The Singing Fool

After the The Jazz Singer, movie fans and Hollywood honchos knew what they wanted: more songs, more sentiment more Al Jolson. So The Jazz Singer star became The Singing Fool in the heartfelt rags-to-riches-to-rags saga of Al Stone, a singing waiter who becomes a sensation, then loses everything when his two-timing wife walks out -- and takes Al's beloved little boy with her. Along the way, Jolson belts out It All Depends on You, Sittin' on Top of the World and Sonny Boy, the tearjerker that became the star's signature song. Audiences ate it up. "Until the arrival in 1939 of Gone with the Wind, the most financially successful sound picture in Hollywood's history was The Singing Fool" (The Hollywood Musical).