75 YEARS AGO (1925).(theater in New York)(Brief Article)

Samson Raphaelson's The Jazz Singer debuts in New York City. The show follows the conflicts between a young vaudevillian's career and his religious upbringing. George Jessel plays the lead, but he is replaced by Al Jolson when the play is made into the first "talkie." New York critic George Jean Nathan calls Cradle Snatchers, Norma Mitchell's farce about infidelity, "the funniest show in town." A young Humphrey Bogart appears as an Italian kid from Brooklyn who passes himself off as a romantic Spaniard with lines such as, "Am I not Don Jose Vallejo.

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