Effects of long-range Coulomb interactions on the Fermi-edge singularity in optical spectra are investigated theoretically for one-dimensional spin-1/2 fermion systems with the use of the Tomonaga-Luttinger bosonization technique. Low-energy excitation spectrum near the Fermi level shows that dispersion of the charge-density fluctuation remains gapless but is nonlinear when the electron-electron (e-e) Coulomb interaction is of the ${\mathit{x}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$ type (i.e., an infinite force range). Temporal behavior of the current-current correlation function is calculated analytically for arbitrary force ranges, ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{e}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{h}}$, of the e-e and the electron-hole (e-h) Coulomb interactions. (i) When both the e-e and the e-h interactions have large but finite force ranges (${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{e}}$\ensuremath{\infty} and ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{h}}$\ensuremath{\infty}), the correlation function yields a power-law decay only for a long-time regime, which is determined by the force ranges as tgmax[${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{e}}$,${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{h}}$]/${\mathit{v}}_{\mathit{F}}$. Corresponding optical spectrum near the Fermi edge (within an energy range of \ensuremath{\Elzxh}${\mathit{v}}_{\mathit{F}}$/max[${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{e}}$,${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{h}}$]) exhibits the power-law divergence or the power-law convergence, which is an ordinary Fermi-edge singularity. (ii) When either the e-e or the e-h interaction is of the ${\mathit{x}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$ type (i.e., ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{e}}$\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty} and/or ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{\mathit{h}}$\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}), an exponent of the correlation function is dependent on time to lead the faster decay than that of any power laws. Then the optical spectra show no power-law dependence and always converge (become zero) at the Fermi edge, which is in striking contrast to the ordinary power-law singularity. Relations between the spectral shape and a measurement time (frequency resolution) are also clarified. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.