"Baby, It's Cold Outside" -- Banned for the Wrong Reason
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" has been banned by radio stations. (Millennials may not be familiar with the phrase "radio stations.") It should have been banned in 1949. But in 1950, it won the Oscar for 1949.
The reason why it was banned this year is silly: the song is supposedly about date rape. It is not. It is about successful male seduction. It is about female surrender. It is therefore about women's liberation. A woman refuses to abide by conventional ethics of the late 1940's. . . . and, I might add, the 1950's. That's why the complete song was not sung on-screen in 1949. The Hays Code would have banned it.
How it ever became known as a Christmas song is beyond me. On YouTube, it is introduced by a photo of a Bing Crosby Christmas album. But the song was not on that album. It is not even Crosby singing. It is Johnny Mercer, the great songwriter, and Margaret Whiting. The YouTube video has had 4 million hits.
I have not listened to it for over 60 years, but I remembered its basic theme correctly: seduction and surrender. And all so lighthearted!
I really can't stay (Baby it's cold outside)
I gotta go away (Baby it's cold outside)
This evening has been (Been hoping that you'd dropped in)
So very nice (I'll hold your hands they're just like ice)My mother will start to worry (Beautiful what's your hurry?)
My father will be pacing the floor (Listen to the fireplace roar)
So really I'd better scurry (Beautiful please don't hurry)
Well maybe just a half a drink more (I'll put some records on while I pour)The neighbors might think (Baby it's bad out there)
Say what's in this drink? (No cabs to be had out there)
I wish I knew how (Your eyes are like starlight now)
To break this spell (I'll take your hat, your hair looks swell) (Why thank you)I ought to say no, no, no sir (Mind if move in closer?)
At least I'm gonna say that I tried (What's the sense of hurtin' my pride?)
I really can't stay (Baby don't hold out)
Baby it's cold outsideAh, you're very pushy you know?
I like to think of it as opportunistic
I simply must go (Baby it's cold outside)
The answer is no (But baby it's cold outside)The welcome has been (How lucky that you dropped in)
So nice and warm (Look out the window at that storm)
My sister will be suspicious (Gosh your lips look delicious!)
My brother will be there at the door (Waves upon a tropical shore)My maiden aunt's mind is vicious (Gosh your lips are delicious!)
Well maybe just a cigarette more (Never such a blizzard before) (And I don't even smoke)
I've got to get home (Baby you'll freeze out there)
Say lend me a coat? (It's up to your knees out there!)You've really been grand, (I feel when I touch your hand)
But don't you see? (How can you do this thing to me?)
There's bound to be talk tomorrow (Think of my life long sorrow!)
At least there will be plenty implied (If you caught pneumonia and died!)I really can't stay (Get over that old out)
Baby it's cold
Baby it's cold outside[singing ends]
Okay fine, just another drink then
That took a lot of convincing!
It is clear what the song is about.
The song is from a forgettable movie starring the unforgettable (for males of my era) Esther Williams: Neptune's Daughter. Ricardo Montalban (Fantasy Island, the wrathful Khan, rich Corinthian leather) is trying to charm Williams. He leaves little to the imagination as he is singing. She sings her fading protest.
Then the Hays Code had its way. She does not say yes or no. The song ends before the climactic spoken lines. The movie immediately cuts to a pair of comics, Red Skelton and Betty Garrett. They sing the same song. This time, she is the seducer. She sings, trying to get him to stay. He sings, trying to leave. The scene ends when she pulls him onto a couch and turns out the lights. This was women's lib in 1949.
Near the end of the movie, Betty says she agrees to marry Red. But Red did not ask her. She drags him off-screen. This was women's lib in 1949. (Art imitates life. In 1944, Garrett proposed to her future husband, actor Larry Parks. They stayed married until his death in 1975.)
The movie ends with a gala staged swim scene -- basic to most of Esther Williams' movies -- with Ricardo swimming alongside her. All's well that ends well.
The Hays Code, which was voluntary, has been gone since 1968. The New Yorker was right in 2016: it wasn't all bad, silly as parts of it were. (Example: twin beds for married couples.) It was weak in 1968. It was buried by Jack Valenti, who bailed out as Lyndon Johnson's liaison with Congressional Republicans in order to take over the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in 1966. Prior to this, he was famous mainly for these inspirational words: "I sleep each night a little better, a little more confidently because Lyndon Johnson is my president."
Some radio stations will no longer play the song. I do not listen to the radio, but if I did, I would not miss not hearing "Baby, It's Cold Outside." I haven't missed it in 60 years. Why start now?