As we look to another holiday season with servicemen and women stationed abroad, it evokes the seasonal songs written during WWII. Soldiers and their families, separated often by thousands of miles, listened to songs like White Christmas and I’ll Be Home for Christmas, and dreamt of the day they would be reunited with their loved ones.
White Christmas, the world’s best selling single according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was written by Irving Berlin in 1940. He wrote the song as one of many he composed for the film Holiday Inn which was released in 1942. Neither Berlin nor crooner Bing Crosby thought it was the breakout song of the film. Preferring the Valentine holiday song, Be Careful, It’s My Heart, as the hit song. On Christmas Day 1941 Crosby performed White Christmas on his NBC Radio Show at the Kraft Music Hall in NYC and by December 1942 the song was topping the Billboard Charts. White Christmas also won an Academy Award for best original song from Holiday Inn film.
Sadly music historians and Irving Berlin biographers believe the death of Berlin’s three week old son on Christmas day in 1928, and his visits to his son’s grave each Christmas contributed to the artist’s creation of this melancholy holiday favorite. Few of us can listen to this song and not long for happier times. Bing Crosby’s nephew, Howard Crosby once asked his uncle about the most difficult thing he ever had to do during his career and Bing recalled that in December 1944 he was performing in a USO show in Northern France with Bob Hope and the Andrew Sisters. It was an outdoor show and he remembered standing there and singing White Christmas with 100,000 GIs in tears and struggling not to break down himself. Bing also shared that a lot of those boys were killed in the Battle of the Bulge a few days later. White Christmas has been covered by every artist from Elvis and Karen Carpenter to Lady Gaga but Bing Crosby, who dismissed his role in the success of the song, will always be associated with this cherished song.
Another beloved holiday song that was released during WWII was I’ll Be Home for Christmas. Recorded in 1943, again by Bing Crosby, the US War Department released a version performed December 7, 1944 by Bing at the Kraft Music Hall. It was the most requested song at USO shows and earned Bing his 5th gold record. Interestingly the BBC (British Broadcast Co.) banned the song. They felt it was too sad and might lower morale. The lyrics “I’ll be home for Christmas/ If only in my dreams” may be sad but their also hopeful, as proven when Astronauts Borman and Lovell, while on Gemini 7, requested the song be played to them by the NASA ground crew in December 1965, as they orbited the earth 206 times.
The song, which is written from the view of a soldier writing home and asking his family to prepare for his arrival, which is only in his dreams, was a wish of many servicemen during WWII and recalls a story of a reminisces of a WWII veteran I’d like to share.
The serviceman was serving on the Battleship North Carolina and he and the crew would not be home for Christmas. The Chaplain had an idea to boost the morale of the crew. He collected 5.00 from every sailor who had children back home. He made a list and included the sailor’s home address. He then sent the list and money to the Macy’s department store and asked them to buy gifts for the children and mail them to their homes in time for Christmas.
The servicemen gathered for their annual Christmas show that included songs, skits, and other entertainment for the troops. When it ended the Chaplain revealed his surprise. When Macy’s received the money and the request, they felt that the soldiers should also receive a one-of-a-kind gift. Macy reached out to each of the soldier’s families and asked if they would like to come to the store and film a special message to send their loved one serving on the North Carolina. As the men sat there and saw their wives, children and loved ones appear on the screen, these rugged sailors watched and wept and rejoiced. They were not home for Christmas but this special Christmas gift gave them a small bit of home for the holiday.
Merry Christmas.