German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4571/1, 1930-1931. Photo: First National / Defina.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4938/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Warner Bros. / National.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5184/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Warner Bros. / National. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
Sonny Boy
Davey Lee was born David Lea in Hollywood, California, in 1924. He followed his brother, Frankie Lee, who was three years older, into show business.
Soon he became a far greater star. He was cast as Al Jolson's three-year-old son in one of the early talkies, The Singing Fool (Lloyd Bacon, 1928). Davey was dubbed "Sonny Boy", an appellation that remained with him for the rest of his life.
The song 'Sonny Boy' was a solid hit, credited by Wikipedia as being the first million-selling recording. The film, The Singing Fool, was Warner Bros.'s most successful film for more than ten years and remained the top-grossing film until Gone With The Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939).
Young Davey Lee became quite a Hollywood phenomenon. He was quickly featured in a film of his own, Sonny Boy (Archie Mayo, 1929), with Edward Everett Horton and Betty Bronson. A part of the film was shot silent, and other scenes were filmed in the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system.
The film has a decidedly adult major theme of infidelity and divorce. The climax of the film, which unfortunately is considered lost, featured Davey Lee, himself, singing a full-throated version of 'Sonny Boy'. The film was another box office hit.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. 1503. Photo: Warner Bros Vitaphone. Al Jolson and Davey Lee in The Singing Fool (Lloyd Bacon, 1928).
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. 1504. Photo: Warner Bros Vitaphone. Al Jolson and Davey Lee in The Singing Fool (Lloyd Bacon, 1928).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4440/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Warner Bros. Film / National. Al Jolson and his 'Sunny Boy' (Davey Lee) in the early sound film The Singing Fool (Lloyd Bacon, 1928).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4441/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Warner Bros.
Little Pal
Davey Lee's next film was another first, the debut of canine star Rin Tin Tin in Frozen River (F. Harmon Weight, 1929), a part-talkie with sound recorded in the Vitaphone process, which is also considered lost.
During the filming, Rin Tin Tin reportedly did not recognise Davey as the star that he was, and tried to take a nip out of the child. Still, Davey was rescued in the scene.
Davey returned to Al Jolson's side in the sound film Say It With Songs (Lloyd Bacon, 1929). Reprising his role with a new name, "Little Pal", Davey survives in this movie, providing a happy ending for a Jolson film most notable for its lack of blackface. It was also the first Al Jolson movie considered as a flop.
However, according to Warner Bros records it still earned $1,715,000 domestically and $551,000 foreign. At about the same time, Davey entered the recording studio for the track 'Sonny Boy's Bear Story', a monologue with a song accompanied by a small orchestra. It was told in two parts, on both sides of a 78 rpm record, and, reportedly, sold quite well.
Also that year, Davey appeared in the drama Skin Deep (Ray Enright, 1929), co-starring with Monte Blue and Betty Compson.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 4733/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Defina / First National.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 4733/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Defina / First National. Collection: Geoffrey Donaldson Institute.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 4938/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Warner Bros. / National.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 4940/2. Photo: Warner Bros. / National. Al Jolson and Davey Lee in Say It With Songs (Lloyd Bacon, 1929).
Son of a gang czar
In 1930, Davey Lee played in The Squealer (Harry Joe Brown, 1930), the story of a gang czar and his society wife starring Jack Holt, Dorothy Revier and Zasu Pitts. Davey played Jack Holt's son.
Davey also recorded another record that year, 'I've Lost My Dog' and 'Davey and His Tog Tatters', released on the Brunswick label. Unfortunately, no copies of this recording are known to exist.
Reportedly earning some $3000 per week in 1930, Davey Lee left show business at the ripe age of six. Davey was taken out of films by his mother reportedly so he could have a normal childhood. There are also stories that his health was suffering, and others that his mother received an offer of $3500 for him to make appearances in vaudeville.
Anyhow, this was the end of his short film career. He served in the U.S. Army during WWII and later worked in community theatre. Despite some of Al Jolson's stories to the contrary, there is no evidence that he and Davey ever crossed paths in later life. There is only a 1949 photo from the era of the Jolson biopics, which shows Davey Lee, then 24 years old, again sitting on Al Jolson's knee. This may have been their last meeting, as Al Jolson died the next year.
Later in life, he enjoyed performing in local theatre and was a guest at several annual conventions of the International Al Jolson Society. After suffering a stroke, Davey Lee was admitted to Windsor Gardens Healthcare Centre in Van Nuys, California, and in 2008, he died from natural causes in Los Angeles, aged 83.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4940/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Warner Bros. / National. Al Jolson and Davey Lee in The Singing Fool (Lloyd Bacon, 1928).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4940/3, 1930-1931. Photo: Warner Bros / National. Davey Lee and Al Jolson in Say It with Songs (Lloyd Bacon, 1929).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 4941/1. Photo: National / Warner Bros. Al Jolson, Marion Nixon and Davey Lee in Say It With Songs (Lloyd Bacon, 1929).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5189/1. Photo: Warner Bros. Al Jolson and Davey Lee in Say It with Songs (Lloyd Bacon, 1929). In his dreams, the boy sees and hears his father singing 'Little Pal' to him. The superimposition used in the film is absent on this card.
Sources: Al Jolson Society, Wikipedia and IMDb.
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