TODAY'S NEWS - QUICKIES THAT CHANGE OFTEN

"I WILL NOT FOLLOW WHERE THE PATH MAY LEAD, BUT I WILL GO WHERE THERE IS NO PATH, AND I WILL LEAVE A TRAIL." Muriel Strode -KHS65 class motto.
"The good old days....when we weren't good and we weren't old" Barbara Schwarz Moss 2010
SEE WWW.KHS65.COM FOR 169 PIX FROM OUR 45TH REUNION - CLICK THE SMALL PHOTO FOR LARGER VERSION. See lots of NEW grade school pix!
CHECK THE LABELS, GO TO KIRKWOOD HISTORY ARTICLES & CLICK THE POST ABOUT FRANCIS SCHEIDEGGER'S PIX FOR A GLIMPSE OF A PLACE I BET EVERYONE REMEMBERS - and much more!


We seem to all be suffering a common problem these days, WHERE DID OUR LIVES GO? Our brains seem to still be 18, but our bodies are talking a different language. Sarah Orne Jewett puts it much more eloquently than do I:

“Neither of my companions was troubled by her burden of years. I hoped in my heart that I might be like them as I lived on into age, and then smiled to think that I too was no longer very young. So we always keep the same hearts, though our outer framework fails and shows the touch of time.”

FOR LATEST NEWS BE SURE TO CHECK OUT KHS65 AT FACEBOOK TOO!


Interactive news, reviews, gossip, musings, activities, photos, mysteries, histories, stories, truths, lies & video tapes from & for graduates of the Kirkwood (MO) High School fabulous class of 1965. Email us anything you would like to share to leslieatkhs65dotcom. See photos at www.khs65.com - comment here or on the website to make yourself heard! FIND US ~ www.khs65.com ~ www.khs65.org ~ FACEBOOK KHS65 ~ http://khs65blog.com ~ KHS65 MAKE IT A HABIT!

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

"GOD BLESS AMERICA" - THE FIRST TIME

 In looking for something tonight on my computer I ran across some saved emails to me in past years from our dear departed classmate & cross country star and KHS Alumni Sports Hall of Fame member Jim Olson.  This one was particularly nice tonight as the news is so full of badness, this gave me a lift.  It was sent to me and Jim aka Speed Herb on 12/14/2016 - forwarded to Jim from someone else, not his text:

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 a paper; it's Ronald Reagan.  
 
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.  
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.....  ENJOY!  

 
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ TnQDW-NMaRs?rel=0

 



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