Irving Berlin - America's Maestro
How do you get to be a legend? For immigrant, Irving Berlin, it was a bumpy road to extraordinary success.
Today Berlin is remembered for his unforgettable hits - "White Christmas," "God Bless America," "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "Always."
Bing Crosby introduced "White Christmas" to America in the 1942 film, Holiday Inn. Crosby's version of the song has sold over 50 million recordings. In total, the song is estimated to have sold over 100 million copies.
Inspired in part by Berlin's early memory of a neighbor's Christmas tree on New York's Lower East Side, his song taps an almost universal longing for the simpler days of childhood.
Click on the image to learn more.
Bibliography
Books:
Barrett, Mary Ellin, Irving Berlin. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994
Bergreen, Laurence, As Thousands Cheer. New York: Penguin, 1990.
Woollcott, Alexander, The Story of Irving Berlin. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1925.
Website:
Wikipedia:
There's No Business Like Show Business (1954 film)
This Is the Army (musical)
This Is the Army (1943 film)
Lyrics:
IMAGE CREDITS:
Irving Berlin, 1907, Pach Brothers, National Portrait Gallery, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Irving Berlin, 1911 - Pach Brothers Studio, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Music Division, The New York Public Library. (1911). Alexander's Ragtime Band Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-4d4e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
White Studio, photographer. (1918) Irving Berlin, now a sergeant in the United States Army, who has written the military revue "Yip, Yip, Yaphank" at the Century Theatre, beginning Monday, Aug. 19th. , 1918. [Place not identified: Publisher not identified] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016652339/.
Music Box Theater, 239 W. 45th St. - Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Music Division, The New York Public Library. (1918). Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning
The Hand that Rocked My Cradle Rules My Heart - Irving Berlin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Irving Berlin, ca. 1920, autographed - R&R, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Ellin Mackay - Daily News, New York, NY, 1925, Public domain
Ellin Mackay - Times Union, Brooklyn, NY, January 4, 1926, Public domain
Wedding at New York Municipal Building, Brooklyn Eagle, 1926, Public domain
Irving Berlin with Mary Ellin Berlin, Daily News, June 26, 1928, NY, NY, Public domain
Top Hat Poster, 1935 - AllTalking at en.wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Screenshot of Kate Smith - 1942 trailer, This Is the Army, Public domain
Screenshot of Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas," - 1943 trailer, Holiday Inn, Public domain
Screenshot of Irving Berlin, 1942 trailer, This Is the Army, Public domain
Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library. (1942). Irving Berlin and company in the stage production This Is the Army. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-6593-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 (Chorus Line image)
Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library. (1850 - 2020). Irving Berlin entertains WACs [Women's Army Corps] in New Guinea. (cropped) Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/a59af7bc-372f-09e8-e040-e00a18065959
Aboard the USS Arkansas, July 25, 1944 - US Govt., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Trailer, Easter Parade, 1948, Public domain
Trailer, There's No Business Like Show Business, 1954, Public domain
Screenshot, Google Maps, Berlin Home on Beekman Place, NY, NY
Champagne - Alexander Naglestad, Unsplash
Irving Berlin, R&R, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons