'' program cover, with the famous "Wooden Soldiers" marching (left) Recordings of
The Parade of the Tin Soldiers were made in late 1910 and in 1911 and distributed internationally, and Jessel republished the sheet music internationally as well in 1911. In 1912,
John Philip Sousa and his band played it at the
Hippodrome Theatre in New York City. In 1911, Russian impresario
Nikita Balieff chose Jessel's whimsically rakish
Parade of the Tin Soldiers for a choreography routine in his
The Bat vaudeville
revue, changing the title to "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers". Balieff's wooden-soldier choreography referenced a legend regarding
Tsar Paul I: that he left his parade grounds without issuing a "halt" order to the marching soldiers, so they marched to
Siberia before being remembered and ordered back. In December 1920 Nikita Balieff's
La Chauve-Souris (
The Bat) revue reached Paris, to great acclaim, and in 1922 it was brought to
Broadway. Balieff's entertainingly choreographed wooden-soldiers showpiece, with Jessel's popular tune, was a sensation, and a by-demand mainstay of his extremely long-running U.S. production. Balieff's
Chauve-Souris routine greatly popularized Jessel's music, and in 1922 multiple editions of the sheet music were published in the U.S. — in
fox-trot, march, and concert arrangements, and for numerous instrumentations: voice and piano, with lyrics by
Ballard MacDonald; male quartet; small orchestra; full orchestra; violin, piano, and cello; military band; mandolin solo; mandolin and guitar; mandolin and piano; and mandolin, guitar, and piano. In 1923,
Lee DeForest filmed
The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, performed by Balieff's company, in the DeForest
Phonofilm sound-on-film process. The film premiered on April 15, 1923 at the Rivoli Theater in New York City, and is now in the Maurice Zouary collection at the
Library of Congress. In 1922, the instrumental version of
The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers was a
hit single performed by
Carl Fenton's Orchestra, and the song was a hit for the
Vincent Lopez Orchestra that same year.
Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded and acoustic version in 1923 and had a hit with an electrical version in 1928. A
Betty Boop cartoon,
Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, was created with the music in 1933. Also in 1933,
The Rockettes began annually performing their own choreographed version of the piece, based on Balieff's original, in their
Radio City Christmas Spectacular. The song featured in the 1938
Shirley Temple vehicle
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, ==Song==