White Christmas, 1954

Starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney, this film shows a couple of song-and-dance men as they get to know a sister act. When the men stay at an inn in Vermont, they find out that it’s owned by their old army general who is having money problems. The men put their girl troubles aside for a moment to work out a plan to help him.

This is the movie made for the world’s most popular song, “White Christmas”. After the movie Holiday Inn made such a success of the song in 1942, they couldn’t help but make another movie they could use it in.

Many similarities existed between this film and Holiday Inn. For instance, the “Inn” set was the same in both movies. So when Irving Berlin wrote “Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me”, sung by Rosemary Clooney, it was another way to separate the two movies.

In that performance, Clooney wore a gorgeous black gown. Knowing that the costumes were designed by Edith Head made this film even more fun to watch.

The success of this film was nearly guaranteed simply because Irving Berlin wrote the songs. Even though he was known as a Songwriter, he could not read music. He hired someone to transcribe his melodies. Berlin, talented enough to compose both the music and lyrics to his songs, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

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