Asa Yoelson was born on May 26, 1886 in Seredzius Lithuania and died October 23, 1950. He emigrated to the United States with his family when he was five years old. Bob Dylan once said of him that he was “somebody whose life I can feel.” In 1911 he was hired by J.J. Shubert for the Broadway musical comedy La Belle Paree in the Winter Garden theater, and by the end of the first month he was the star of the show. By 1920 Al Jolson was the hottest star on Broadway. In 1921 Lee Shubert built a new theater across from Central Park and named it Jolson's Fifty-Ninth Street Theater. In the 1930's he was the highest paid entertainer in the world. He starred in the first talking motion picture from Warner Brothers in 1927 The Jazz Singer. He spoke the first spoken words in the first full length talking motion picture, stunning the audience when they heard him say, “Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet...” He was the first known entertainer to involve the audience in his brash, over the top style. He had runways built that went from the stage down the center aisle deep into the audience and he enjoyed running down the aisle and singing next to the audience.