Unsere Nachricht an Davey Lee (2007):

We are two film students from Germany, and we got your address from members of the International Al Jolson Society. One year ago we started to work on a documentary about Al Jolson. When we found out that there is still a possibility to contact you, we wanted to do that. Unlike most Jolson enthusiasts, we did not hear of Jolson because of the film "The Jolson Story". In 2005 we attended a course at our university that mentioned "The Jazz Singer" as the first talking picture. We bought the movie, watched it, and got captured by Al Jolson. Because of our growing interest, we wanted to watch the Jolson films in the chronological order. The second movie we watched was "The Singing Fool", the third one was "Say it with Songs". It was difficult to obtain this movies, but we were able to get them through the IAJS of which we are also members now.

We both were born in the 1970s and 1980s, so it was a unique experience for us to watch that kind of films - important films because they are among the first talking pictures. It's even a more unique experience for us to be able to get in touch with you. You may not know that "The Singing Fool" had run in German cinemas before "The Jazz Singer" was shown. It might have something to do with the fact that people back then had not expected that talkies would be successful. We know that "The Singing Fool" was even a bigger success than the first talkie "The Jazz Singer". Because of its big success its actual forerunner "The Jazz Singer" was later also shown in German cinemas.
We just wanted to let you know that there are still people out there who discover these films and get a thrill out of it - even if (or just because) they come from a completely different time. We can "t think of any other medium that is able to have such a sensuous influence even almost 80 years after its creation than film.

When we decided to make a documentary about Al Jolson, we were very happy that he had made several films and that there are still people around that deal with this era. Without these people and without these films, we couldn't do what we want to do. For us it's great to work with material that belongs to the roots of the first medium that was able to evoke a global impact because of its transportation of image and sound, satisfying two of the most important senses of the human being: the eye and the ear. We love the scene with you on Al Jolson's knees when he tells you a bed time story and when he later sings "Sonny Boy" to you. We think it's also a very modern scene because it's a father who rocks the baby to sleep. It's also a reproduced and quoted scene at least in the German film history. Maybe you have heard of the film "Wenn der Vater mit dem Sohne" ("Father and Son") with Heinz Ruehmann from 1955. The father here also rocks the baby to sleep, a very famous scene - we now know that it wasn "t a new idea. And in both cases the role of the protagonist is the one of a broken clown.

After having watched "The Singing Fool" and "Say it with Songs", we wanted to contact you. We've heard that you suffered a stroke and that you are still not in the best of health. We want to send you all of our best wishes and let you know that we are very happy about having the opportunity to write you!