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Dreaming of Christmas

There are some Christmas songs which seem to take on a life of their own, adding to the rich traditions of the holiday season. This is the story of such a song and the man who wrote it.

In 1888, in Mogilev, Russia, a son was born to Moses and Lena Beilin. They called him Israel Isidore Beilin. As an adult, Israel admitted to no memories of his first five years living in Russia, except one – when he was lying on a blanket by the side of the road, watching his house burn to the ground. You see, the family was Jewish and the target of discrimination and brutal pogroms. Like hundreds of thousands of Russian Jewish families, they emigrated to the United States. After their arrival in 1893, the family settled in the Lower East Side of New York. Their last name was changed to “Baline” and young Israel was called “Izzy.” The family members all worked, pooling their meager salaries. Izzy was able to go to school until his father died when he was 13. That was the end of his formal education.

Izzy worked selling newspapers outside of busy saloons and restaurants in New York and enjoyed hearing music coming from these buildings. He learned if he sang some of the songs he’d heard while selling papers, people would toss him a few coins. At the age of 14, he left home and lived with other young immigrants. He soon realized that he was the most successful when singing well-known tunes which expressed simple sentiments. At the age of 18, he became a singing waiter, delighting customers with songs he made up. Izzy had no formal musical training, but in his free time after hours at the Pelham Café, he taught himself to play the piano and improvise. However, he only learned to play the piano in one key, F sharp, and never was able to read or write music notes.

In 1907, Izzy sold the publishing rights for his first song to a music publisher for 75 cents. Because he co-wrote the song with a pianist, he only received half of the payment for the piece. The Jewish immigrant with limited education and no formal music training continued to write songs, and in 1911, a dance song he wrote, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” topped the charts and sold more than a million copies of sheet music.

On the first song he published, Izzy began using a pen name which closely resembled his birth name, but sounded less ethic. In 1911, he legally changed his name from Izzy Baline to Irving Berlin. He is known today as one of the greatest songwriters of his time. During his 60-year career, he wrote hundreds of songs, including music for 20 Broadway shows and 15 Hollywood films. “There’s No Business-Like Show Business” and “God Bless America” are two of the songs he wrote which are still well known today.

One of the ironies of music history is that a Jewish immigrant, who celebrated the holiday of Hanukkah in December, wrote the best-selling Christmas song of all time. Irving had moved with his family from New York to Southern California, and wrote a Christmas song from the viewpoint of someone who was missing cold, winter weather during the holiday season. Instead of white snow outside, there was green grass, sunshine, and palm trees. The words told of someone dreaming of a white Christmas with snow, sleigh bells, children, and Christmas greetings. It ended with the wish that your days would be merry and “all your Christmases be white.” He called the song “White Christmas.” It was first heard on a radio show called The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day in 1941. The entertainer who sang “White Christmas” was Bing Crosby.

Christmas 1941 was a somber time for the United States. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had happened 18 days before. Bing Crosby recorded the song for distribution in 1942, and by the following Christmas, young American troops found themselves overseas at war during the holidays. Armed Forces radio played “White Christmas” many times daily, as it reminded the troops of home.

Bing Crosby traveled overseas many times during the war to entertain the soldiers. No matter what month of the year or where in the world he went, the song was always the most requested, in spite of Bing’s hesitation to perform it. Not wanting to make the men sad, he tried to cut it out of the shows – but the GIs just hollered their request until he sang it. By the end of the war, “White Christmas” was the best-selling song of all time and kept that distinction for 56 years.

“White Christmas” was featured in two full length movies. In 1942, it was sung in the movie Holiday Inn, and Irving Berlin later won an Academy Award for the song. During the 1943 awards ceremony, Berlin was a presenter and ended up awkwardly announcing himself as the winner. In 1954, the song was the title track of another Bing Crosby musical called White Christmas.

In the last days of April 1975, “White Christmas” played a part in another war. The U.S. military was in the final phase in the evacuation of American civilians and “at-risk” Vietnamese from Saigon, South Vietnam, before the takeover of the city by the North Vietnamese People’s Army. The American Embassy issued a secret evacuation signal to notify people when to assemble at designated locations for helicopter pick up. When the evacuation was ordered, the code would be broadcast on Armed Forces Radio. It was: “The temperature in Saigon is 105 degrees and rising. This will be followed by the playing of “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.” As helicopters arrived to pick up people at the American Embassy, “White Christmas” could be heard playing on the radios.

Christmas did have special significance to Irving Berlin – but not in the way you would expect. He was a dedicated husband and father. His wife, Ellin, had been raised as a Catholic, and the family recognized holidays from both faiths. His second child of four, and only son, was born in early December 1928. They named him Irving Berlin, Jr. Just three weeks later, on Christmas Day, his name sake died. December 25th became a day of grief and remembrance. Every year after the death of their son, the family would visit his grave on Christmas Day. When the family relocated from New York to California, visiting Irving Jr. ‘s resting place was not possible. Perhaps that was one reason that “White Christmas” was a more somber song.

At Irving Berlin’s 100th birthday tribute, one year before his death, news anchor Walter Cronkite said that Berlin “helped write the story of this country, capturing the best of who we are and the dreams that shape our lives.” The song “White Christmas” has shared the best and worst of times with Irving Berlin and the people of his adopted country for over eighty years, and will continue to be woven into the memories of our life stories every Christmas season.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin

https://historydaily.org/white-christmas-facts-stories-trivia

https://www.countryliving.com/life/news/a45720/white-christmas-song-history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frequent_Wind

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/79412/11-ritzy-facts-about-irving-berlin

https://www.kuow.org/stories/sad-story-behind-white-christmas-america-s-favorite-christmas-carol

This story was written by Jean Tonioli