Ellin McKay
- Wealthy Socialite
- Irish Catholic
- Was raised Protestant, mother's faith, until her mother divorced her father
- Her father, Clarence McKay did everything he could to stop Irving and Ellin's marriage
- their relationship was considered "tabloid gold"
- She tried to have a catholic priest at their wedding, Berlin didn't allow this
- Father cut her out of his will when she married Berlin, but still had access to her trust fund
- this helped them when the stock market crashed in 1929
Irving Berlin
- father worked as a Cantor before they immigrated
- started singing at 8 after his father died
- Mega-famous song writer when he met Ellin
- never hid the fact that he was Jewish
- adopted the name Berlin because that was how his last name, Baline, was misspelled on a sheet of music
- this sheet music was his first published song
The couple together
- Ellin's trust fund helped them during the stock market crash in 1929
- he regained all of his money again when he started working on the first talking movies
- Clarence and Berlin reconciled after 5 years and after the grandkids were born
- they had 4 children
- They celebrated Christmas with the four daughters, but they were always sad on that day
- The raised their children with the awareness of both, Ellin took them to Yom Kippur and Passover services and informally taught them about Catholicism.
- The children chose if they wanted to follow a religion
This information and more can be found at http://www.interfaithfamily.com/arts_and_entertainment/popular_culture/Irving_Berlin_Ellin_McKay_and_White_Christmas.shtml
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