God Bless America - Kate Smith (see video below text)

The History:
TALK ABOUT A "BLAST FROM THE PAST"   !!!   REMEMBER HER T.V. SHOWS AND SHE ENDED EACH ONE WITH THIS SONG.  MAKES ME WISH OUR COUNTRY COULD STILL HAVE THIS KIND OF FEELINGS FOR IT'S SELF NOW.   WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BE TOLD TO "REMOVE YOUR HATS" " PLEASE STAND" ECT.  THE GOOD OLD DAYS WERE JUST THAT..............GOOD

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.
 
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..... Let us pray he still does, and it's still not too late.

Insert video here: (https://www.youtube.com/embed/TnQDW-NMaRs?rel=0)