(After starting the video, click in the margin to restart the snowfall.)
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas …
Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin
Sung by Bing Crosby and Martha Mears (dubbing Marjorie Reynolds)
From the 1942 movie ‘Holiday Inn’
According to IMDb, Irving Berlin appeared (uncredited) in the movie as the flower store manager
From Wikipedia:
“White Christmas” is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. According to the Guinness World Records, the version sung by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. Other versions of the song, along with Bing Crosby’s, have sold over 100 million copies.
Accounts vary as to when and where Berlin wrote the song. One story is that he wrote it in 1940, in warm La Quinta, California, while staying at the La Quinta Hotel, a frequent Hollywood retreat also favored by writer-director-producer Frank Capra, although the Arizona Biltmore also claims the song was written there. He often stayed up all night writing — he told his secretary, “Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!”
And he wrote many many more songs that I like better, he also wrote the 7th Inning stretch ‘God Bless America’ too I believe, pity the so called song writers of today can’t write like Irving Berlin did
Certainly seems to be true. With Christmas music anyway. I just read an article that said most of the most popular, classic Christmas songs were written in the mid-20th Century.
I think you have to have cold, potentially snowy Christmases to appreciate this song. But a lot of American, or Northern Hemisphere Christmas songs wouldn’t work very well in Australia.
I grew up in England, I left there in February of 1951 so I do have good recollection of Northern Hemisphere Christmas’s, and must admit that as a result of that I find the Australian Christmas rather dull, and I find it quite ridiculous that we have all the NH trimmings of Santa Claus and his sleigh and snow with the outside temperature sometimes way over the 100° F (I’m being kind to you here and not giving you the Celcius).
There is no novelty in having a slap up Christmas dinner outside in summer everybody eats outside often, and a slap up hot roast turkey or goose with all the trimmings is not as enjoyable in the heat of summer as it is in the chill of winter. Those born and raised in Australia love it but even after 63 Christmase’ s here I find it all rather dull, unexciting,however New Years eve is something entirely different especially in Sydney when our harbour shines in all it’s glory.
Oh and by the bye all those cold snowy Christmasy songs get thashed throughout all the shops and supermarkets from November on, I dread going shopping, and I’ll dread it even more next week as all the bakery sections will be flogging their hot cross buns! I kid you not! 🙁 😮
Oh I hate the shopping too. And the fact that retailers start decorating for Christmas before all the Halloween stuff if sold. But I do start getting a bit sentimental come Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Merry Christmas, Beari!
Thank you PT and to you too, a very Merry Chistmas and the Happiest of Happy New Years 🙂
We never have snow for Christmas either. Usually a trip to the beach the week afterwards. All the snowy movies and Christmas cards seemed like another planet. One of my neighbors is from London – you’d think he’d want to travel home for a traditional Christmas – but he says he’d rather wear flipflops and look at palm trees.
Hope you New Years is bright and full of adventures,, Lord Bear.
(And I think a big ocean sailing race is about to start there?)
Merry Christmas PT! 😀
And to you, too, Mak! Big Christmas hugs!
http://iwanticewater.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/little-bear-hugging-heart.gif
Aww …
I love this movie – thanks for posting it. I can always feel blood pressure lowering when it starts.
That film featured an era, silly situations, and men that were so similar to many real families when I was little. We always watched this film
Hope your in-between week is delightful
Haven’t watched the movie in many years, but the song is one of my favorites for Christmas.
I wasn’t able to find it this year – except found out I missed it at 3 am one night…but some of the less interesting movies played over and over and over.
True, it seems like few of the classics were run; I guess they think “Holiday Inn” is just too old. Although I did come across “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946).
I think some are afraid to show the blackface act in the Feb scene./housekeeper and kids…I’ve seen it colorized in the strangest ways…when will we get to the point of seeing period pieces in context? This musical production is so harmless.
They don’t seem to have any problem showing violent gang movies, thugs, wife abuse, and many other ugly stereotypes or low grade/mean humor..
I’d forgotten that scene. I think you may be right, and I agree with you. Movies, books, etc. reflect the attitudes and thinking of their time. Changing or censoring them in any way to make them adhere to 2014 mores is wrong. It’s changing history. Impermissible, IMO. Makes me angry every time I encounter it.