Participants in New York City’s Easter Parade, 2007 / Wikimedia Commons

Revised April 9, 2022

Perhaps the most popular Easter song in the English language, “Easter Parade” started out with completely different words. In 1917, Berlin wrote “Smile and Show Your Dimple” to cheer up women whose men had just been deployed to fight in the First World War. No one remembered it very long except Berlin himself.

He later explained, “A song is like a marriage. It takes a perfect blending of the two mates, the music and the words, to make a perfect match. In the case of “Easter Parade,” it took a divorce and a second marriage to bring about the happiest of unions.”

“Easter Parade” on Broadway

In 1933, Berlin and playwright Moss Hart decided to collaborate on a satiric review with sketches taken from the daily newspaper. They called it As Thousands Cheer. It had sketches not only from the news sections, but also the society column, advice column, weather report, and comics.

Blues singer Ethel Waters sang four of the songs, making As Thousands Cheer the first theatrical event in which black and white stars took the stage together with equal billing.

The first act closed with a big Fifth Avenue number, and Berlin wanted an old-fashioned song for it. He had trouble finding just the right kind of melody until he remembered “Smile and Show Your Dimple.” It required only some minor reworking and all new words.

For centuries, the English-speaking world, at least, observed a tradition of wearing new clothes at Easter. In New York, high society had long indulged in holding a parade from St. Patrick’s Cathedral down Fifth Avenue. During the Depression, of course, most women had to be content with a new hat.

True to the satiric intent of the show, Berlin’s lyrics picture a working-class couple. The man sings to his girl how wonderful she’ll look in a bonnet “with all the frills upon it, which hardly sounds like upper-class elegance.

Clifton Webb and Marilyn Miller introduced the song. Webb issued a hit recording. The instrumental introduction on the You Tube video lasts more than a minute, and then comes the voice that launched “Easter Parade” as a hit. Webb’s recording, unlike most, includes the verse.

“Easter Parade” in the movies

Several of the songs, including “Easter Parade,” outlasted the popularity of the revue. Berlin used it again in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, which required a song for every major holiday.

Bing Crosby sang “Easter Parade” in Holiday Inn. He issued only one recording. He had a cold at the time and hardly sounded his best.

In 1948 Berlin built an entire new film around the song, and called it, not surprisingly, Easter Parade. Here’s a clip of Judy Garland and Fred Astaire singing it to each other:

Berlin’s lyrics use what is now an unfamiliar word, “rotogravure.” It is a printing process that enabled newspapers to publish photographs. The New York Times printed the first American rotogravure in December 1912. New Yorkers, at least, would have been familiar with the word. Berlin certainly expected his 1933 audience to know what it meant. The movie Easter Parade is set in 1913, so reference to rotogravure is especally appropriate.

Related posts:

Beloved Christmas carols: White Christmas, by Irving Berlin
Dueling melodies: Irving Berlin’s counterpoint songs