Does Mrs. Bin Laden Dress Like Lady Gaga?

Sixty-six years after the defeat of the Third Reich, the Nazis still retain the power to astonish.  Life digitized some previously unreleased photographs of Fuehrer hausfrau Eva Braun dressed in blackface and drag as Al Jolson, the American stage and movie sensation of the first half of the 20th century. He was famously Jewish.  If Mel Brooks had stuck this in a movie, you’d have thought he’d gone too far.  Still, there’s Mrs. Hitler as Jolie, eight years before he made an honest woman of her.

It’s hard to grasp the power of Al Jolson today. For years he was the most popular performer in America, starring in the first talking film, The Jazz Singer, in 1927, transforming popular entertainment.

Here he is in 1935’s Go Into Your Dance, with his wife, the marvelous Ruby Keeler.  Yes, there is the obligatory blackface interlude, a Jolson trademark.  Oy.