A word from our sponsor.
The legendary songwriter Jimmy van Heusen was at Crosby’s house one evening for dinner to discuss a song for the movie “Going My Way”. During the meal one of the Crosby children began complaining about how he didn’t want to go to school the next day. Bing turned to his son and said, “If you don’t go to school, you might grow up to be a mule. Do you wanna do that?”
Jimmy thought this clever rebuke would make a good song for the movie. He pictured Crosby, who played a priest, talking to a group of children acting much the same way as his own child had acted that night.
That movie was to be a huge influence on John O’Connor, who later became Head Chaplain of the Armed Forces as a rear admiral at the Pentagon, and then Archbishop of New York. As a seminarian in Philadelphia, he saw the movie and credited it as the source of his desire to be the pastor of a parish. Little did he know that his career in the Navy would qualify him for a much bigger job.
I’m loving the 1944 Hit Parade. Thanks, Publius. ((HUGS))