'White Christmas': 10 Facts About The Bing Crosby Movie

White Christmas is the classic 1954 holiday musical named after the legendary holiday song. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye lead the cast as song-and-dance team "Wallace and Davis," who head to Vermont for a special Christmas show with the "Haynes" sisters (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen). Songs, laughs, romance, and a heart-warming finale ensue.

In this gallery, we're looking back at 10 facts you probably didn't know about White Christmas, from the stars to the songs and other behind-the-scenes stories. Enjoy!

Today, everyone remembers White Christmas for Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye's standout performances as "Bob Wallace" and "Phil Davis." But in pre-production, almost neither star was cast in the film.

Crosby had intended to join the film, but stepped away after the death of his first wife, Dixie Lee. Though, he'd later return and star as "Bob." Fred Astaire was supposed to co-star, but he declined the project. Donald O'Connor was to replace him, but he also dropped out after falling ill, and Kaye finally took on the role of "Phil."

Though he was the third man envisioned for White Christmas, Danny Kaye was the right actor for the job. According to star Rosemary Clooney, the talented performer and comedian even ruined many takes on set because he always had the cast and crew laughing.

One of the film's most memorable scenes comes when "Bob" (Crosby) and "Phil" (Kaye) give an impromptu performance of "Sisters" in place of the "Haynes" sisters. Apparently, the scene wasn't in the script, but it was added after Crosby and Kaye were fooling around on set and director Michael Curtiz thought it would work for the film.

The take that appears in the film also features Crosby breaking character in laughter—again at Kaye.

Rosemary Clooney—who fans can thank for most behind-the-scenes facts about White Christmas—said that the scene where "Bob" gives his "dream theory" on late-night snacks was entirely improvised by Bing Crosby.

Crosby's dialogue in the film also featured lines based on phrases he used and how he spoke in real life.

One for film history buffs: White Christmas was actually the first film to be released in VistaVision, a new widescreen process created in the '50s with studio Paramount Pictures.

It allowed for a larger projection in theatres, adding mainly to the height and giving a higher-definition image. Though abandoned shortly after, the process is sometimes named as a precursor to developments like IMAX cinema.

Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen co-star in White Christmas as the "Haynes" sisters. For performance numbers, Vera-Ellen's voice was dubbed and there was a myth that it was Clooney singing for her — a "duet" with herself. But it was later confirmed that Clooney arranged for Trudy Stevens to dub for Vera-Ellen's songs.

Clooney also later joked that she wished her own dancing was "dubbed" in the film.

White Christmas features some notable age inconsistencies between cast members. Dean Jagger stars as "Major General Waverley," the aging ex-military man who's honoured by his former division. But despite the on-screen seniority, Jagger was actually six months younger than Bing Crosby, whose "Bob" was a younger army man.

Likewise, Rosemary Clooney played the elder "Haynes" sister "Betty," though she was actually seven years younger than her screen sister Vera-Ellen.

White Christmas was a massive box office success in 1954. Coming after Bing Crosby's Holiday Inn, it was the number one film released that year, earning over $12 million—which would adjust to an over-$100 million theatrical run today. At the time, it also set the record for highest-grossing musical film.

This fact may be lost in history now, but "White Christmas" was a song for over a decade prior to the 1954 film release starring Bing Crosby. Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas" in the early 1940s and Crosby had popularized it in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, after which it became a chart hit throughout the 1940s.

A film named after the song was suggested in 1948 and later became the Bing Crosby Christmas musical in 1954.