Christmas Top Ten Throwback #4: Holiday Inn

I have a special affection for classic films.  Especially those that take me right back to being a kid in St. Louis. My Mom and I would watch lots of old movies and one of my favs starred Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn.  Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby), Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire), and Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) have a musical act popular in the New York City nightlife scene. On Christmas Eve, Jim prepares to give his last performance as part of the act before marrying Lila and retiring with her to a farm in Connecticut. At the last minute, Lila decides she is not ready to stop performing, and that she has fallen in love with Ted. She tells Jim that she will stay on as Ted’s dancing partner. While heartbroken, Jim follows through with his plan and bids the act goodbye.  One year later on Christmas Eve,  Jim is back in New York City. Farm life has proven difficult and he plans to turn his farm into an entertainment venue called “Holiday Inn”, which will only be open on holidays.  The musical numbers are fused with a score written by Irving Berlin featuring his Christmas classic “White Christmas.”

It’s one of my all time favs mostly for the musical number and Fred Astaire and it really just takes me back to time where the holidays were looked at as a magical time that happened once a year.  A time that’s great to fall in love, spend quality time with family and eats lots and lots of great food!  To date, the film was adapted into a musical that played on Broadway and various companies around the country.  It’s a lot of fun, so take look back with to Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn.