff is going to be put out. And I think together, we're going to just keep driving the stuff. It's more popular than ever, really.

Readers interested in the Vitaphone Project are invited to visit its website at www.vitaphoneproject.com where all back issues of its newsletter, lists of shorts awaiting restoration, stills and other materials reside. Those with leads on soundtrack discs, nitrate film, and underwriters may write to The Vitaphone Project, 5 Meade Court, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.

Brian Marcus Decker: Fantastic. Well, on behalf of the Jolson and Friends blog community, once again, I'd like to personally thank Ron Hutchinson and the Vitaphone Project for their ongoing contribution for keeping the memory and the spirit of Al Jolson alive and their supporting role in the recent Commemorative 80th Anniversary DVD Edition of the legendary landmark film, The Jazz Singer.

This is Brian Marcus Decker and thank you once again for joining us on the Jolson and Friends blog, the first and most important blog dedicated to the life and musical influences of the legendary Al Jolson, the world's greatest entertainer. Please come and visit us again any time at www.JolsonBlog.com and feel free to listen to our audio podcasts.

Ron Hutchinson: Thanks a lot, Brian.

Wait a Minute, wait a minute, wait a minute:
 
Jolson Blog: Vitaphone Interview Bonus Material: December 28, 2008

Jolson and Friends Blog Required Viewing and Reading List

Perfect Holiday Gift: 80th Anniversary DVD Edition of THE JAZZ SINGER

This three-disc deluxe DVD EDITION is nothing short of fantastic. For Jolson fans and anyone interested in early 20th century performing arts, music, film and nostalgia, this is a must buy. This incredible three-disc collection includes more than several hours of digital transferred and immaculately refurbished soundtracks from the original Vitaphone Sound on Disc recordings. This special collection also includes behind the scene Jazz Singer photo cards, souvenir programs that include reviews, news articles, a Vitaphone brochure, replicas of postcards and more.

Click here to shop for this three-disc DVD from Amazon

Perfect Holiday Gift No Applause--Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous (Paperback) by Trav S.D.

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Perfect Holiday Gift My Fifteen Minutes: An Autobiography of a Child Star of the Golden Era of Hollywood (Paperback) by Sybil Jason

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Perfect Holiday Gift: When Jolson Was King: (Paperback) by Richard Grudens

Richard Grudens has written an entertaining and informative (must read) book for anyone interested in the legendary, Al Jolson "The World's Greatest Entertainer".

"The book contains many facets of Jolson' career including those around him, his competition, employers, and comments from those he inspired enough to form their own careers, the issue of minstrel, blackface performers, fabled stories of the famed Friar's Club, a chapter of the infamous Shubert Brothers, and chapters covering Jolson's experiences in film, radio and his extensive USO travels. Covered too are vignettes of the theatres in which Jolson performed, and of those great theatrical competitors like the Barrymore's and where they were voicing their talents while Jolson was pulling them in at the Winter Garden, and a full feature on Jolson's films from the first talkie, The Jazz Singer to his famed bio-pics The Jolson Story and Jolson Sings Again." - Richard Grudens

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Limited edition T-shirts (With FREE Shipping

White or Natural T-Shirt: Only $18.00 with FREE U.S Shipping

You will be "Sitting on Top of the World" with these limited edition T-shirts. These are perfect holiday gifts for collectors of nostalgia and a must have for anyone interested in the legendary Al Jolson, Baseball and Eddie Cantor. Each t-shirt order comes with FREE Shipping.

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Al Jolson Limited Edition T-shirt "The Singing Fool": This is a vintage color reproduction of a 1928 theatrical program.

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For additional information, special orders, discounted shipping outside the U.S., payments through Pay Pal, please contact: brian@Jolsonblog.com

To order please specify style (Jolson, Cantor, Moon, Jolie, Houdini King of Cards, World's Greatest Mystery Man, History of Old Time Baseball, Amusing Boardwalk, Sherlock Double Profile, Sherlock Improbable, Sudoku), quantity, size, t-shirt color (white/natural or black) and your shipping address. Please send checks to:

Brian Marcus Decker
24 Arverne Road
West Orange, NJ 07052

Changes to Jolson and Friends Blog

In the upcoming months I am looking to continue to evolve the Jolson and Friends Blog and wanted preview some upcoming changes. I am continuing to promote the sale of Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Houdini, History of Baseball and several other unique Limited Edition T-shirt designs (featured above) all with free U.S. shipping. The sales from these items help offset the cost of maintaining this blog. Your continued support is greatly appreciated and besides they are just great T-shirts.

Due to the time intensive nature of ongoing research, content development, production and maintaining and the Blog, the next blog update will happen on December 28th. I am continuing to work on several future Jolson and Friends projects including:

• Expanded global coverage of local events (please send me event info).
• Future podcasts of upcoming interviews and special performance-based content.

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