The date in the credit of the movie is 1954. I am 39 and holding... but was born in 1954. When I was growing up, 1950’s movies were played on the black and white television set. I was of a younger generation so paying attention to the tried and true classics were not really enjoyable to me. Old movies, as I came of age to enjoy movies, were just about singing, dancing, falling in love by old people or war. Bits and pieces is all I knew of some classics. They were pieces of an unfinished puzzle that I had yet to see to completion. About three years ago, I finally watched the entire move of It’s a Wonderful Life. After that movie, you would think I would have amended my ignorant understanding of “old movies.” I am a Hallmark movie fan after all! Last night I became a little wiser...again.
It is 2019--- and my older friend wanted to watch an old favorite of hers. The Xfinity plan eliminated TCM so she was not able to view one of her favorite classic Christmas movies. A pay for view network has the movie now. Thanks to a gift, I have access to the pay for view. Searching, we found the movie my friend has watched over “10 thousand times” I watched it in its entirety for the first-time.
The headliners were four actors, famous during their own time and well into my generation and beyond. I met one of the actors, Rosemary Clooney, in the 1990’s when I read the Petitions of prayers at a Diocesan Mass in Convention Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. She was older and heavier, but still was willing to autograph the paper program for a friend. Her co-stars in the classic movie were Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen and Dean Jagger.
The headliners were four actors, famous during their own time and well into my generation and beyond. I met one of the actors, Rosemary Clooney, in the 1990’s when I read the Petitions of prayers at a Diocesan Mass in Convention Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. She was older and heavier, but still was willing to autograph the paper program for a friend. Her co-stars in the classic movie were Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera-Ellen and Dean Jagger.
Revelations come to each of us at different times and in different ways. As I was sitting, being drawn into the movie, White Christmas, last night, I saw a different story line than the usual song and dance or boy meets girl script. It was, as I discovered, a true love story.
White Christmas is the portrayal of self-sacrifice, brotherly love, patriotism, misinterpreted phone conversations/ease dropping, fake information which puts main characters off track, false judging, trials, tribulations, forgiveness, endurance, hope and miracles. If you have watched it 10 thousand times and only looked at the movie for its music and dancing, watch it again for the first time. There is so much more than the dream for a white Christmas... and it could have been filmed in 2019.
It was no coincidence watching this movie after seeing the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra, which was accompanied by four fantastic world-renowned vocalists and the Mendelssohn
Choir, perform Handel’s Messiah. The magnificent performance was a musically enhanced re-telling of self-sacrifice, brotherly love, misinterpretation
of motives, false judging, trials, tribulations, forgiveness, endurance, hope
and miracles.
Old love stories never
die. They just bring in the next generation if we open ourselves to the classics and truth. It is never too late to appreciate the old. Appreciation of the old helps make our hearts sing again.
What do you do with your General?
He laid down his life for his friends.
"We ate, then he ate. We slept, then he slept."
Laying down one's life for friends.. the story of the baby we celebrate at Christmas and people of valor. Sometimes told in music, song and/or dance.
Merry Christmas!
Marian R. Carlino
December 8, 2019
