February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Like many American Christmas hits (including “Rudolph” and “The Christmas Song — Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”), “White Christmas” was written by a Jewish songwriter. Irving Berlin, born Israel Baline in Siberia in 1888, arrived in America with his family in 1893. The Balines settled on New York’s Lower East Side, then the largest Jewish enclave in the world. Although most of the Irish who once dominated the district had moved away, one Irish family lived in the same building as the Balines on Cherry Street. They took a liking to the young “Izzy” and often invited him into their apartment. Thus it was in December that he witnessed his first Christmas in America — a warm, delightful experience he never forgot. Later, as an adult, he married Irish Catholic Ellin Barrett and because they raised their children as Christians, he learned to love the holiday (albeit, its secular trappings) all the more.
It was in January 1940, in the days following a happy Christmas holiday with his family, that the now famous Irving Berlin penned his most famous song, “White Christmas.” He sat on the song for more than a year, unsure of what to do with it, when he was approached by a Hollywood studio to write the score for “Holiday Inn,” a film that featured songs about each of the major holidays. Bing Crosby had been selected to play the lead and sing most of the songs and when he heard “White Christmas” for the first time, he assured Berlin that he’d written a gem.
What Crosby had in mind, of course, was not simply the wonderful lyrics and melody, but the fact that he would sing it. By the time of the filming of “Holiday Inn,” Crosby was perhaps the most famous singer in America. His manly, yet emotive, crooning was unlike anything that preceded it in the world of pop music. This was due in part to Crosby’s extraordinary voice, but also to his technique. He was the first singer to embrace and then master the microphone, a new medium for broadcasting and recording introduced in the 1920s. Historians of pop music invariably speak of Crosby’s uncanny “caressing” of the microphone with his voice, creating an unparalleled intimacy and connection with his listeners.
Crosby recorded “White Christmas” in May 1942 and the film opened in August. “Holiday Inn” was an instant hit at the box office, but what stunned the producers was the success of its centerpiece song (the only one sung twice in the film). Despite the fact that “White Christmas” was either ignored or panned by the critics, it made the Top 30 charts on Oct. 3. The song kept right on marching upward until it hit No. 1 on Oct. 31, a position it held for an unprecedented 11 weeks. Decca, the label that produced the record, was swamped with orders and barely kept up with demand.
Berlin’s skill as a songwriter and Crosby’s talent as a singer had combined to produce an American classic. But there was one additional factor that helps explain the phenomenal success of “White Christmas” — timing. As Jody Rosen writes in his fascinating new book, “White Christmas: The Story of an American Song,” the fall of 1942 was the first holiday season away from home for millions of American servicemen. Demand by American GIs for “White Christmas” records exploded in September, fully three months before the holiday. The reason is clear: the song stoked their longing to be home with their families. “In the song’s melancholic yearning for Christmases past,” writes Rosen, “listeners heard the expression of their own nostalgia for peacetime.” Indeed, in a way that astonished Berlin and nearly everyone else, this song of peace and love soon became a most unlikely war anthem.
Unlike George M. Cohan’s World War I call to arms, “Over There!”, “White Christmas” did not appeal to the martial spirit or vengeance. Rather, it reminded Americans on both the frontline and home front what was at stake in the war. “When Irving Berlin set 120,000,000 people dreaming of a White Christmas,” opined the Buffalo Courier-Express, “he provided a forcible reminder that we are fighting for the right to dream and memories to dream about.” When Crosby visited the troops in Europe in late 1944, his rendition of “White Christmas” brought tears to the eyes of the most battle-hardened soldiers.
For the next five years the Crosby-Berlin classic surged to the top of the charts each Christmastime, hitting No. 1 in 1945 and ’47. All told, it made the Top 30 16 times in the three decades that followed its release. The song’s popularity and staying power proved irresistible to Hollywood executives, who in 1954 released the hit feature film, “White Christmas,” starring Crosby and Danny Kaye.
Long after the film disappeared, “White Christmas” kept going, Crosby’s recording sold more than 30 million copies — more than any other pop song in history. Dozens of singers, from Loretta Lynn to Destiny’s Child, have recorded versions of the song, pushing total worldwide sales past 160 million and counting.
None, of course, compare to the original as sung by Crosby in 1942, a song of peace, love, and fond memories of times “merry and bright” that arrived just when the nation needed it.
Merry Christmas.
HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
Dec. 22, 1691: Defeated by King William, Patrick Sarsfield and 16,000 soldiers (known as the Wild Geese) sail for France.
Dec. 24, 1889: Home Rule leader Charles Stewart Parnell is named as “co-respondent” in divorce papers filed by Capt. William O’Shea. Revelation of Parnell’s affair with O’Shea’s wife, Kitty, leads to his downfall as a public figure.
Dec. 24, 1948: St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City provides the setting for the first midnight Mass broadcast on television.
HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES
Dec. 20, 1820: playwright Dion Boucicault is born in Dublin.
Dec. 21, 1876: Labor leader James Larkin is born in Liverpool, England.
Dec. 23, 1862: Baseball manager Connie Mack (Cornelius Alexander McGilicuddy) is born in East Brookfield, Mass.