Bing Crosby/Barbra Streisand -- White Christmas (song and movie)

 

Merry Christmas to one and all! I'm hoping that all of you who may be reading this are enjoying December 25th with family and friends and savoring the amity and smells of the season (turkey, potatoes and the like). The Kyoku family is certainly doing and so, and I believe that they'll be having an appropriate get-together later on tonight.

For the final Xmas 2024 entry on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've decided to go with a special Reminiscings of Youth song, and what better song to put on here than "White Christmas". Now of course, Bing Crosby is the traditional representative for this perennially sung Yuletide tune but I did want to begin with chanteuse Barbra Streisand because she wasn't only on that early 1970s Ronco compilation LP "A Christmas Gift" that my parents got me, but she was the first entertainer that I heard to sing the Irving Berlin classic while including that mystery first verse that's been usually omitted in other renderings of the song because it just took away (if briefly) that feeling of snow and cold and Christmas atmosphere. Apparently, Streisand's version was first heard on her 1967 album "A Christmas Album", and it's a solemn yet hopeful rendition.

"White Christmas" was first brought to ears in the 1942 holiday-themed musical "Holiday Inn" starring Crosby and Fred Astaire. It was one of many songs that was featured in this flick regarding Crosby's character's whimsical pursuit of running a countryside hotel that was only open on national holidays.

But "Holiday Inn" was a movie that I wouldn't discover until far into my life (actually, it was the Xmas episode of "SCTV" that introduced me to the existence of "Holiday Inn"). Before then, I had been accustomed to hearing it on those Crosby TV specials annually, Elvis Presley's cover of it, and then the movie "White Christmas" (directed by Michael Curtiz, the same guy behind the legendary "Casablanca") which came out in October 1954. Reading through the Wikipedia article on it, I'm not sure whether "White Christmas" the movie had been meant as a direct reconstruction of "Holiday Inn" despite the key presence of a countryside inn.

The movie was an annual ritual in my television life, especially at a time when I had known no other Turner Classic Movies-friendly Xmas flick at the time; "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 42nd Street" would come to my attention many years later. "White Christmas" had a bigger main cast than "Holiday Inn" and between the bookends of the rendition of the song, the movie was chock-filled with some great song-and-dance moments (I've already talked about "Snow" here) such as "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing" with Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen, and may I say that Kaye was a great addition in terms of both his dancing and comedic prowess compared to Astaire who wouldn't join this movie and Donald O'Connor who had to bow out due to illness.

Of course, there is also the whole "Sisters" bit with the Haynes Sisters and then the parody by Bing and Danny. I'd always wondered whether the latter was ad-libbed since the laughter from the guys looked so genuine. And as it turned out, it was.

Is it a perfect Xmas movie? Maybe not...there were a few scenes in there that had me thinking "Yep, it was way back in the mid-20th century, wasn't it?" but that was then and this is now. Also, I've never been a fan of that latter-half manufactured tiff between Bob and Betty but I guess the writers felt that there had to be some conflict when things may have gotten too cozy for the couples too soon. Still, after not having seen "White Christmas" in many years now, I wouldn't mind taking another gander at it someday.

In any case, what are some other big songs from Japan that were hitting the airwaves in 1954?

Akira Ifukube -- Godzilla （ゴジラ）

Hachiro Kasuga -- Hyotan Boogie (瓢箪ブギ)

Hibari Misora -- Hibari no Madorosu-san（ひばりのマドロスさん）

Godzilla

I was walking through West Shinjuku on the 6th when I saw one of those huge skyscrapers emblazoned with Godzilla himself/herself. It was kind of a surprise to see that...somewhat akin to seeing a kanji tattoo etched into the arm of Audrey Hepburn. But hey, The Big Green One is one of the most famous exports of Japanese pop culture into the world.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to go too deep into Kabukicho in East Shinjuku this time around but a semi-model of Godzilla has been erected over a new movie theatre. It's hard to see in the above photo but if you just look off in the distance through that side street going into Kabukicho, you may just see his head popping up.

Akira Ifukube -- Rodan （ラドン）

It may have been bad timing on my part and I missed the news on NHK but I found out about Haruo Nakajima's（中島春雄）passing a couple of days ago on the local news channel here in Toronto. Now, who may Haruo Nakajima be, you ask? Well, he was an actor with a certain specialty...he put on the rubber suits for years to portray legendary kaiju such as Godzilla and Mothra.

As much as I have praised composer Akira Ifukube（伊福部 昭）for coming up with the theme song for Godzilla and even generating the sound effects for the big green lug, Nakajima was responsible for the visual representation whether Godzilla was in ferocious battle mode or being a comical ham. And along with the aforementioned monsters above, he also portrayed another big buddy, Rodan. One of my lasting memories of the big bird was seeing him team up with Godzilla and Mothra to battle the villainous King Ghidorah as seen above. It was so cool to see the teamwork!

During Monster Week on the local NBC affiliate in Buffalo (WGR-TV), I also saw the original film introducing Rodan which was released in 1956, a couple of years after "Godzilla". In fact, the screen grab you see above you is the most memorable scene for me from the movie...the pterodactyl landing and crushing down a building. The interesting piece of trivia I read about Rodan is that the original name in Japanese for him/her is Radon from the contraction of the word for the prehistoric animal pteranodon (and that's how I transcribed the name in katakana in the title line above). Apparently, when the Americans received the movie for distribution, they transposed the vowels so that viewers wouldn't get confused with the inert gas...as opposed to now possibly getting viewers confused with the new name with that of the famous sculptor, at least in a pronunciation sense (I know that the guy behind The Thinker has his name spelled "Rodin"). In any case, chemical element trumped artist.

To be honest, I don't remember anything of the theme song for Rodan. In fact, I hadn't been aware that the big bird even had a theme song. However, it was indeed Ifukube who came up with the ominous and rumbling horn-and-piano song for the movie. It starts low and slow before it starts picking up speed in the second half. From spareribs to stir-fry, as it were. Now that I have heard it, I don't think it quite holds the candle to the Godzilla theme, all due respect to the late great Ifukube.

Now that Hollywood has established a Monsterverse due to the latest King Kong movie earlier this year, it should be interesting to see all of those kaiju from my childhood come back on the big screen, although they will be sophisticated CG. Still, I hold those creatures as portrayed by Nakajima as beloved creations. He passed away at the age of 88.

Akira Ifukube -- Godzilla （ゴジラ）

Before running home from junior high school with my friends to catch "Star Blazers" (aka Space Cruiser Yamato), I used to run home from elementary school (luckily a 3-minute run at most since my apartment building was across the sidewalk from the school) during Monster Week.

Monster Week, you say? Well, the local Buffalo affiliate of NBC had a show in the late afternoon which broadcast old movies, but once in a while, the theme for the week was Japanese monsters. And heck, boys and kaiju were always a great match. I think the first one I saw was "Monster Zero" which was known in Japan as "Kaiju Dai Senso"（怪獣大戦争...The Great Monster War） and officially known now as "Invasion of Astro-Monster". The late Nick Adams was in there, along with the hilarious dubbing, but the stars of course were Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah duking it out.

I read on the "Dark Horizons" movie website that this year is Godzilla's 60th birthday. So, the big green guy is celebrating a yellow diamond anniversary, eh? Then, I think it's time to also celebrate his/her/its epic theme song. Yep, those urgent strings and horns signalling that something of dreaded nature is stomping its way to a fragile city near you. We Godzilla fans should thank movie score composer Akira Ifukube（伊福部 昭）for the theme. The Hokkaido native actually majored in forestry at Hokkaido University while practicing composing in his spare time. He finally became a professional composer near the end of World War II after suffering from radiation exposure due to his duty of performing X-rays without the necessary lead protection.

His first of more than 250 film scores was for the 1947 movie "The End of the Silver Mountains", but the big one for Ifukube was the one for the very first "Godzilla" movie in 1954. I remember watching the version that had Raymond Burr (the future Perry Mason and Ironside) spliced in for the English-language version of the movie, and realizing that this movie was a whole lot more serious on the dangers of the new nuclear age than the near-campy stuff from Monster Week. Ifukube was also the one who came up with the iconic Godzilla roar which was produced by "....rubbing a resin-colored glove over the loosened strings of a double-bass". He even generated the monster's footstomps via an amplifier box.

I caught J.J. Abrams' "Cloverfield" when I was living in Japan, and although I didn't think the film managed to quite live up to the hype, I did love Michael Giacchino's tribute to Ifukube's masterpiece via "ROAR".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYvaUXpEOG4

You can take a look at the above patchwork battle royale among Godzilla, Ghidorah, Rodan, MechaGodzilla and spiky little Anguirus. The music from around 40 seconds into the clip was what I'd thought was the original Godzilla theme.

As I mentioned at the top, 2014 is Godzilla's 60th. However, it would also have been Ifukube's 100th birthday at the end of May this year. Unfortunately, he passed away at the age of 92 in 2006.