Chilling true story of deadly White Christmas film set and 'invisible killer'

24 December 2023 , 12:00

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The White Christmas film set used fake snow to imitate beautiful wintery scenes (Image: Getty)

White Christmas is heralded as one of the ultimate festive classics - but filming the 1954 American movie posed a dangerous threat to the cast.

The infamous Christmas film was the biggest moneymaking movie of the year when it hit theatres in the fifties and the highest-grossing musical of its time. Starring Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen and Danny Kaye, it featured romance, comedy and big musical numbers.

The soundtrack of American composer Irving Berlin was beloved by fans and the most popular song 'White Christmas' became a best-selling single. The successful song-and-dance film tells the heartwarming tale of a bunch of friends adjusting to life after the Second World War.

It's centered around two veterans-turned-performers, who team up with a sister act to save the failing Vermont inn, owned by their former commanding officer. The 20th Century Fox lot provided the backdrop for the iconic train station scene, while the rest is set in the fictional town of Pine Tree, with idyllic scenes of snow.

But what the directors, producers and actors didn't know at the time was how potentially deadly the fake snow on set could be. In the early twentieth century, asbestos was often used to imitate real snow on film sets because it was waterproof, fireproof, didn't melt and was easy to handle.

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Then in the 1960s, it was discovered how lethal and unsafe asbestos is. The small fibres, which are invisible to the naked eye, cause deadly illnesses, including cancer of the lungs, larynx and ovaries. There is no safe level of asbestos exposure, so the toxic mineral could have filled the lungs of those working on the film.

It wasn't until 1989 that asbestos-containing products were banned in America. Around the same time, the UK introduced initial bans on blue and brown asbestos types, and in late 1999, it was completely banned. Today, the 'Magic Mineral' is deemed highly dangerous and has been classified as being carcinogenic to humans.

Nia Dalton