The Great American Songbook Foundation in Carmel, Indiana, is a wonderful resource to fans of the Great American Songbook and Golden Age Cinema. They have so many fascinating pieces in their collection–courtesy of their founder, Michael Feinstein–and provide quality educational programming on the subject. They maintain an exhibition space in the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts and have plans to build a standalone museum in the future. In December 2025, they dedicated their exhibition space to White Christmas (1954), showcasing select items from both their collection and the Rosemary Clooney House Collection. I am delighted to share photos from my time visiting the collection and to highlight some of my favorite pieces.

The exhibit included numerous photographs taken both during rehearsals and filming, as well as behind the scenes, in addition to relevant documentation and advertising art.

They also had documentation regarding the costumes, featuring the interesting detail of Rosemary Clooney’s character being named Betty Stewart–not Betty Haynes.

Personally, I’m a big fan of screen-worn costumes and was excited to reacquaint myself with some costumes I had seen at the Rosemary Clooney House. It was nice to see some of these chorus and extra costumes in the spotlight and to examine their details more closely.

Here’s a military uniform worn in the film:

Additionally, this is one of the male chorus costumes from the “Mandy” number.

Here is one of the female chorus costumes from the “Mandy” number, as well.

Composer Irving Berlin famously worked with transposing pianos. Though Berlin played the piano in F-sharp, the use of a lever below the keyboard allowed him to transpose his composition to different keys. Above the keys, one can see to which key the piano is transposed. He affectionately referred to his transposing pianos as “Buicks.” This piano is a fairly recent donation to the Great American Songbook Foundation’s growing collection of notable composer pianos.

The exhibit included a chair used in the Columbia Inn scenes.

Another gem on display is a small piano used in the film during one of the rehearsal sequences depicted in the film.

In addition, it was delightful to see Bing Crosby‘s hat and pipe on display, as well as Rosemary Clooney’s ornaments and a snow globe gifted to her by Irving Berlin. If you look closely, you can see the opening melody to “White Christmas” etched onto the front.

Since the film iteration, White Christmas has also been adapted for the stage. Here are some costumes from one of the more recent productions as mounted in Carmel, Indiana.

There were so many talented individuals who worked hard on White Christmas (1954). The exhibit showcased some additional pieces from actors as well as off-screen talents in their display.

All in all, this was an especially exciting collaboration between the Great American Songbook Foundation and the Rosemary Clooney House. I look forward to many more continued engaging exhibits and collaborations from the Great American Songbook Foundation in the future.