It’s President’s Day here in the US of A, but it’s so close on the heels of Valentine’s Day, I’m confused about what holiday movie would be most appropriate for the day.
In the interest of trying to find one that shows all three holidays at once, I’d like to recommend Holiday Inn. Not that it’s a great movie, because it totally isn’t. In fact it’s outright ridiculous in many respects.
To put it in a nutshell, it’s about these two guys (one of whom is Bing Crosby), who start an inn keeping business except that the inn is only open on certain holidays. Have you ever heard of anything so unlikely to succeed?
But that’s not the half of it.
For instance, one of the most interesting (if you could call it that) aspects of the movie is that the two guys have fallen for the same girl. And apparently one of them can only recognize her from behind. Well, have you ever? 🙂
In fact, here are some actual lines from the film:
Dance Extra: What is this the daisy chain?
Ted Hanover: Sorry, we’re just looking for the back of a woman we don’t know.
Not only that, but did you know that the movie depicts Abraham Lincoln’s birthday with a performance at the inn where the actors are all in black-face?
Uh … tasteless much? 🙂
See, this was back in the days when Abraham Lincoln and George Washington each had their own birthday holiday. Which meant that we all got two days off. But that all changed in 1968 with something called the Uniform Holidays Bill, which (according to Snopes) was “intended to create more three-day weekends for federal employees by moving the observance of three existing federal holidays (Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day) from fixed calendar dates to designated Mondays, and by establishing Columbus Day, also to be observed on a Monday, as a new federal holiday.”
On top of which, they ended up smushing the two presidents’ birthdays together on the three-day weekend for George Washington. Talk about a rip-off for both presidents, really. Both lose their holidays and end up having to share one that celebrates Presidents, in general. Seriously?
Frankly I think we all deserve to take all three days off. Well, that’s my opinion, anyway.
Finally, here’s a video that shows scenes from Holiday Inn and Blue Skies! For what it’s worth! 🙂
And here’s an early look at Cinco de Mayo! 🙂
