US Army campaign hat worn by Irving Berlin: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

US Army Campaign hat worn by Irving Berlin in the 1943 musical comedy film This is the Army. The dark brown wool hat was likely first issued to Berlin when he was drafted into the United States Army in 1917. The already-famous songwriter was assigned to the 152nd Depot Brigade at Camp Upton in Yaphank, on New York’s Long Island. While there, he composed a musical review titled Yip Yip Yaphank, a patriotic tribute to the United States Army to be staged with an all-soldier cast with proceeds supporting a camp service center. The show was a local hit and quickly moved to Broadway, where it also found success. Berlin himself performed the show’s hit song, “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.” In 1942, to support the Army Emergency Relief fund during World War II, Berlin staged a Broadway revival of Yip Yip Yaphank, now retitled This is the Army. The show was a success in New York and a traveling production toured other US cities from 1943-1945. Berlin again appeared in this uniform to perform “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” in both the stage production and the 1943 Warner Brothers film adaptation.

The dean of American popular song, composer-lyricist Irving Berlin wrote more than 3,000 songs, including “God Bless America” and “White Christmas.” Born Israel Beilin in Tyumen in what was then the Russian Empire in 1888, he was one of eight children brought by his parents to New York to escape discrimination, poverty, and violent programs against Jewish people in Russia. After his father died in 1901, Irving worked to survive, selling newspapers, waiting tables, and plugging songs. Berlin’s first hit song, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” became a sensation in 1911; three years later, his first work of musical theater, Watch Your Step, cemented his reputation. He wrote twenty-one Broadway scores, including Annie Get Your Gun (1946), which featured Ethel Merman singing “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Berlin also wrote seventeen film scores, including Top Hat (1935), Holiday Inn (1947), and Easter Parade (1948).

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: before 1942
• user: Warner Brothers
• user: Berlin, Irving
• Object Name: hat
• Physical Description: fiber, wool (overall material)
• Subject: Homefront, World War II
• Subject: Musical Theater
• Subject: Motion Pictures
• Subject: Theater
• related event: World War II
• related event: World War I
• ID Number: 1991.3198.61
• catalog number: 1991.3198.61
• nonaccession number: 1991.3198
• Credit Line: Gift of Elizabeth I. Peters, Linda Louise Emmet, and Mary Ellin Barrett
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.