Written by Annika Rasmussen
As the child of music majors and former theater kids, for much of my childhood (and indeed adulthood) I have been exposed to the wide variety musical theater has to offer. From the age-old Les Misérables to the 2025 Tony Best Musical, Maybe Happy Ending, I consider myself somewhat of a connoisseur. But nothing can compare to the compositions of the ‘Golden Age of Musicals,’ spanning from the late 1930s to the early 1960s.
It was during this period that household names such as Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, and Steven Sondheim became truly embedded in the cultural zeitgeist, writing music and shows which are still performed to packed theaters today. This was also a time in which the American film industry flourished with new unchallenged markets in war-torn Europe and the development of network television making film more accessible to the average family. Thus, musical theater increasingly began transitioning to the screen.
Such films as My Fair Lady and West Side Story became award winning examples of this, the latter having a movie revival sixty years later to rave reviews. In the early 1940s this phenomenon propelled many Broadway performers to greater notoriety as they were recruited from the stage to perform in Hollywood. This eventually led to musicals being produced for film release, not stage production, although the cast often held Broadway backgrounds. Such films had, and retain, cultural importance in the United States with films including Holiday Inn and White Christmas becoming traditional viewing during the holidays for many.
It was during my annual viewing of these films when a certain common plot device caught my attention. They both present a staunchly pro-military message whose lack of subtlety was as surprising as the propaganda itself. For those unfamiliar, Holiday Inn (1942) follows the story of Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) who, after leaving show-business, opens a hotel which operates exclusively on holidays. For the Fourth of July performance, Jim sings the Song of Freedom, dressed in what is essentially an Uncle Sam costume, as scantily clad women in American flag themed tutus sing backup. That in and of itself is already quite explicitly patriotic but can be chalked up to the fact the characters are celebrating American Independence. What really brings this scene home is the slideshow of primarily military propaganda for the final minute of the song. The image of military planes flying in the background of the silhouette of an American Bald eagle, videos of workers in factories producing more military planes, a closeup of a general framed in the shape of a star with military marches in the background, and a final shot of President Franklin D. Roosevelt as an American flag flies majestically behind him is, to say the least, pretty heavy handed.
This is not entirely out of place within the context of the song, as it is one which celebrates American values during the Second World War. While it was jarring as a viewer in the twenty-first century (in fact, the obvious nature of the messaging seems quite ridiculous), one assumes this kind of chauvinistic display was normal during a time of widespread propaganda, as the U.S. government looked to galvanize the public. It is further unsurprising Bing Crosby was chosen to perform this number, not only due to his fame, but as after being denied military service due to his age, Crosby had become active in the Hollywood Victory Caravan and Armed Forces Radio Service, both designed to raise the morale of troops abroad with entertaining performances. With this in mind, I wrote off the strange propaganda interlude in Holiday Inn as another aspect of the war time propaganda machine dominating U.S. media.
But a trend began to emerge when watching White Christmas. The 1954 film, also starring Bing Crosby, follows performing duo Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) and Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) who put on a Christmas show to help the floundering business of the General they served under during the Second World War. Here, the pro-military messaging is integral to the plot. Wallace and Davis meet in the military, and for the climatic finale of the film they reunite their old regiment in honor of the General. Thus, many of the numbers have pro-military overtones, but none as explicitly as Gee, I Wish I Was Back In The Army. The song touts the benefits of enlisting, highlighting perks such as, “three meals a day”, “a life without responsibility”, and a respite from “tough civilian life”. This propagandized version of service, which obviously downplays the horrors of war soldiers endured, admittedly makes sense in the context of the film as the performers utilize nostalgia bait for both the fictitious and real-life audience. As the film plot itself centers around military men, the propagandized messaging is more subtle than the abrupt and explicit show of stereotypical America in Holiday Inn. Nevertheless, nine years after the end of the Second World War, messaging resembling war-time propaganda remained strong in media.
It was the third musical film from this ‘Golden Age’ I watched which finally piqued my interest in the use of propaganda in musical theater. Call Me Madam (1953) certainly has the least outrageous usage of American propaganda of the films mentioned in this article but, nonetheless, illustrates the continued usage of propaganda in musical theater. The film follows Sally Adams (Ethel Merman) and Kenneth Gibson (Donald O’Connor) who are appointed as American representative to the fictitious country of Lichtenburg where they fall in love with General Constantine (George Sanders) and Princess Maria (Vera-Ellen) respectively. Throughout the film, Lichtenburg politicians constantly pester Sally for financial aid from the Unites States. While this depicts the USA as a great power whom small counties desperately look to for help, the pro-American propaganda is explicitly realized in the song International Rag where Sally sings of the excellence of American music over that of other nations and how soon everyone, “even commies,” will listen to American music. Although this lacks the extravagant nature of patriotic music paired with images of the nation, the subtle “even commies” reflects the nature of the cultural clashes of the Cold War, thus exemplifying the change in tone of propaganda messaging during the transition from the Second World War into the Cold War.
My intention in this article was originally to present an interesting permeation of propaganda into all forms of media, especially musical theater. But through research, I found an interesting common linkage between these three examples: the songs in the musicals mentioned above were written by Irving Berlin. Born 11 May 1888 in Russia, Berlin’s family immigrated to New York in 1893 where he began writing music, having learned notes by ear as he lacked a formal musical education. He was drafted into the First World War in 1917 where he was able to continue his songwriting, composing the song God Bless America. Berlins propagandistic songwriting continued in the Second World War with compositions such as I Paid My Income Tax Today, Any Bonds Today?, Angles of Mercy (an homage to the American Red Cross), and the production of a musical This is the Army, a Broadway show aimed to raise money for the military which featured an all-soldier cast. Although, God Bless America would remain his most popular patriotic song during the war.
This explains the patriotic overtones of Berlin’s musicals, demonstrating these messages were not merely results of the influential propaganda culture in wartime USA, but the individual efforts of a patriot. Berlin’s career was not exclusively wartime propaganda, and was certainly a problematic product of his time (demonstrated by the use of blackface in multiple of his works), but his influence was largely connected to his propaganda efforts. I wonder if he would consider his work to be propaganda, or if he genuinely felt this strongly about the ‘American way.’ His work was not financially incentivized by the government, but he certainly profited from the popularity afforded to him by capitalizing on the patriotic fervor of the public during wartime.
My interest in propagandized musical theater sent me down a fascinating rabbit hole of televised musicals, propaganda, and a patriotic composer. The captivating ways in which advancements in media technology facilitated a cultural shift from theater to film and television has relevance today as pro-shots for stage productions increase in popularity, largely stemming from demand by streaming services. The casual, albeit extravagantly obvious, propagandized messaging through songs and storylines speaks to the influence of the wartime psyche of the Second World War and how the promotion of pro-military rhetoric seeped into entertainment. Iving Berlin’s commitment to the ‘American Dream’ is an interesting case of how individuals viewed their place in American wartime and post-war society. Overall, an interesting window into the propagandized culture American found itself in during the ‘Golden Age’ of musicals.
Bibliography
Bergreen, Laurence. “Irving Berlin: This Is the Army.” Accessed October 1, 2025. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1996/summer/irving-berlin-1
Crosby, Bing,;Kaye, Danny.; Clooney, Rosemary.; Ellen, Vera, singers. “Gee, I Wish I Was Back In The Army.” White Christmas, 1954. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4c6AwTrUcg
Crosby, Bing, singer. “Song of Freedom.” Holiday Inn, 1942. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVsHyF5_Dfg
Encyclopedia Britannica. “History of Film.” Accessed October 1, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-film
Encyclopedia Britannica. “Irving Berlin.” Accessed October 1, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Irving-Berlin
Encyclopedia Britannica. “musical.” Accessed October 1, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/art/musical#ref396817
Merman, Ethel, singer. “International Rag.” Call Me Madam, 1953. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1uFmsIJO8o
Richardson, Michelle. “Why are Musical Proshots so Hard to Find?” Accessed October 2, 2025. https://medium.com/@michellerichardson_11188/why-are-musical-proshots-so-hard-to-find-9aab0a8dbc5e
University of Maryland. “Irving Berlin and Tin Pan Alley At War.” Accessed October 1, 2025. https://exhibitions.lib.umd.edu/songsofwar/wwii/profiles/irving-berlin
Featured Image Credit: Holiday Inn, 1942 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034862/soundtrack/
Retrospect Journal 