Norman Brooks; Jolson tribute singer (GREAT)
Hyfler/Rosner
Alan Hustak
October 15, 2006 Sunday
Final Edition
\First Quebec-born entertainer to sing in Las Vegas: His
Jolson-like voice 'a blessing and a curse'
When he sang, Norman Brooks sounded so much like Al Jolson,
the rakish U.S. blackface comedian and singer who died in
1950, that he was able to build an astonishingly successful
career as a Jolson tribute singer.
Brooks portrayed Jolson in the 1956 movie The Best Things in
Life are Free, and it was Brooks, not Jolson, who belted out
I'm Sitting on Top of the World on the soundtrack of Woody
Allen's 1983 movie Zelig.
Billed as The Voice That Lives Again, Brooks was also the
first Quebec-born entertainer to play Las Vegas, selling out
the Copa Room at The Sands Hotel and Casino for 44 weeks in
1959. He also appeared in the 1960 version of Ocean's
Eleven, which was filmed in the hotel.
At the peak of his career, he earned $5,000 a week, plus
royalties from his recordings.
"Brooks sings songs which Jolson never heard of, including a
medley of French numbers," The Gazette's wisecracking man
about town, Al Palmer, once wrote. "These Brooks sings like
Brooks. But when Brooks sings like Brooks, Brooks sounds
like Jolson. It's all very confusing."
A heavy smoker, Brooks was 78 when he died of emphysema at
the Jean Talon Hospital on Sept. 14.
"He was born with Jolson's voice, and that was both a
blessing and a curse," his sister Marguerite said. "He
didn't imitate or impersonate Jolson. He didn't do the
exaggerated Jolson gestures. He just sang. When he opened
his mouth, he sounded like Jolson. When he started his
career, he didn't even know who Al Jolson was."
He was born in Montreal on Aug. 19, 1928, and christened
Norman Joseph Arie. His father, a Lebanese immigrant, was
the Seville Theatre stage manager who, incidentally, was
duty manager at the Laurier Palace Theatre in 1927, when it
burned down and 88 people died. His mother was
French-Canadian, and Norman grew up fluent in both French
and English.
His younger sister Annie, a cabaret singer, launched her
brother's career in 1948 when she invited him up from the
audience to do a duet. Their act together proved to be
instantly popular. Norman Arie then entered a U.S. talent
competition, Opportunity Knocks, won it, and changed his
name to Brooks. The legendary Kate Smith invited him to sing
on her NBC television show, and his career took off.
When Brooks opened at the Copacabana in New York, Walter
Winchell, the New York Daily Mirror's influential gossip
columnist, was impressed to discover that Brooks "delivered
a pleasant tune without trying to ape Jolson."
Although Brooks scored a hit in 1952 with his recording of
an original song, Hello Sunshine, Goodbye Rain, and was on
the charts the following year with You Shouldn't Have Kissed
Me, he was never able to shake Jolson's shadow.
"He wrote more than 300 songs of his own, but no one would
give them the attention they deserved," said his nephew Paul
Feher. "They wanted to hear him sing Jolson."
Brooks recorded an album with Nat Raider that included some
of his own compositions, including the bluesy title tune
Easy, but it wasn't what his fans expected.
"He was very deep, very sensitive. He was a brilliant
tunesmith and magician. It killed him inside that no one
recognized him for his song- writing talent, " Feher said.
Brooks appeared in 1975 at the Provincetown Playhouse in
Massachusetts in The Magic of Jolson, and continued to be in
demand on the nightclub circuit and on late-night television
talk shows until the 1980s.
Brooks played the horses, gambled heavily and gravitated to
people who had nothing.
"He'd give his money away to total strangers. The fame and
the social standing meant nothing to him," Feher added.
Jack Hallett, a longtime friend from New Jersey, recalled
that, in the 1950s, fans would line the sidewalks and wait
for hours to hear Brooks.
"Their adoration went beyond Al Jolson," Hallett said in his
eulogy. "Jolson couldn't make men want to be like him and
ladies fall in love with him the way Norman did. He was so
classy. So boyish. So focused.
"He was put in the horrible position of having to sing
someone else's songs, but on stage he was never bitter. He
never disrespected those songs. Never a false note or a
false statement. He was a prince."
Brooks was estranged from his wife, Joan Johanson,when she
died three years ago.
He is survived by his three daughters, two brothers and two
sisters.
ahustak@thegazette. canwest.com
ONLINE EXTRA:
To hear Norman Brooks sing a French-language version of the
Al Jolson hit Toot, Toot Tootsie Goodbye, visit
montrealgazette.com.
GRAPHIC:
Photo: COURTESY OF PAUL FEHER; Norman Brooks scored a hit in
1952 with his recording of an original song, Hello Sunshine,
Goodbye Rain, but he was never able to shake the shadow of
Al Jolson.