The nominees were ...
- The Best Years of Our Lives. Samuel Goldwyn Studio Sound Department, Gordon Sawyer, Sound Director
- It's a Wonderful Life. RKO Radio Studio Sound Department, John Aalberg, Sound Director
- The Jolson Story. Columbia Studio Sound Department, John Livadary, Sound Director
And the Oscar went to ...
The Jolson Story. Columbia Studio Sound Department, John Livadary, Sound Director.
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| Larry Parks as Al Jolson in The Jolson Story |
Larry Parks plays Al Jolson, the cantor's son who became one of the twentieth century's legendary entertainers. It was a phenomenally popular biopic, but it's not seen much today because Jolson's performing style and the music he sang now seem corny and archaic, and his performances in blackface are downright offensive. In fact, at the time the movie was made, several producers passed on the project for those very reasons. But Columbia boss Harry Cohn had been a song-plugger -- he sang and played the piano in music stores to encourage people to buy sheet music -- back in Jolson's heyday, and was a big fan. The movie is full of biopic clichés and gives no hint that its subject was a temperamental egomaniac. Parks was dubbed in the musical numbers by Jolson himself, which is probably a major reason why the film earned John Livadary the second of his three Oscars. (The actual dubbing work was probably done by the credited sound technicians, Hugh McDowell and Richard Olson, but at this time the Oscar still went to the sound department head.) Parks, who received a nomination for best actor, was a Columbia contract player seen mostly in B-movies until the studio had trouble filling the role of Jolson: James Cagney and Danny Thomas turned down the part -- Thomas reportedly declined because the studio wanted him to have his nose bobbed -- and José Ferrer and Richard Conte were tested for it. Parks also starred in the sequel, Jolson Sings Again, but his climb to stardom was cut short when he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and admitted that he had been a member of the Communist Party. His subsequent career was confined to nightclubs, theater, and a handful of TV appearances, but he made one last screen appearance in a supporting role in the 1962 film Freud.
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