Free Republic

IN the last few years, it has seemed that perhaps America's long-buried history of blackface is being allowed to peek out of the closet. Bob Dylan named his most recent studio album "Love and Theft," after Eric Lott's landmark 1993 study of the form; and in his curious 2003 film, "Masked and Anonymous," Dylan even got Ed Harris to "black up" for a scene. Spike Lee also explored the subject in "Bamboozled," and competing biographies of Stepin Fetchit joined "Where Dead Voices Gather," Nick Tosches' meditation on the minstrel superstar Emmett Miller, on bookshelves. "Old Dan Tucker," the opening track...

It seems like just a trivia question. "What was the first full-length talking picture?" Answer: 1927's "Jazz Singer'' with Al Jolson. But the dilemma faced by Jolson's character, Jakie Rabinowitz, is anything but trivial. Jakie's father insists that his son's main responsibility is to continue the family tradition: he is to become the fifth generation of Rabinowitz cantors. But Jakie has other ideas. Disowned by his father and rejecting his own roots, he becomes Jack Robin, an up-and-coming jazz singer. But just as Jack gets his big break and is about to open on Broadway, he gets disturbing news. His...