Naked Aspect

Another Irving Berlin hit (also from Paramount's Holiday Inn) last week made Negro editors reach for their editorial shotguns. Offending song was Abraham, which begins with the couplet: When black folks lived in slavery Who was it set the darky free?

ABRAHAM. . . .*

Baltimore's semiweekly Afro-American promptly reminded Tunesmith Berlin that "the term 'd--y' [is] offensive to colored people." Said the Afro-American: "The piece is sung by Bing Crosby . . . and came to the attention of the Afro after it was blatantly rendered in its naked aspect by Fred Waring. . . ."

Hastily, Tunesmith Berlin wired his Manhattan publishers to change "d--y" to "Negroes" in all future copies of the song. Said he: "No song is important enough to offend a whole race. I should never have released it had I known the epithet was objectionable."

* Copyrighted by Irving Berlin Inc.

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