By Chip Deffaa***On Christmas Eve, cabaret and theater folk gathered outside of the house where Irving Berlin lived, to sing songs that he wrote, just as they have every year since the 1980s. The tradition was started by the late cabaret performer and songwriter, John Wallowitch, who felt—as so many do—that Berlin was America’s greatest songwriter.
Wallowitch invited friends to join him in caroling by the front door to Berlin’s home, at 17 Beekman Place. Berlin (1888-1989) was quite reclusive by that stage in his life; he had notmade a public appearance in years. But he was so touched by the sound of carolers singing songs that he’d written, such as “White Christmas,” “Always” and “God Bless America,” he invited everyone into his home, served everyone hot chocolate, and said, “This is the best Christmas present anyone’s ever given me.”
Wallowitch made this an annual tradition, and since Wallowitch’s passing in 2007, writer Jacqueline Parker—a member of the original group—has continued the tradition, which she feels now honors the memories of both John Wallowitch and Irving Berlin. This year, the carolers began with Berlin’s “Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep).” And when they finished their last song, “God Bless America,” everyone was invited into Berlin’s former home, which is today the Luxembourg Consulate. (The nation of Luxembourg felt so honored by the fact that Berlin wrote a musical set in their country, Call Me Madam, they bought Berlin’s home—where he’d written Call Me Madam—after his passing.) And this year, Luxembourg Consul Marc Padjan invited all of the Berlin carolers inside, and offere
d everyone champagne or soda.
More than seven decades separated the senior-most member of this year’s group of carolers, Broadway legend Penny Fuller (whose musicals, since making her Broadway debut in 1962, have included Cabaret, Applause, A New Brain, Sunday in the Park with George and Anastasia) and young Jesse Gellert (a Professional Performing Arts School student featured on the just-released album Down in Honky Tonk Town). But everyone bonded in the course of the night. And most everyone had some connection to the world of Irving Berlin. Fuller shared with Jesse Gellert how—on the night she won her Emmy Award for “The Elephant Man”—she got to sing “God Bless America” with the artist who originally introduced it and made it famous, Kate Smith.
Among others in the group were: Jeff Harnar, one of New York’s most-respected cabaret singers, whose most recent Berlin recording is “Say It Isn’t So,” on the album Irving Berlin Love Songs and Such; Chip Deffaa, who’s produced a dozen albums of Berlin’s music, 
and has written and directed several plays about Berlin; noted music director-vocal coach Michael Lavine; and Renee Katz, who’s recorded an album in tribute to Belin, Lost in his Arms.
Parker and company further paid their respects to Berlin with a visit to his grave in The Woodlawn Cemetery, earlier in the day. (And while there, they also paid visits to the graves of Dorothy Parker and Duke Ellington.)
Berlin wrote more hits and made more money than any of his contemporaries in what many felt was a Golden Age of America songwriting. He wrote the scores for 18 Broadway shows and 19 Hollywood musicals. Bing Crosby’s recording of Berlin’s “White Christmas” remains (according to the Guinness Book of Records) the best-selling single record in its history, having sold some 50 million copies. Christmastime was actually always a time of mourning, not joy, for Berlin, since his only son, Irving Berlin Jr., died as an infant on Christmas Day in 1928. But Berlin once said he felt it was the best song he ever wrote.
