God bless America!
Thanks John Bob!
Sam
On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 6:13 PM,
>
>> From: "Pat Sullivan"
>> To:
>> Subject: FW: The origins of the song, God Bless America
>> Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:31:04 -0500
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>> Subject: Fwd: The origins of the song, God Bless America
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>> Thought you might find this piece of history interesting! .
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>> The link below will take you to a video showing the very first public
>> singing of "GOD BLESS AMERICA," back in 1940.
>> But before you watch, you should also know the story 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 in size, and the popular phrase still used today is in
>> deference to her, "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 very 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 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 Kate
>> Smith 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 a newspaper; it's Ronald Reagan.
>> Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said
>> 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.
>> To this day, God Bless America still 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 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, enjoy it and treasure it even more.
>> NOW, HERE IS "GOD BLESS AMERICA" again for us.
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?feature=player_embedded
>>
>> .
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