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Doug Gamble- Contributor
Doug
Gamble is a former writer for President Ronald Reagan and
resides
in Carmel. [go to Gamble index]
 Dreaming
of a ‘White Christmas’
… and how things used to be…
[Doug Gamble] 12/22/04
“I’m
dreaming of a white Christmas, just like the ones I used to
know.”
You have probably heard those lyrics more than a few times
this Christmas season and often during your lifetime. And unless
the ACLU succeeds in having mention
of Christmas banned entirely and the lyrics changed to, “I’m dreaming
of a white December holiday,” the song “White Christmas” will
warm hearts again and again in the years ahead.
Springing
from the prolific songwriting genius of Irving Berlin and introduced
to the world by Bing Crosby, “White Christmas” is
the chairman of the board of all Christmas songs and the most-recorded
song in history, with Crosby’s version alone selling 31-million
copies. It has been recorded by everyone from Frank Sinatra and
Doris Day to Elvis Presley and Kiss. Berlin hated the Elvis version
so much he tried to have it banned.
The lyricist
and composer, who died in 1989 at age 101, was no stranger
to hits,
having penned “Alexander’s Ragtime
Band,” “Easter Parade,” “God Bless America” and
a treasure trove of others. And neither was Crosby. In fact,
it’s easy to forget how big a star he was and how colossal
was his music career. Thirty eight of his songs became number
one hits, 14 more than the holders of the runner-up spot -- The
Beatles. He sold 400-million records worldwide.
Some mystery
surrounds just when and where “White Christmas” was
written. In the book, “White Christmas, the Story of an
American Song,” author Jody Rosen suggests it may well
have been conceived when Berlin was staying at the Beverly Hills
Hotel during Christmas, 1937 while working on a movie. With Berlin
disliking L.A. and missing his family back in New York, the song’s
lyrics would seem to capture his longing for the kind of Christmas
not possible in sunny Southern California.
He first
spoke of the song in 1940 --although he was known for keeping
lyrics
in a trunk and returning to them years later
-- and it was first heard in the Crosby-starring 1942 movie “Holiday
Inn,” winning the Oscar for best song.
He returned to the Decca studios in Hollywood in 1947 to re-do
it because the master recording of the song was worn out after
millions of reproductions. It is the 1947 version most of us
are familiar with. Crosby, his voice sounding slightly deeper
than five years earlier, nailed the song in a single take on
his way to the golf course.
Crosby’s initial reaction to the song remains unclear. One account has
the crooner assuring Berlin it would be a big hit, but later rolling his eyes
when discussing it with a colleague. Years later he acknowledged it was a “lucky
break” that he wound up with Berlin’s creation.
Some of
the wistful, melancholy aspects of “White Christmas,” a
yearning for “the ones I used to know,” may have
to do with the fact that the Yule season had never been the same
for Berlin after 1928. The day after Christmas that year his
24-day old son died of a heart attack.
When the
song was released in 1942, with America at war as it is today,
it was
emotionally embraced by soldiers on the battlefield
who ached for a return to home and hearth, especially at the
most special time of the year. Rosen tells of a sergeant asking
Crosby prior to a USO show overseas if he’d be performing “White
Christmas.” When Crosby replied he would, the sergeant
said he’d have to make himself scarce because he didn’t
want his men to see him cry.
A true American
masterpiece, “White Christmas,” perhaps
more than any other seasonal song, arouses sentiments by touching
a mood of nostalgia for a simpler, less cynical America and a
time when the celebration of Christmas was unambiguous. The ACLU
and others may continue to keep this holiday under siege, but
in Berlin and Crosby and their gift to the world, they have formidable
opponents embraced by millions who love Christmas. tRO
California-based Doug Gamble contributed speech material to
Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and writes a twice-monthly
column for the Orange County Register and CaliforniaRepublic.org.
Copyright
2004 Doug Gamble
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