Whether we celebrate New Year’s at a riotous party, a packed outdoor venue, a church, or at home, everyone of us wants to “start the New Year right.” I’d like to share two of my favorite scenes from classic Hollywood movies that can either inspire you as you head out to party or make you smile from the comfort of your sofa.
America has changed a lot since my grandparents and their fellow members of the Greatest Generation were young, but some things remain constant: for instance, music, kisses, glitzy outfits, noisy celebrations, and half-drunk party guests on New Year’s Eve. Just take a look at the two clips below, featuring two of my favorite stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Bing Crosby and David Niven. Whether the stars were in a seething crowd in Times Square or serving food in a New England kitchen, classic Hollywood was ready for the stroke of midnight on January 1.
In the movie “Holiday Inn” (1942), Crosby’s character is running an inn that will only welcome guests and provide entertainment on holidays. He’s excited for his big opening on New Year’s Eve — though the evening takes an awkward turn for him when his newly single and very drunk dancer friend (played by Fred Astaire) shows up and temporarily steals his girl!
Both Bing’s singing and Fred’s dancing are incomparable, and Marjorie Reynolds does her share to make the scene memorable.Related: ‘White Christmas’: The Ultimate Christmas Movie Classic
The New Year’s scene in “Bachelor Mother” (1939) is a different approach to the holiday. Ginger Rogers is playing an out-of-work young woman whose effort to help an abandoned baby accidentally gets her accused of being the baby’s mother! When she finally agrees to adopt the baby, she finds herself rehired by a store owner’s son (David Niven) and eventually agreeing to be his date for New Year’s.
After pranking fellow celebrators by pretending Ginger can’t speak English, the couple end up having a romantic evening, which includes joining the holiday crowds in Times Square to ring in the new year.To end this brief little piece, I think I could not do better than use the lyrics to the song Crosby sings above. They’re a bit corny, but I loved it when my grandpa sang the song, because the lyrics are full of the sentiment, romance, and hope that all of us like to feel heading into a New Year’s Eve.
May 2025 be your most prosperous, happy, healthy, and blessed year yet! God bless!
One minute to midnight
One minute to go
One minute to say good-bye
Before we say hello
Let's start the new year right
Twelve o'clock tonight
When they dim the light
Let's begin
Kissing the old year out
Kissing the new year in.Let's watch the old year die
With a fond good-bye
And our hopes as high
As a kite
How can our love go wrong if
We start the new year right?
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