Release Date: August 4, 1942

Director,  Mark Sandrich

Story by Irving Berlin

Music composed by Irving Berlin and

 Robert Emmett Dolan (musical director for Paramount)

Dolan has been given film music credits for many movies including The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) and Going My Way (1944). Both films starring Crosby.  Holiday Inn was primarily filmed on soundstages at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, but it also used exterior shots from real locations in California including the Riverview Inn (now Village Inn) in Monte Rio along the Russian River.  The inn set was later repurposed for White Christmas (1954) to become the Columbia Inn.  The main indoor sets for the inn were built and filmed at Paramount Studios. 

In this Irving Berlin musical, Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) and Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) played opposite Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) and Linda Mason (Majorie Reynolds).  Jim and Lila are members of a performing trio who plan to quit and run a country hotel. 

Screen legends Crosby and Astaire sing and dance their way into your hert in one of the most timeless holiday classics ever. 

Many feel the movie, White Christmas was a sequel to Holiday Inn. Though it was not a sequel the two movies are closely linked.  Paramount intended White Christmas to be a successor after the success of Holiday Inn, but it became a standalone film with a new story yet it did reuse some set pieces.  Both movies starred Bing Crosby and featured songs by Irving Berlin, with the song "White Christmas" first appearing in Holiday Inn before being used as the title and main song for the 1954 film.  Danny Kaye replaced Fred Astaire in White Christmas after Astaire, age 43 at the time, dropped out.

Fred Astaire performed the "firecracker dance" in Holiday Inn.  The iconic scene, where he dances with lit firecrackers was a complex and difficult number that took him 38 takes to complete. This challenging routine took multiple days to film and to rehearse.