The enduring 1954 holiday film White Christmas has a devoted following and is an "evergreen" title, continuing to draw strong audiences through perennial airings on television, streaming services, and disc sales. In addition to its unabashedly sentimental story line, it was a technological marvel for its time, being the first technicolor film made in Vista Vision, a kind of wide-screen HD process that used twice the surface area of standard 35 mm film. It was the top grossing film of 1954 and at the time, the top grossing movie musical ever made. It was also the last musical film score that Irving Berlin ever wrote and was based on his 1942 academy-award winning song "White Christmas," which has become the biggest-selling single worldwide of all time. Surprisingly, for such a famous film, to date there has never been a book written about the making of this beloved movie--until now.
