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Holiday Inn (film)
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Holiday Inn is a 1942 film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, which featured the music of Irving Berlin. The film features twelve new songs, one brief use of "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," written in 1917 for the World War I musical "Yip Yip Yaphank" which was reprised on Broadway in 1942 under the title "This Is the Army" and a complete reuse of "Easter Parade," written for the 1933 Broadway review "As Thousands Cheer". An original song from this movie is "White Christmas", a tune that is still very popular in the United States and UK.
ay 1940, Irving Berlin signed an exclusive contract with Paramount Pictures to write songs for a film musical based on his idea of an inn that opened only on public holidays.
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Encyclopedia
Holiday Inn is a 1942 film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, which featured the music of Irving Berlin. The film features twelve new songs, one brief use of "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," written in 1917 for the World War I musical "Yip Yip Yaphank" which was reprised on Broadway in 1942 under the title "This Is the Army" and a complete reuse of "Easter Parade," written for the 1933 Broadway review "As Thousands Cheer". An original song from this movie is "White Christmas", a tune that is still very popular in the United States and UK.
Production Timeline
In May 1940, Irving Berlin signed an exclusive contract with Paramount Pictures to write songs for a film musical based on his idea of an inn that opened only on public holidays. Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire were the stars of Holiday Inn with support from Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale. Produced and directed by Mark Sandrich, filming took place between November 1941 and February 1942. Holiday Inn had its premiere at the New York Paramount Theatre in August 1942. It was a runaway success both in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, proving to be the highest grossing film musical up to that time. The big song had been expected to be "Be Careful, It's My Heart." While that song did very well, it was "White Christmas" that topped the charts in October 1942 and stayed there for eleven weeks. The film's success can also still be seen today in the name of the international hotel chain Holiday Inn, which was named after the film. Another Berlin song, "Happy Holiday", is featured over the opening credits and within the film storyline.
White Christmas
The song that would eventually become "White Christmas" was originally conceived by Berlin on the set of the film Top Hat in 1935. He allegedly hummed the melody to Astaire and the film's director Mark Sandrich as a song possibility for a future Astaire-Ginger Rogers vehicle. Astaire loved the tune, but Sandrich passed on it. Berlin's assignment for Paramount was to write a song about each of the major holidays of the year. He found that writing a song about Christmas was the most challenging. When Crosby first heard Berlin play "White Christmas" in 1941 at the first rehearsals, he did not immediately recognize its full potential. Crosby simply said, "I don't think we have any problems with that one, Irving."
Plot summary
Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby), Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) and Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) are staples of the Manhattan nightlife scene. On Christmas Eve, Hardy reveals to Ted his disillusionment with show business and that he has decided to run a farm in rural Connecticut. He also plans to marry Lila, a longtime part of their act. Unfortunately, Lila is not ready to stop performing, has fallen in love with Ted and chooses to stay on as his dancing partner. Jim, while heartbroken, follows through with his plan and bids the act goodbye.
One Christmas Eve later, Jim is back in New York. Farm life has proven difficult, requiring him to spend time in a sanatorium to calm his nerves. While recuperating, Jim has dreamed up a new use for his farm. He plans to turn it into an entertainment venue called "Holiday Inn", which will only open on holidays. Ted and his agent Danny Reed (Walter Abel) scoff at the plan, but wish him luck. Reed then leaves for a flight. Stopping off in the airport flower shop to order flowers for Lila from Ted, Reed is accosted by employee Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) who recognizes him as a talent agent and begs him for a chance in show business. He refers her to Holiday Inn and gives her a pass to Ted's club for the night. She sits at the performer's table where Jim also is sitting. He pretends that he has a big club and isn't sure he could use an act like Hanover and Dixon; she pretends to be a celebrity and friend of Ted's. They both watch Ted and Lila perform, then Linda escapes when the two performers come to Jim's table.
The next morning, Christmas Day, Linda arrives at Holiday Inn. She meets Jim, and both realize that they were playing characters the previous evening. Jim is readying the place for New Year's Eve. They take to one another immediately and Jim sings his new song, "White Christmas", to Linda, a song he would have performed had the inn been open that night.
On New Year's Eve, Holiday Inn opens to a packed house. In New York, Ted learns that Lila is leaving him for a Texas millionaire. He drinks heavily and heads out to Holiday Inn to talk with Jim. Extremely drunk, Ted arrives just as the clock strikes twelve. Then, wandering aimlessly across the dance floor, Ted and Linda spot each other. She remembers him from Christmas Eve. They dance, with Ted bringing down the house despite his inebriated state. Danny Reed arrives just as the dance ends. He is ecstatic that Ted has found a new partner. However, Ted, who passed out at the end of the dance, remembers very little the next morning and is unaware of Linda's identity. Jim relates no information and hides Linda, as he is afraid that Ted will steer her away from the inn.
At the next performance, Lincoln's Birthday, Ted and Danny return to search for Linda. Jim is ready for them and decides to run the night's big minstrel show number "Abraham" with disguised performers, including Linda, in an effort to foil the search. While applying Linda's blackface make-up, Jim asks if she will stay with him once she is not required to work on non-holidays. Linda takes this as a proposal. The scheme works, with Ted and Danny coming up empty. However, the pair will not give up and plan to be back for Valentine's Day.
On Valentine's Day, at rehearsal, Jim presents Linda with a Valentine, a new song called "Be Careful, It's My Heart". While he sings the song with his back to her, she begins dancing alone. Ted enters, spots Linda rehearsing and launches into an impromptu romantic dance with her. Now convinced that Linda was the girl from New Year's Eve, Ted demands that Jim think up a number for them to perform on the next holiday. Jim has little choice but to concede.
Washington's Birthday features Ted and Linda performing in elaborate eighteenth century period costumes. However, Jim attempts to sabotage their dance by changing the band's tune from a minuet to jazz every time the couple attempts to kiss. Afterward, Ted asks Linda to join him as his new dance partner. Linda refuses, saying she has promised to stay at the inn and that she and Jim are to be married. When Ted talks to Jim of the marriage, Jim is surprised but tries to play it off. Ted is unconvinced and tells Danny he will continue to pursue Linda.
At Easter, romance continues to blossom between Jim and Linda as they travel home from church in a carriage. When they reach the inn, Ted is sitting on the porch waiting from them. Ted asks Jim if he can remain in his shows, claiming he wants to experience "the true happiness you people have found here at the inn". Linda is charmed, but Jim is suspicious.
These suspicions are confirmed on Independence Day when Jim overhears Ted and Danny discussing an offer Ted has received. Hollywood representatives will attend the night's show and determine if Ted and Linda are suitable for motion pictures. Desperate, Jim bribes hired hand Gus (Irving Bacon) to ensure that Linda does not arrive at the inn. Gus attempts to delay her by driving the inn's car into a swollen creek. As Linda tries to return to the inn, she is picked up by Lila, who left the millionaire after his tax problems were revealed. She tells Linda (who is pretending to be a waitress) about the studio tryout and that she (Lila) will be Ted's partner. Assumedly, Jim arranged for her to take Linda's place. Linda directs Lila into the same river. Back at the inn, Ted is forced to perform a solo dance. When Linda eventually makes her way to the inn, she finds that Ted has impressed the studio honchos with his improvised solo and the opportunity stands. Irritated with Jim for not trusting her to make her own decision, she takes the offer and leaves for Hollywood. The producers want to make a film about Holiday Inn, and Jim reluctantly agrees.
At Thanksgiving, the inn is closed and Jim is deeply depressed. He barely touches the turkey dinner prepared by his housekeeper Mamie (Louise Beavers). Jim is prepared to mail to Hollywood a recording of his new Thanksgiving song, but, before he does, he plays it on a record player and makes bitter negative comments over the positive ones in the recording. Mamie realizes just what is wrong and, ignoring decorum, implores him to travel to California to win Linda back from Ted by telling her how he really feels.
He arrives at the studio on Christmas Eve, as Ted is preparing to leave with Linda after the final film shoot to get married. Jim confronts Ted in his dressing room, then locks him in it. Before Linda films the final scene for her movie, which features a recreation of Holiday Inn, Jim walks around the set with the director, who says it is the most exact recreation ever created of a place for a motion picture. Jim leaves his pipe on the set's piano and hides nearby. Linda enters the room and sits at the piano, performing "White Christmas". Startled by the pipe's appearance, she falters, then continues as Jim's voice joins her. He appears and she runs to him as the director hollers "Cut." Ted and Danny, having learned of Jim's plan, are too late to stop him.
The film ends with the New Year's Eve celebration at Holiday Inn. Jim and Linda are prepared to stay together and run the inn. Ted is reunited with Lila, who is ready and willing to perform with him again.
Other facts
Crosby and Astaire teamed up again in 1946 in the movie Blue Skies which was another vehicle for Irving Berlin's songs. The success of the song "White Christmas" eventually led to another film based on the song, White Christmas, which was released in 1954 and starred Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. It was a loose remake of Holiday Inn, with a plotline again involving an inn, but otherwise entirely different from the earlier film. Fred Astaire was offered the second lead in the new film, but after reading the script, he declined. The role was then offered to Donald O'Connor, but he sustained an injury just before filming was to begin. Danny Kaye eventually took on the role.
A new colorized version of “Holiday Inn” was released by Universal on October 14, 2008. The colorization was done by Legend Films, the same company that produced It’s a Wonderful Life for Paramount Pictures in 2007 which won wide acclaim from both critics and consumers. The colorization company brought on Edith Head’s personal sketch artist, Jan Muckelstone as a special color design consultant for costume authenticity.
Each segment of the film is preceeded by animation of a calendar with an appropriate icon on the given holiday. For November, a turkey is shown jumping back and forth between the third and fourth Thursdays, finally shrugging its shoulders in confusion. This oddity is a satirical reference to "Franksgiving", the attempt by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 and 1940 to extend the Christmas shopping season by re-assigning Thanksgiving a week earlier than traditionally.
"Abraham" Controversy
Beginning in the 1980s, some broadcasts of the movie have cut out the "Abraham" musical number entirely, undoubtedly because of its depiction of a blackface minstrel show incorporating what is now considered offensively stereotyped mannerisms and dialect. Turner Classic Movies has left the "Abraham" number intact during their screenings of Holiday Inn both for historical purposes, and because it is TCM's policy always to show films uncut..
External links
- - the hotel actually featured as the Holiday Inn in the movie.
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