Tea at Trianon: Bing Crosby and White Christmas

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Bing Crosby and White Christmas

From Desert Sun:

Berlin didn't think "White Christmas" would be a hit. Speaking to BBC after the subsequent film named for the tune, he said he thought the composition about another holiday would popular. "I had a song in that called 'Be Careful, It's My Heart,' for Valentine's Day," Berlin said. "And that's the song I picked as the big hit, and that's the song as a publisher I plugged. And it was a fair success. But I also had a song in there called 'White Christmas.'"
"White Christmas" was introduced on radio by Bing Crosby during the Kraft Music Hall broadcast on Dec. 24, 1941, barely two weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. No one much noticed the tune, according to jazz historians Gary Giddins and Will Friedwald. Crosby recorded it a few months later, in a mere 18 minutes on May 29, 1942. With the release of "Holiday Inn" in the fall of 1942 and an album of its songs, "White Christmas" became a favorite among the troops now far away from home.
Berlin published his own music and had the compositor remove the verse from the sheet music. Berlin was skeptical about the song because it was so short, too short, he thought to sell much. By September 1942 it was selling tens of thousands of copies a week. The version recorded by Bing Crosby was on its way to becoming the best-selling single of all time.
During the war, Crosby often broadcast his radio show from Palm Springs, from the American Legion Post across the street from the O'Donnell Golf Course. The popularity of "White Christmas" would make Bing synonymous with Christmas itself and — together with Gene Autry's recordings of "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" — create an entire genre of seasonal Christmas music.
Bing recorded more than 70 songs that are now considered part of that canon. Starting 1935 when Jack Kapp, the head of Decca Records, suggested that Bing record "Adeste Fidelis" and "Silent Night." Bing was reluctant, saying he did not want to record sacred tunes for commercial gain. He finally relented and donated all the proceeds to charity.
According to Giddins and Friedwald, in 1944 after D-day, Crosby, performing for the troops in England and France, didn't want to sing "White Christmas" because the soldiers would cry and he was supposed to be lifting their spirits. He tried to leave it out of the show, but the troops insisted, calling out for him to sing it. Crosby could never again do a show without it.
In 1954, "Holiday Inn" was remade as "White Christmas," which acknowledged that the United States had been in the war. The new version was meant to reunite Crosby and Astaire, but Astaire declined. The role was offered to Donald O'Connor, but he dropped out due to injury and Danny Kaye was cast.
The soundtrack rights for the film were controlled by Decca, but Rosemary Clooney was under exclusive contract to Columbia, a competing record label. Decca recorded and released an album with the movie cast except Clooney's part was sung by Peggy Lee. Columbia released an album with Clooney singing all eight songs from the film. The only way to hear Clooney singing with Crosby is on-screen.
Crosby was spending a lot of time in the desert. He owned a house at Thunderbird and then at Silver Spur Ranch. He also created Blue Skies Village Trailer Park in Rancho Mirage, named for another one of his hit songs and movies.
In 1961 he performed in the first of his Christmas specials in England. Many television holiday shows would follow and become a perennial staple of the season. Crosby would appear with lots of other stars with desert connections like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
Giddins has written two volumes and is working on the third, which certainly constitute the definitive biography of Crosby. He says that Bing was universally adored by those he with whom he worked, contrary to some of the assertions made after his death. Crosby was the epitome of warmth and kindness in his movies and after exhaustive research, Giddins declares him to be the genuine article.
In a recent program of Will Friedwald's Clip Joint, Giddins discusses one of his favorite Crosby Christmas tunes, the recording of "Mele Kalikimaka" with the Andrew Sisters. The swinging song was written by Andy Anderson who played golf with Bing. Crosby surprised Anderson with the recording in 1950 for Decca. In 1955 the song became part of Crosby's famous compilation album "Merry Christmas." (Read more.)