Before
you watch the video, you should also know the story of the song.
The time was 1938.
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 (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 1918, when he was in the Army. He gave it to Kate Smith, it was
rewritten and she worked on it with her studioorchestra. 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 and the Girl Scouts of America. Over the years, the Scouts have
received more than $10 million 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 on Armistice day (November
11, 1938), and starts singing. After the first couple verses, with her voice in
the background still singing, scenes areshown from the 1943 movie, "This is the
Army." At the 4:20 mark of the video you see a young actor, the star of the
movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper; 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 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, I hope you will enjoy it and treasure it even
more.
NOW HERE IS HOW "GOD
BLESS AMERICA" SHOULD BE SUNG!
Watch to the end...it gets
better and better.
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