White Christmas—Murfin Winter Holidays Music Festival 2024-‘25

                                             White Christmas from the finale of the 1954 MGM film of the same name.

Tomorrow Kathy Brady-Murfin and I will be taking in perhaps the most iconic of the classic Golden Age of American Secular Christmas songs,  a production of the stage version of Irving Berlins’s White Christmas at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire.  It was at least the third production of a version of the classic film we have seen.  It is a staple of both the professional and community holiday theater.  It is both comfortable and an invitation to sing along.

The leads in the Marriott Theater production of Irving Berlin's White Christmas.

You probably know that the most played and beloved secular American Christmas song—White Christmas—was first featured in the 1942 movie musical Holiday Inn. It was not one of the elaborate production numbers but was a simple parlor piano duet by Bing Crosby and Marjorie Reynolds.  It was not expected to be a hit, but it struck a deep chord with American GIs far from home.  The rest is history.

The idea of a film based on a country inn that opened as an entertainment venue only on holidays was Irving Berlin’s own.  So was the idea of writing original songs for each holiday.  Eventually he penned 12 new songs including White Christmas and another soon-to-be seasonal classic Happy Holidays.  Also included in the film was Easter Parade, written by Berlin for the 1933 Broadway revue As Thousands Cheer.

Berlin signed with Paramount Pictures in 1940 to write the songs for a film based on his story idea.  The studio intended it to showcase its most bankable star—Bing Crosby.  The studio signed Mark Sandrich, who helmed four of the great Fred Astaire-Ginger Rodgers musicals at RKO.  He brought Astaire along, on loan from his studio for a dream team matchup of two of the biggest movie musical stars.

White Christmas was introduced in 1942's Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn.

Casting the female lead was trickier.  Paramount, not the richest of studios, already faced a big payroll with its stars, Irving Berlin and Sandrich plus the costs of the elaborate production numbers, could not afford an A list star who they would have likely had to borrow from a major studio.  After rummaging around the role of Linda Mason, the fresh-faced wanna-be performer, went to Marjorie Reynolds, a starlet rather than a star, who had mostly worked in two-reel Westerns with the likes of Tex Ritter and young Roy Rogers.  Famous or not Reynolds, turned out to be a lovely singer and accomplished dancer who had no trouble keeping up with the men. 

The second female lead went to an even lesser known performer, Virginia Dale, a former Miss California and a hoofer as the faithless Lila Dixon.

The film premiered on August 4, 1942 and was an immediate hit—Paramount’s top grossing film of the year.  It easily returned its hefty $3.2 million budget.  The music from the show also did well.  As expected the Valentine’s Day romantic ballad Be Careful, It’s My Heart did well even if it never exactly became a Berlin standard.  But White Christmas really took off after a slow start breaking into the Billboard chart in late October and staying at or near the top for the next 11 weeks.  It went on to win the 1943 Academy Award for Best Song.

The Decca Records studio recordings of songs from the film was issued in a 78 rpm album but did not include the original female stars.  White Christmas from this album was later released as a single and became a legendary success.

Crosby’s studio recording of the song originally included in a Decca 78 rpm album of songs from the show was released as a single and sold so briskly that it damaged the master recording and Crosby had to go back in the studio to rerecord it in 1947.  That version easily became a #1 hit and is the one most heard today.  In 1949 Crosby included it in his Merry Christmas album which has never gone out of issue.  It became the title song of the 1954 Technicolor film White Christmas starring Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kay, and Vera-Ellen, another all-Irving Berlin musical that became a holiday classic of its own.

Crosby in his Santa hat graced the covers of countless LPs, singles, and CDs.

Taken together sales the 1942 and ’47 versions of the song are estimated 50 million copies, the most by any release and the biggest-selling single worldwide of all time.  It returned to the Billboard Pop Chart twenty times before the magazine created a distinct Christmas chart for seasonal releases.  It retained it’s top Christmas recording status until Maria Carey’s ubiquitous All I Want for Christmas is You.

White Christmas is also the most recorded song of all time with over 500 covers by other artists, several of which became hits in their own right.  

 

Everyday Will Be Like a Holiday by Carole King--—Murfin Winter Holidays Music Festival 2023-’24

                                            Everyday Will Be Like a Holiday by Carole King 

Yesterday Kathy and I were supposed to take in a performance of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at the Marriott Theater in Lincolnshire.  Alas, as the Scotsman said, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/Gang aft a-gley.”   We got as far as Cary when our right-rear tire went flat.  We decided to turn around and to try to drive to one of the several tire stores in Crystal Lake.  The tire shredded and we were riding on the rim when we pulled into a parking lot near the edge of town.  Frantic phone calls for help to AAA were difficult trying to maneuver both phone and app menus.  Finally, we were told a service truck was being dispatched and would arrive in 45 or 50 minutes.  We were told to be on the alert for the driver’s phone message from a number we wouldn’t recognize.  We never did hear back.

Meanwhile Kathy was calling tire shops to see if we could get into any before closing on Saturday night.  Most were already closed, few were open for service on Sunday, but none could promise service until next week.  While she was doing that, I got out and tried to get mini-emergency tire out of its hidey-hole in the trunk.  Years ago, I had used the spare and the little factory included jack, so I knew what to do.  The spirit might have been willing but the Old Man’s flesh and bone  were not.  I could not physically lift the dinky spare high enough to get out.  I struggled and cursed to no avail.  Even if I had gotten it out there was no way I could get down on the ground to set the jack and take off the old tire and rim and get back up again.

Luckily, Kathy had also called John Holms at the Murfin Estate and he came over and after a struggle he managed to change the tire.  He even followed us to the nearest gas station and pumped air in the spare.  By that time, it was too late to take the car anywhere and we came home.

This morning Kathy is taking the car into Firestone early but may not be able to service it until next week.  Plan B calls for my auto-mechanic Grandson #2 Joe Gibbson, to pick up a tire that will fit from any store open today and use his Dad’s to press the new tire onto the rim then comeback to our house to change it.  The trouble is that he is also working on his big brother Nick Bailey’s pick-up truck in the morning and doesn’t know when he will be done.

I can get to church this morning with a ride from John  and Kathy can borrow Maureen’s car this afternoon to take me grocery shopping.

Sorry to share this aggravation, but I had to get it off my chest.

We did have to call the Marriott twice to reschedule our shows.  They were gracious and understanding.  At this point we have matinee tickets for mid-December in the middle of a very busy Holiday Season.

King performing at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

We are looking forward to it.  Their shows always feature strong casts and in-the-round staging.  We anticipate a great time enjoying samples from the gifted singer/songwriter Carole King’s seemingly limitless catalog as well as music by her contemporaries  in the Brel Building Era.

In honor of the occasion, today we will feature a holiday song written not by King but by William Bell and Booker T. Jones from her 2011 Album A Christmas Carole.  Everyday Will Be Like a Holiday is not as well known as many of King’s songs and seldom shows up in Holiday Radio playlists.  It is also our bluesy first example this season of the secular pop holiday love song.  The lyrics are also plenty cagey about what holiday or holidays are intended making it more universal and probably driving the War on Christmas ranters  more unhinged.