The House I Live in ( 1945 film ) - wikipedia The House I Live in ( 1945 film ) The House I Live In Theatrical release poster Directed by Mervyn LeRoy ( uncredited ) Produced by Frank Ross Mervyn LeRoy Written by Albert Maltz Starring Frank Sinatra Music by Earl Robinson ( song ) Cinematography Robert De Grasse Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures Release date November 9, 1945 ( 1945 - 11 - 09 ) Running time 10 minutes Country United States Language English The House I Live In is a ten - minute short film written by Albert Maltz, produced by Frank Ross and Mervyn LeRoy, and starring Frank Sinatra. Made to oppose anti-Semitism at the end of World War II, it received an Honorary Academy Award and a special Golden Globe award in 1946. In 2007, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being `` culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant ''. Contents 1 Plot 2 Title song 3 References 4 External links Plot Sinatra, apparently playing himself, takes a break from a recording session and steps outside to smoke a cigarette. He sees more than ten boys chasing a Jewish boy and intervenes, first with dialogue, then with a short speech. His main points are that we are `` all '' Americans and that one American 's blood is as good as another 's and that all our religions are to be respected equally. Title song The song originally appeared in the musical revue, Let Freedom Sing, which opened on Broadway on October 5, 1942. Brooks Atkinson wrote in the New York Times : `` Although Mordecai Bauman does not sing it particularly well, he sings it with earnest sincerity, without feeling that he must imitate youth by blasting the voice amplifying system and cutting a rug. '' In the film, Sinatra sings the title song. His recording became a national hit. The music was written by Earl Robinson. Robinson was later blacklisted during the McCarthy era for being a member of the Communist Party. He also wrote campaign songs for the presidential campaigns of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry A. Wallace, and, in 1984, Jesse Jackson. The lyrics were written in 1943 by Abel Meeropol under the pen name Lewis Allan. In 1957 Meeropol adopted two boys, Michael and Robert, who had been orphaned when their parents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953. Meeropol was enraged that the second verse of the song was not used in the film. When the film premiered, he protested against the deletion of the verse referring to `` my neighbors white and black ''. The song was memorably covered in later years by Paul Robeson, Mahalia Jackson, and Josh White. Sam Cooke also covered it. Kim Weston included it on her second post-Motown album This Is America ( 1968 ). Sinatra continued to include it in his repertory for decades. He performed it during a state dinner at the White House during the Nixon administration at the 1985 inaugural ceremonies of Ronald Reagan, and at the ceremony marking the centenary of the Statue of Liberty that same year. Bill Cosby used a recording of the song to open some of his shows in 2002. The song figures prominently in Arch Oboler 's radio play `` The House I Live In, '' which aired on April 26, 1945. References Jump up ^ `` Frank Ross, 85 ; Producer of Films Made ' The Robe ' ''. New York Times. February 23, 1990. Retrieved August 11, 2015. Jump up ^ `` Librarian of Congress Announces 2007 Film Registry '' ( Press release ). Library of Congress. December 27, 2007. Retrieved August 11, 2015. Jump up ^ Atkinson, Brooks ( October 6, 1942 ). `` The Play : Let Freedom Sing ''. New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2015. ^ Jump up to : Cook, Joan ( October 31, 1986 ). `` Albert Meerpol, 83, a Songwriter, Dies ''. New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2015. Jump up ^ Decker, Todd ( 2015 ). Who Should Sing Ol ' Man River ? : The Lives of an American Song. Ocford University Press. p. 39. Retrieved August 11, 2015. Jump up ^ Ripley, Anthony ( April 18, 1973 ). `` Sinatra at White House Gets Standing Ovation ''. New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2015. Jump up ^ Barnouw, Erik ( 2010 ). Radio Drama in Action : Twenty - five Plays of a Changing World. Wildside Press. pp. 388ff. Retrieved August 11, 2015. External links Film : The House I Live In on IMDb The short film The House I Live In is available for free download at the Internet Archive Song : Song Facts Films directed by Mervyn LeRoy No Place to Go ( 1927 ) Hot Stuff ( 1929 ) Playing Around ( 1930 ) Show Girl in Hollywood ( 1930 ) Numbered Men ( 1930 ) Top Speed ( 1930 ) Little Caesar ( 1931 ) Gentleman 's Fate ( 1931 ) Too Young to Marry ( 1931 ) Five Star Final ( 1931 ) Local Boy Makes Good ( 1931 ) Tonight or Never ( 1931 ) Big City Blues ( 1932 ) Two Seconds ( 1932 ) Three on a Match ( 1932 ) I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang ( 1932 ) High Pressure ( 1932 ) Gold Diggers of 1933 ( 1933 ) Tugboat Annie ( 1933 ) The World Changes ( 1933 ) Heat Lightning ( 1934 ) Anthony Adverse ( 1936 ) They Wo n't Forget ( uncredited ) ( 1937 ) Waterloo Bridge ( 1940 ) Escape ( 1940 ) Blossoms in the Dust ( 1941 ) Johnny Eager ( 1942 ) Random Harvest ( 1942 ) Madame Curie ( 1943 ) Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo ( 1944 ) The House I Live In ( 1945 ) Without Reservations ( 1946 ) Homecoming ( 1948 ) Little Women ( 1949 ) Quo Vadis ( 1951 ) Million Dollar Mermaid ( 1952 ) Latin Lovers ( 1953 ) Mister Roberts ( 1955 ) The Bad Seed ( 1956 ) Toward the Unknown ( 1956 ) No Time for Sergeants ( 1958 ) Home Before Dark ( 1958 ) The FBI Story ( 1959 ) Wake Me When It 's Over ( 1960 ) A Majority of One ( 1961 ) The Devil at 4 O'Clock ( 1961 ) Gypsy ( 1962 ) Mary, Mary ( 1963 ) Moment to Moment ( 1966 ) The Green Berets ( 1968 ) Academy Honorary Award 1928 -- 1950 Warner Bros. / Charlie Chaplin ( 1928 ) Walt Disney ( 1932 ) Shirley Temple ( 1934 ) D.W. Griffith ( 1935 ) The March of Time / W. Howard Greene and Harold Rosson ( 1936 ) Edgar Bergen / W. Howard Greene / Museum of Modern Art Film Library / Mack Sennett ( 1937 ) J. Arthur Ball / Walt Disney / Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney / Gordon Jennings, Jan Domela, Devereaux Jennings, Irmin Roberts, Art Smith, Farciot Edouart, Loyal Griggs, Loren L. Ryder, Harry D. Mills, Louis Mesenkop, Walter Oberst / Oliver T. Marsh and Allen Davey / Harry Warner ( 1938 ) Douglas Fairbanks / Judy Garland / William Cameron Menzies / Motion Picture Relief Fund ( Jean Hersholt, Ralph Morgan, Ralph Block, Conrad Nagel ) / Technicolor Company ( 1939 ) Bob Hope / Nathan Levinson ( 1940 ) Walt Disney, William Garity, John N.A. Hawkins, and the RCA Manufacturing Company / Leopold Stokowski and his associates / Rey Scott / British Ministry of Information ( 1941 ) Charles Boyer / Noël Coward / Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer ( 1942 ) George Pal ( 1943 ) Bob Hope / Margaret O'Brien ( 1944 ) Republic Studio, Daniel J. Bloomberg, and the Republic Studio Sound Department / Walter Wanger / The House I Live In / Peggy Ann Garner ( 1945 ) Harold Russell / Laurence Olivier / Ernst Lubitsch / Claude Jarman Jr. ( 1946 ) James Baskett / Thomas Armat, William Nicholas Selig, Albert E. Smith, and George Kirke Spoor / Bill and Coo / Shoeshine ( 1947 ) Walter Wanger / Monsieur Vincent / Sid Grauman / Adolph Zukor ( 1948 ) Jean Hersholt / Fred Astaire / Cecil B. DeMille / The Bicycle Thief ( 1949 ) Louis B. Mayer / George Murphy / The Walls of Malapaga ( 1950 ) 1951 -- 1975 Gene Kelly / Rashomon ( 1951 ) Merian C. Cooper / Bob Hope / Harold Lloyd / George Mitchell / Joseph M. Schenck / Forbidden Games ( 1952 ) 20th Century - Fox Film Corporation / Bell & Howell Company / Joseph Breen / Pete Smith ( 1953 ) Bausch & Lomb Optical Company / Danny Kaye / Kemp Niver / Greta Garbo / Jon Whiteley / Vincent Winter / Gate of Hell ( 1954 ) Samurai I : Musashi Miyamoto ( 1955 ) Eddie Cantor ( 1956 ) Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers / Gilbert M. `` Broncho Billy '' Anderson / Charles Brackett / B.B. Kahane ( 1957 ) Maurice Chevalier ( 1958 ) Buster Keaton / Lee de Forest ( 1959 ) Gary Cooper / Stan Laurel / Hayley Mills ( 1960 ) William L. Hendricks / Fred L. Metzler / Jerome Robbins ( 1961 ) William J. Tuttle ( 1964 ) Bob Hope ( 1965 ) Yakima Canutt / Y. Frank Freeman ( 1966 ) Arthur Freed ( 1967 ) John Chambers / Onna White ( 1968 ) Cary Grant ( 1969 ) Lillian Gish / Orson Welles ( 1970 ) Charlie Chaplin ( 1971 ) Charles S. Boren / Edward G. Robinson ( 1972 ) Henri Langlois / Groucho Marx ( 1973 ) Howard Hawks / Jean Renoir ( 1974 ) Mary Pickford ( 1975 ) 1976 -- 2000 Margaret Booth ( 1977 ) Walter Lantz / Laurence Olivier / King Vidor / Museum of Modern Art Department of Film ( 1978 ) Hal Elias / Alec Guinness ( 1979 ) Henry Fonda ( 1980 ) Barbara Stanwyck ( 1981 ) Mickey Rooney ( 1982 ) Hal Roach ( 1983 ) James Stewart / National Endowment for the Arts ( 1984 ) Paul Newman / Alex North ( 1985 ) Ralph Bellamy ( 1986 ) Eastman Kodak Company / National Film Board of Canada ( 1988 ) Akira Kurosawa ( 1989 ) Sophia Loren / Myrna Loy ( 1990 ) Satyajit Ray ( 1991 ) Federico Fellini ( 1992 ) Deborah Kerr ( 1993 ) Michelangelo Antonioni ( 1994 ) Kirk Douglas / Chuck Jones ( 1995 ) Michael Kidd ( 1996 ) Stanley Donen ( 1997 ) Elia Kazan ( 1998 ) Andrzej Wajda ( 1999 ) Jack Cardiff / Ernest Lehman ( 2000 ) 2001 -- present Sidney Poitier / Robert Redford ( 2001 ) Peter O'Toole ( 2002 ) Blake Edwards ( 2003 ) Sidney Lumet ( 2004 ) Robert Altman ( 2005 ) Ennio Morricone ( 2006 ) Robert F. Boyle ( 2007 ) Lauren Bacall / Roger Corman / Gordon Willis ( 2009 ) Kevin Brownlow / Jean - Luc Godard / Eli Wallach ( 2010 ) James Earl Jones / Dick Smith ( 2011 ) D.A. Pennebaker / Hal Needham / George Stevens Jr. ( 2012 ) Angela Lansbury / Steve Martin / Piero Tosi ( 2013 ) Jean - Claude Carrière / Hayao Miyazaki / Maureen O'Hara ( 2014 ) Spike Lee / Gena Rowlands ( 2015 ) Jackie Chan / Lynn Stalmaster / Anne V. Coates / Frederick Wiseman ( 2016 ) Charles Burnett / Owen Roizman / Donald Sutherland / Agnès Varda ( 2017 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_House_I_Live_In_(1945_film)&oldid=770917341 '' Categories : 1945 films English - language films Films awarded an Academy Honorary Award Films directed by Mervyn LeRoy United States National Film Registry films Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients RKO Pictures short films Hidden categories : Pages using infobox film with unknown parameters Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Nederlands Polski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Edit links This page was last edited on 18 March 2017, at 12 : 03. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who wrote the song the house i live in
Answer: Earl Robinson