Casablanca Anniversary: “As Time Goes By”

Seventy-one years ago, on November 26, 1942, the classic film Casablanca premiered at Hollywood Theater in NYC to coincide with the Allied invasion of North Africa and the capture of Casablanca. The film, staring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henried, focuses on a man torn between love and virtue—Bogart’s character must choose between his love for a woman and helping her and her Czech Resistance leader husband escape from the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.

The film’s score was written by Max Steiner (who also scored Gone With the Wind), and the song that has become synonymous with the film is “As Time Goes By,” sung by Dooley Wilson who played Sam the piano player in the “gin joint.” The song was written by Herman Hupfeld for a 1931 Broadway musical Everybody’s Welcome, and recorded that year by several artists, including Rudy Vallee.  Interestingly, Wilson was unable to record a single of the song at the time of the film’s release due to a musician’s strike, so the studio simply re-issued Vallee’s 1931 version which resulted in a number one hit for him in 1932.

Category: Best of PS