You can probably tell we take Christmas pretty seriously around here at Hip Socket. Frequent celebrations mean infrequent posts.
To illustrate: My wife’s birthday is around Halloween. When that’s over, it’s Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas and New Year’s. And … within a 30-day window … every single child’s birthday.
Every. Single. Child.
Which explains our annual Christmas trip to Cincinnati. (Pro Tip®: If you’d like to really enjoy the Cincinnati Zoo’s Christmas lights, go the day after public school starts. Much less crowded.)
We added a new locale to this year’s fun: Covington, Ky.’s Behringer-Crawford Museum. It had an exhibit celebrating a distinctly American ode to nostalgia: Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas.”
The exhibit’s collection was a real treat. They had one of the Haynes Sisters’ fans (the other one is lost), plus quite a few costumes. Here are a few of them.
But this little photocopy of a letter stole the show for me. Here is Der Bingle’s letter to Paramount strategizing the production of the film.
Excerpts, which you can just hear Crosby saying. I’ve read he improvised the dialogue in the “County Your Blessings” scene. He really must have talked like this.
How about a dame called ROSEMARY CLOONEY? Sings a good song – and is purportedly personable. … I’m more convinced than ever that this girl, Caroline, should be a legitimate song and dance gal, one who can belt a number with conviction. They say Clooney can.
I have read the script again, and it seems to me that the casting of the dame is going to determine which way the picture is to be done. Either an out and out musical with staged numbers and technicolor, or a dramatic yarn with the music incidental. …
He goes on to talk about how he finally got to see “Show Boat,” a “simple unabashed old fashioned musical with every conceivable license employed.” He knows that part of the attraction is that Jerome Kern “is Kern.”
But:
… it’s a demonstrated indication of what the audiences want and why quarrel with it? We all extract greater satisfaction, I am sure, out of a serious honest picture. But it’s got to be a hell of a good one to succeed. And I doubt if I’m a good enough actor to do a good one. They just don’t believe me.
It takes a lot of humility to be that great.
May we all look at ourselves in the mirror just as honestly this year.