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State Theatre bringing a dose of ‘White Christmas’ to classic film series

By Rachel Basinger rbasinger@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read
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Just like the songs “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” and Elvis’ “Blue Christmas,” there are just some staples to the holiday season that are timeless and will never go out of style.

The film “White Christmas” is one of those staples, and the State Theatre Center for The Arts, 37 E. Main St., Uniontown, will show the film on their big screen on Dec. 20 as part of their Classic Film series.

This Christmas classic starring Bing Crosby (“High Society” and “Going My Way”) and Rosemary Clooney (“ER” and “Repo Men”) is a romantic tale that takes place in a Vermont lodge- where it is almost always, a white Christmas.

A successful song-and-dance team made up of Crosby and Danny Kaye (“The Court Jester” and “On the Riviera”) become romantically involved with a sister act made up Clooney and Vera- Ellen (“On the Town” and “Love Happy”). They team up to save the failing Vermont inn of the guys’ former commanding general.

The 1954 film was nominated for a Best Music, Original Song Oscar for the song “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” by Irving Berlin.

IMDb trivia stated that Vera-Ellen’s singing voice was dubbed.

“Numerous sources mistakenly assume Rosemary Clooney sang Vera-Ellen’ s part in ‘Sisters’ thus dueting with herself, but Trudy Stevens (who was Trudy Stabile at the time) was Vera-Ellen’s voice double in all of her songs, namely ‘Sisters,’ ‘Snow’ and the ‘White Christmas’ finale,” it read.

The trivia also stated that some Gloria Wood articles and album liner notes have mentioned through the years that she was the one who sang for Vera-Ellen, but although she was the initial choice for the job, Rosemary Clooney intervened to have her friend, Trudy Stevens, sing the role instead.

Vera’s own singing voice is heard ever very briefly singing in the “arrival in Pine Tree” scene at the railroad station where the quartet reprises – live – the opening lines of “Snow.”

In supplemental information on the DVD Rosemary Clooney revealed that she took the role mostly so that she could perform with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye caused many retakes when his antics made everyone laugh when they weren’t supposed to and she considered “Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me” as “her” song since it was her only solo.

The film is certified fresh on the website Rotten Tomatoes. The tomatometer, which is the critics’ score, is at 77 percent while the audience score is a bit higher at 88 percent.

“It may be too sweet for some, but this unabashedly sentimental holiday favorite is too cheerful to resist,” said the critics’ consensus.

Directed by Michael Curtiz, the film is rated G.

Showtimes are 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 20. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and students.

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