Al Jolson - Dancing Around

Sections on this page: Advertisements | Reviews | Songs in the show | Unique Features

Al Jolson's fifth appearance on Broadway saw him starring in Dancing Around, with music by Sigmund Romberg and Harry Carroll, book and lyrics by Harold Atteridge. The show opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on October 10, 1914, and ran 145 performances through February 15, 1915. After closing the Broadway run, the show toured the country for the remainder of 1915. The musical had two acts and 12 scenes, and was set in London and Venice.

Although with Jolson's previous Broadway show, Honeymoon Express, he achieved top billing in a second version of the show after the original star, Gaby Deslys, left the show, Dancing Around was the first production in which Al Jolson received top billing from the start, often with his name as prominent as the title of the show.

Very little information about the show, itself, exists other than the descriptions given in the reviews of the day. Existing reviews and ads are shown below to get an idea of the show. In addition, the songs that Jolson sang varied from performance to location, I have included sheet music and/or audio recordings of those that exist.

A look at the advertisements for Dancing Around, showing the prominence of Al Jolson's name from the smaller ad to the display ad.
Click on the ad to view it full size in a new window.
Note that in the first ad, the company is 100 people, subsequently, it rose to 125!

Here are the reviews of Dancing Around from the New York Clipper and the New York Times.
Click on the text to view it full size in a new window.

The Songs

Through the course of the Broadway run and national tour, Al Jolson sang quite a few songs in Dancing Around. They include the following, which he also recorded:

There were songs that Al Jolson sang, but never recorded. Here are some examples, recorded by other artists.

And then there are those songs that Al Jolson sang, but for which I can find no recording by him, or anyone else. Here are those that are known to have been in Dancing Around.

Bring Along Your Dancing Shoes
Down In Waterloo
I Want To Be In Norfolk
I'm Searching For Siegfried
The Shuffling Shiveree
and an operatic piece called Vanetia which received "applause which ... equalled a Caruso ovation."

Unique Features of Dancing Around

Several features in the production of Dancing Around deserve some special mention. Scroll down to read about them.

The Shadow Dance

One of the numbers in Dancing Around was called "The Shadow Dance." In it, dancers moved behind a scrim, backlit so that only their silhouettes appeared to the audience. In this era before Spandex and modern support garments, it is not clear just what they were, or were not, wearing, but the reviewer noted that the women were "apparently dressed in Nature's garb."

Monsieur Jean

On the cast of characters for Dancing Around, Al Jolson is listed first playing his familiar character, Gus, but also at the end of the list, as Monsieur Jean. This was a performance in natural make up, with a small mustache, appearing without blackface on Broadway for the first time. He is noted to appear "as a mincing man dressmaker ... as a burlesque of ... 'My Lady's Dress,' the new Knoblauch play which came last evening to the Playhouse." At left is a photo of Al Jolson as this quite different character.

Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts For Soldiers

A breakout hit from Dancing Around was the song "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts For Soldiers," which was written in 1914 by Herman Darewski, with lyrics by R.P. Weston. Both Billy Murray and Al Jolson sang early versions of the song, which was published by T. B. Harms & Francis and Day & Hunter in 1914. Al Jolson had such popularity with the song that it became a vehicle to promote Dancing Around, and he claimed sole ownership for performing it.

In fact, Billy Murray was one of several singers and orchestras who recorded the number. So, here the recording that Murray made on Victor records, with his quite different version of "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts For Soldiers."

So let's finish this out with an alternate version of Al Jolson's recording of the song. With a bit of a difference in tempo and lyrics, as well as a different sheet music cover, enjoy Mr. Jolson to end the presentation.

If you came here from a link or search engine
Click here to return to the main page of this site

Updated 10 Oct 24