OT: Remember Kate Smith?

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Do you remember Kate Smith?

If you watched sports in the 1970s you know she sang God Bless America
at Philadelphia Flyers Stanley Cup championship games and was considered
the Flyers' good luck charm.

Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and
said that when he and a million other guys first heard her sing "God
Bless America" on the radio, they all pretended to have dust in their
eyes as they wiped away a tear or two.

Here are the facts...

The link at the bottom will take you to a video showing the very first
public singing of "GOD BLESS AMERICA". But before you watch it, you
should also know 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 voice coming 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, and
faith in her fellow Americans. She wanted to do something to cheer them
up, so she went to the famous American song-writer, 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 - way back 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 still singing, 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 an issue of
Variety; it's Ronald Reagan. There is another actor at the very end, but
I don't remember his name - he was in government later.

To this day, God Bless America stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in
our country. Back in 1940, when Kate Smith went looking for a song to
raise the spirits of her fellow Americans, I doubt whether she realized
just how successful the results would be for her fellow Americans during
those years of hardship and worry..... and for many generations of
Americans to follow. Now that you know the story of the song, I hope
you'll enjoy it and treasure it even more.

Many people don't know there's a lead in to the song since it usually
starts with "God Bless America....." So here's the entire song as
originally sung.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/TnQDW-NMaRs

LH

"Lew Hodgett"