Initially, he tried to imitate Alexander Vertinsky (for example, he too sang in a Pierrot costume), but later found his own style.
He got acquainted with popular composer Oscar Strok, author of tango music, and became the first to sing all his new songs.
[1] In the 1930-1940s, first with the Riga Bonzo Theatre and later individually, he went on tours of Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, where he became very popular among different audiences, including many Russian émigrés.
Sokolsky's stage image was refined, but could still be interpreted as acting the 'Russian bear', with a sense of self-parody.
Very tall, joyous, with self-respect — he reminded many Russian émigrés of their Mother Russia, which they had had to leave, sooner or later after the Bolshevik revolution.