The Man Without a Country is a studio album of phonograph records by Bing Crosby of the famous Edward Everett Halestory released September 15, 1947. The story had been adapted as a poetic narrative by Jean Holloway. The album was produced and directed by Paramount Pictures producer Robert Welch with musical accompaniment from Victor Young and His Orchestra.
These songs were featured on a two-disc twelve-inch, 78 rpm album set, Decca Album No. DAU-3.[1] The album was auto-coupled for ease of playing with a record changer. Parts one and two were recorded on June 13, 1947, and parts three and four on June 16, 1947.
Bing Crosby specially presented this patriotic piece on his Philco show of November 26, 1947 on the eve of Thanksgiving and although basically the same as the commercial issue, a different cast lead to an alternative interpretation. There were also differences in scripting, particularly in Crosby’s narration which had been somewhat amplified.[2] This led to an interesting review by Variety:
"Bing Crosby was impressive on his Philco Show, Wednesday night (26th) on ABC, as the narrator of Jean Holloway’s dramatisation of Edward Everett Hale’s, ‘The Man Without a Country’. There was one other notable aspect of the broadcast. That was the impression on the listener, particularly during the present emphasis on patriotism, of the familiar story of Philip Nolan’s disgrace. There has always been something disturbing about that notorious incident but this broadcast suggested, as never before, (not even on several previous presentations of the same script) that the punishment imposed on Nolan was inhumanely cruel. It was deliberate and unrelenting and only death brought relief for the officer who, on thoughtless impulse, wished never to hear of the United States again. No one could seriously have thought Nolan really have meant what he had blurted out in a moment of rage. In fact, as Hale’s account says, Nolan’s epitaph contained the statement that no man ever loved America more than he. Only the most supremely self-righteous patriot would willingly face the same strict accountability of his everyday reckless word that Philip Nolan faced and this broadcast suggested that in the case of ‘The Man Without A Country, the intended villain emerged a finer figure than did the zealots who judged him."[3]
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