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 'dy' [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...