And listen to the original radio presentation of God Bless America. We can use this sentiment today…
Here’s the ‘rest of the story’…behind the first public showing of the song.
The time was 1940. America was still in a terrible economic depression. Hitler was taking over Europe and Americans were afraid we’d have to go to war. It was a time of hardship and worry for most Americans.
This was the era just before TV when radio shows were HUGE and American families sat around their radios in the evenings, listening to their favorite entertainers and no entertainer of that era was bigger than Kate Smith.
Kate was also large; plus size as we now say and the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her; “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age of TV but with her voicecoming over the radio, she was the biggest star of her time.
Kate was also patriotic. It hurt her to see Americans so depressed and afraid of what the next day would bring. She had hope for America, andfaith in her fellow Americans. She wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American songwriter Irving Berlin (who also wrote White Christmas) and asked him to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their country. When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the song for her. He went to his files and found a song that he had written but never published, 22 years before – in 1917.
He gave it to her and she worked on it with her studio orchestra. She and Irving Berlin were not sure how the song would be received by the public, but both agreed they would not take any profits from God Bless America. Any profits would go to the Boy Scouts of America . Over the years, the Boy Scouts have received millions of dollars in royalties from this song.
This video starts out with Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience. She introduces the new song for the very first time and starts singing. After the first couple verses, with her voice in the background, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, You’re In The Army Now. At the 4:20 mark of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper; you might recognize him…
Have a good week!
Edit- Wirecutter is having hosting problems yet again on his blog Knuckledraggin…
As you know I’ve had some ongoing issues with my blog and I had called my hosting service to get them fixed. Obviously that didn’t happen, the entire site crashed. I’ve been on the phone for hours with tech support trying to get it figured out and I’ll probably do the same today. GoDaddy screwed it up royally when they migrated it back to linux which I had requested they do because of ongoing problems.What I’m going to do starting tomorrow sometime is start posting on my original blog as a fill-in until they get it squared away once and for all.The formatting and design of the fill-in blog will be a little different at first until I get some time to revise it but the content will be what you’re used to. Right now it’s mostly photos, but once I start posting on it tomorrow, you’ll find the same stuff you find on Knuckledraggin.While the blogs have the same name, the URL is different so please bookmark it.
” Always remember to pillage before you burn”
Kate singing that song is one of the few songs that every single time I hear it, I tear all up.
Thank you sir!!
I’ve always preferred the term “a handsome woman.” And yes, she had the chops. Back in the days before microphones, you didn’t have too many little sylphs doing opera or Broadway.
I used to wake up to her singing that song. Some crazy radio station used to play it at 0600.. Hard to stay in bed when that came on.
My wife cried when Ronaldus Magnus left office. I felt bad too. After all the politicians, it was kinda nice to have an American as president. And it feels good to have one now, too.
Thank you for your blogging, and the maxim that “who computers would destroy – they will first drive mad” is still in effect.
God Bless America, and God bless you, Jim.
Hey Old NFO
Never heard the backstory and the song always chokes me up a bit. Thanks for the story and when they made Ronald Reagan, they broke the mold.
As a Philadelphia Flyers fan, Kate Smith was a huge favorite. From Wikipedia:
When the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team played Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America” before their game on December 11, 1969, an unusual part of her career began. The Flyers’ public address announcer had noticed that people would not pay attention or show disdain for the “Star-Spangled Banner” playing before games, due to the tensions of the Vietnam War, and decided to use Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America” instead and the crowd responded more favorably to this. After the Flyers won the game, it was decided by the team that the song would be used as an alternative to the “Star-Spangled Banner”, but only for certain, important games.
At the Flyers’ home opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs on October 11, 1973, she made a surprise appearance to perform the song in person and received a tremendous reception. The Flyers won that game by a 2–0 score. She again performed the song at the Spectrum in front of a capacity crowd of 17,007 fans before game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals on May 19, 1974, against the Boston Bruins. Before this game, Smith had a “Flyer Record” of 36–3–1 (win-loss-tie). After her performance, in keeping with the Flyers’ reputation of “The Broad Street Bullies”, Smith mimicked a knockout punch. Boston’s defenseman Bobby Orr and center Phil Esposito, infamously tried to jinx the Flyers’ “good luck charm” by shaking her hand after her performance. The Flyers won their first of two back-to-back Stanley Cups, winning that playoff series against the Boston Bruins four games to two, with Bernie Parent shutting the Bruins out 1–0 in the game.”
The PC police removed her statue, yes the fans had a statue made of Kate Smith, in 2019. A pox on their souls!
All- Thanks for the comments! Gerry- DIdn’t know that and an interesting ‘addition’ to the history!
Posted from my iPhone.
I still don’t understand how someone so proud of being an American could be run over by the SJWs running the PC mobile over everything. It’s like they are trying to wipe out any instance of culture connected to genetically low-melamine persons or something.
Stupid Philadelphia. Stupid SJWs. Let us hope and pray that once we come out of this Corona-Wuhan foisted on us by the CCP and DNC (interesting that Corona-Wuhan didn’t get real airplay until the complete failure of the pseudo-impeachment process, no?) we go back to being just Americans and maybe fix some of the stupid SJW-inspired dumb-arsery.
And hopefully Virginia will rise against the current governor and get all the stupid he signed into law when no-body is allowed to stand outside his office and scare him. Gaahhhh.
As to the wonderful singer? We now live in fallen times. Dangit.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for that!
God Bless America
Independence Day, 1988. U.S. Capitol concert. Guest: Tony Bennett. I had taken a British friend. Mr. Bennett said “I’d like to dedicate this next song to its composer and my friend, Irving Berlin.” Yes, Berlin was still alive at age 100. “Please stand and join me in singing God Bless America.” Soooo, ~50,000 of us stood on the Capitol steps with the Mall stretching down to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial beyond and SANG! When it was over the Brit turned to me and with tears running down his face asked “How do I become an American.” “Brother, you already are. The rest is just paperwork.”
All- Thanks for the comments. I DO appreciate them!
Posted from my iPhone.
Well that was helpful and uplifting! Thank you.