It's a federal holiday. Today is Presidents Day. I'm a baby boomer and I miss the old days when we had two national holidays off from school and work -- Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday. Nowadays they've been lumped together into one day.
So here is a 2022 Presidents Day music break for you. First up is Fred Astaire performing one of the new tunes written for him to perform in Irving Berlin's HOLIDAY INN (1942). Astaire's dance partner is Marjorie Reynolds. His character is smitten with her but his best friend, played by Bing Crosby, is jealous because he too is smitten with her and does his best to keep them from kissing in this Washington's birthday nightclub number, "I Can't Tell a Lie."
By the way, another new song that Irving Berlin wrote for HOLIDAY INN was a yuletide tune for Bing Crosby to introduce. "White Christmas" is the name of it and it brought Irving Berlin the Oscar for Best Song.
In his filmography, Ray Bolger is undeniably most famous for playing Scarecrow in the 1939 classic musical fantasy adventure, THE WIZARD OF OZ. At Warner Bros, he made a musical with the studio's new star, Doris Day. 1952's APRIL IN PARIS had him as a government office worker in Washington, D.C. who recruits an all-American chorus girl to represent the U.S. at a prestigious arts festival in Paris. He dreams of one day running for the presidency. Here he is having a good day in his office.
I love the film version of the Broadway musical hit, 1776. This is one of my favorite numbers in it. William Daniels is John Adams, the man who'd become the second President of the United States. Howard da Silva stars as Benjamin Franklin and young Blythe Danner (the mother of Gwyneth Paltrow) portrays Martha Jefferson, the wife of another future President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Martha tells why she loves Thomas in "He Plays the Violin."
Happy Presidents Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment