Sunderland 'Til I Die

A check of the Google says yes: on to this post. A radical departure from the other widescreen formats of the era, VistaVision did not extend the width of the screen as much as it raised the height, which produced a significantly clearer image. Dinner is always endangered by Danny Kaye. “The only thing is,” she said, “I don’t know if I could keep my face like Wednesday Addams for that long.” I told her that, during practice, you were probably allowed to smile, and that it was just during performances that you were required to look suicidal. The idea to make a movie based on the song “White Christmas” itself, which already had been featured in a movie, might have been a cash grab that came from the fact that the song became such a touchstone for soldiers serving in World War II (Bing Crosby talks about how singing it for the troops was a deeply emotional experience, one that’s recaptured in the film). See more ideas about white christmas, vintage dance, 1950s dance. And dance to a song like this: The lyrics to "Mandy" are as follows: I was strolling out one evening by the silv'ry moon I could hear somebody singing a familiar tune So I stopped a while to listen Not a word I wanted to miss It was just somebody serenading something like this Mandy There's a minister handy And it sure would be dandy Learn how your comment data is processed. Yeah, not a great movie by any stretch, Doug. We actually hear “Abraham” only in an instrumental version as Vera Ellen dances her tail off. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. I’m not going to mine for outrage and call White Christmas a racist movie. I can’t dance at all and I’m mostly white. The original St. Louis production starred Lara Teeter, Karen Mason, Lauren Kennedy, and Lee Roy Reams, and the 2004 San Francisco production starred Brian D'Arcy James, Anastasia Barzee, Meredith Patterson, and Jeffry Denman White Christmas is a classic movie that I love and its music is iconic in many ways. I’m laughing so hard at this whole post. If you ask me what movie I put on first thing in December to get in the holiday spirit I’ll tell you right away that it’s White Christmas. display: none !important; But is that okay? White Christmas was supposed to reunite Bing Crosby with Fred Astaire, who’d appeared together in both Holiday Inn and Blue Skies (1946). But I like to think it also might have to do with the fact that, while White Christmas isn’t a really racist film…Holiday Inn certainly is. One of Berlin’s first big hits and the second song we hear in White Christmas is “Blue Skies.” Originally composed for a forgotten Ziegfeld production called Besty, “Blue Skies” has one of the most complicated racial histories of any song out there. I just introduced Alro to him for the first time a few days ago. The dancers are fine. Print instantly, or sync to our free PC, web and mobile apps. White Christmas is what we’d essentially call a jukebox musical nowadays. He only made it about five minutes in, but that’s five minutes longer than he’s ever watched anything before. Brascia was a featured dancer with Vera-Ellen in White Christmas (1954) and with Cyd Charisse and Liliane Montevecchi in Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956). The “Abraham” number in White Christmas is purely a dance break. She's a trained lawyer and opera singer as well as a mom and author. But it’s important to understand the cultural context of the movie and the music to see where it fits in a larger, longer story of American culture and race. This action, dance & camp song is a hit with kids of all ages! White Christmas is a musical based on the Paramount Pictures 1954 film of the same name.The book is by David Ives and Paul Blake, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Most of the songs were not written for the movie, and it’s just a tour through decades of Irving Berlin’s music, including many songs he wrote when he was in the army because White Christmas is about a pair of WWII veterans. 15 Things You Didn't Know About "White Christmas" Some trivia about the 1954 Christmas classic ( now streaming on Netflix !) Sorry you almost lost your dinner over it, old friend. Holiday Inn stars Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire and is about a hotel that’s only open on Holidays (which seems dumb) and they start scraping the barrel for holiday songs really fast. A successful song-and-dance team become romantically involved with a sister act and team up to save the failing Vermont inn of their former commanding general. I’ll have to see if I can convince her to tell the story someday. I wasn’t expecting, when Clementine and I set out to watch White Christmas this evening, that I’d find myself delivering an impromptu, barely comprehensible lecture on modern dance… I know that I’d seen the movie before, but I had absolutely no memory whatsoever of this incredibly out-of-place little scene featuring Danny Kaye and half a dozen painfully serious young women in drab, utilitarian dresses, who look as though they were plucked right off the streets of Leningrad. I love Holiday Inn too (although the black face scene does make me cringe). the type of the dance or what it was called and stumbled [2] I told Clementine that I thought it spoke to the fact that there were warring factions within the theater community at the time. }. That this is still talked about in and of itself speaks to her talent and versatility. While “Mandy” is innocuous when taken alone, the number in White Christmas that proceeds it, when Crosby, Kaye, and Clooney sing of their longing for “The Minstrel days we miss” is more complicated taken in context. The way “Blue Skies” sounds, according to musical historians, was clearly “Jewish” to many listeners in the 20s, but it still became a hit. Clooney, Kaye and Crosby look back fondly on the minstrel days they miss. 2020 Was the Year of Everyone Thirsting Online, A Trans/Non-binary Person’s Perspective on the Grogu vs. Baby Yoda Debate, Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Gift Every Member of Your Weird and Cranky Family, Stop What You're Doing & Come Watch Meg From, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” Hits Different This Year, Let’s Settle This: A Unified Theory to Define “Christmas Movies”, Guillermo del Toro, Rian Johnson, and Edgar Wright Want You to Help Save FilmStruck, Classic Film Scenes as Ottoman Miniatures Fuse Cultures. White Christmas (1954) - … Boom Chicka Boom Christmas is one of our most popular Christmas songs for kids. And thanks for the link, ATF. Minstrel shows and blackface arose first among white performers in the 1830s and involved those white performers painting their faces in caricatures of black slaves. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) is believed to have been the first President to put a Christmas tree in the White House. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye sing “Blue Skies”. The 1954 musical is a classic for a host of reasons: the sparkling dialogue, the incredible dances with Vera Ellen, the comedy of Danny Kaye, the fantastic costumes by Edith Head, and the indelible voices of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. .hide-if-no-js { tips@themarysue.com. The number is not only performed by Bing Crosby in blackface (along with the band and dancers), there’s a section where the Mamie character (that’s her actual character name!) A song where white people in blackface and a black family that’s kept in the kitchen praise a white man for freeing the “darkies?” It’s appalling to watch now. Funny you should mention Keaton, Doug. Have a tip or story idea? But the past use of these songs in associations with minstrelsy and blackface also can’t be erased. Boots reboot… Here’s what happened a week ago tonight, when Boots Riley and The Coup liberated Ypsilanti, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOTWN8apuA8, http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=543803, 106 members of Congress are guilty of sedition, Florida ramps up the negligent homicide bodycount in the run-up to the GOP convention. Enough said. Why show children this crap? Stream ad-free or purchase CD's and MP3s now on Amazon.co.uk. About Amazon Toys & Games. Personally, I lack the background to make sense of it, but I found it fascinating, and it made me wonder what was going on at the time to have pushed Berlin and the filmmakers to expend the energy. And it also became the first music ever used in a movie when it was sung by a Jewish character in blackface in The Jazz Singer. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=543803. It was nostalgic racism in 1917, and maybe made more sense then, but just it’s just weird in 1953. 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