"The White Cliffs of Dover" by Alice Duer Miller was first published in September 1940, and the poem's popularity grew to such immensity that many actors, singers, and musicians were inspired to lift the story to legendary status. The poem enjoyed phenomenal success of iconoclastic proportions and served to arouse men and women on several continents to rally together in their struggle to survive the onslaught of World War Two.
At the height of the war, Broadway legend Lynn Fontanne fell in love with the poem, and she implored the author to allow her read the story in a dramatic live broadcast on American radio on October 13, 1940. Her spellbinding, one-woman tour-de-force performance struck such a tremendous chord with audiences that a second broadcast was aired live two weeks later. Other performances followed, including a Canadian Broadcast in February 1941 on a night when all other radio programming was suspended during the half-hour reading. In January 1941, Fontanne was compelled to give a non-broadcast concert performance with the Cleveland Orchestra, and a permanent recording was made to carry the message to the furthermost corners of the world. Copies of that record of "The White Cliffs of Dover" were played endlessly by many British citizens, as they huddled together through nightly bombings and struggled to keep faith that their redemption from Hitler's troops was on God's horizon.
"The White Cliffs of Dover" follows Susan Dunne, a young American on holiday in England. She befriends her English mother-in-law, Lady Jean, and together, they brave home front hardships, rationed supplies, and a cold winter volunteering to roll bandages and write letters for wounded soldiers. The story reflects the living reality of much of the world's audiences during the horrors of a world gone mad.
Nat Burton and Walter Kent were stirred by the poem to write the song, "There'll Be Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover," and when Vera Lynn released a record of it.