Yankees, Flyers poobahs erase "God Bless America" singer Kate Smith
But her patriotic legacy endures, despite shameful corporate assault
Kate Smith's historic rendition of the Irving Berlin classic "God Bless America" has long been a fixture of our national culture, including at major sporting events.
But last week, the celebrated "Songbird of the South" became the newest casualty of a PC mob as perpetually voracious as it is nonsensical. The Philadelphia Flyers hockey team and the New York Yankees baseball one both 'disappeared' the legendary singer who'd done so much for America.
Each erased Smith from game broadcast and recording libraries. The Philadelphia team went a step further and tore down a statue of Smith that had stood near their home Wells Fargo Arena.
Prompting the teams' banishment of the illustrious songstress was recent revelation of two racially troublesome 1930s songs she'd recorded.
Gateway Pundit wrote "One of the songs, 'That's why darkies were born,' contains the lyric 'Someone's got to pick the cotton / someone had to plant the corn.' But as the New York Post pointed out: 'The song can also be seen as an ironic and satirical comment on racism. That's why noted African-American singer and civil-rights activist Paul Robeson also recorded the song."
Gateway Pundit added that "The other song, 'Pickaninny Heaven,' which was featured in the 1933 film Hello Everybody, starring Smith, is less questionably racist."
Great big watermelons roll around and get in your way / in the Pickaninny Heaven. Luscious pork chop bushes growin' right outside your doorway / in the Pickaninnies' Heaven.
The New York Post concluded: "Sad to say, such songs were all-too-commonly heard."
"But they were also a product of their time and place," the paper continued. "And if the nation bans everyone who ever sang such songs and pretend they never existed, it would have to wipe out pretty much the entire history of American film and music."
No person is without flaw. Numerous highly paid professional athletes have monstrous criminal records. Assault and battery and sexual abuse are objectively worse than the late Kate Smith's having sung regrettable musical numbers in a decade prior to many current sports fans' births.
Yet, athletes who've worn handcuffs and glowered through steel bars are toasted by the same sports world that just dumped Kate Smith's statue. Her early wrongs should not overshadow her plentiful later positive contributions.
The latter were the original reason for her recognition. And that reason was not changed by unflattering disclosures.
That is the treatment accorded law-breaking players. But, I suppose, star players offer financial returns dead singers don't. Discarding Smith for inarguable, long-passed sins while overlooking contemporary players' more egregious ones makes cash-register sense.
But to fair-minded observers, it stinks.
Yankees and Flyers private-office poobahs who made the decisions to heave to the curb iconic American Kate Smith may reason contemporary fans who are perpetually outraged over SJW causes far outnumber those concerned about a deceased singer from an earlier era.
Too, decision-makers surely are mindful of squawking celebrities, online petition pressures, and finger-to-the-wind advertisers.
In years following those song's releases, Smith worked indefatigably on the war-bond effort. She raised tremendous resources for America's ultimately successful battle against Hitler's globalist fascist menace.
"At the height of her career, during World War II, she repeatedly was named one of the three or four most popular women in America," read her June 18, 1986 New York Times obituary. "No single show-business figure even approached her as a seller of war bonds during World War II. In one 18-hour stint on the CBS radio network, Miss Smith sold $107 million worth of war bonds which were issued by the United States government to finance the war effort. Her total for a series of marathon broadcasts was over $600 million...President Roosevelt once introduced her to King George VI of England, saying 'This is Miss Smith. Miss Smith is America.'"
In 1949, the New York Times obituary recalled, Smith was repeatedly attacked by the American Communist Party's Daily Worker. The paper raged against her patriotism and attention to matters related to her Catholic faith.
(It's unlikely Smith's Catholicism was at all a factor in her recent banning. But it wouldn't give her new attackers pause, either. Catholics are increasingly despised in liberal circles. Ask Amy Coney Barrett, who was last year publicly grilled over her Catholicism by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris,)
The PC dogma that inspires today's historical revisionism maintains that individuals' isolated transgressions demand nothing less than total elimination of those people, regardless of what laudable achievements they'd put elsewhere on the record.
In time, corporate sports teams' drumming-out of Kate Smith will fade from memory. But before it does, recognize that it represents something much larger and more dire.
Calls for tearing down monuments and erasing historical accomplishments bespeak a philosophical rejection of the permanence concept. Only the current moment matters.
Political machinations and congressional actions are pursued based on Right Now, without care for how posterity might be impacted. There is no longer regard for tradition or attention to long-range effects on American institutions and processes.
No respect is paid the memories of yesterday's heroes. ($600 million for the World War II effort!)
"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea, let us swear allegiance to a land that's free," began Smith's spoken introduction to "God Bless America."
Those storm clouds are here, now, cultivated partly by the Yankees and the Flyers. America does not thrive upon meager and disloyal spirit such as theirs, but by the robust and upright passions epitomized by their better, Kate Smith.
And I suspect people will be humming "God Bless America" long after they've forgotten whatever inane jingles sports teams are presently toodling.
But her patriotic legacy endures, despite shameful corporate assault
Kate Smith's historic rendition of the Irving Berlin classic "God Bless America" has long been a fixture of our national culture, including at major sporting events.
But last week, the celebrated "Songbird of the South" became the newest casualty of a PC mob as perpetually voracious as it is nonsensical. The Philadelphia Flyers hockey team and the New York Yankees baseball one both 'disappeared' the legendary singer who'd done so much for America.
Each erased Smith from game broadcast and recording libraries. The Philadelphia team went a step further and tore down a statue of Smith that had stood near their home Wells Fargo Arena.
Prompting the teams' banishment of the illustrious songstress was recent revelation of two racially troublesome 1930s songs she'd recorded.
Gateway Pundit wrote "One of the songs, 'That's why darkies were born,' contains the lyric 'Someone's got to pick the cotton / someone had to plant the corn.' But as the New York Post pointed out: 'The song can also be seen as an ironic and satirical comment on racism. That's why noted African-American singer and civil-rights activist Paul Robeson also recorded the song."
Gateway Pundit added that "The other song, 'Pickaninny Heaven,' which was featured in the 1933 film Hello Everybody, starring Smith, is less questionably racist."
Great big watermelons roll around and get in your way / in the Pickaninny Heaven. Luscious pork chop bushes growin' right outside your doorway / in the Pickaninnies' Heaven.
The New York Post concluded: "Sad to say, such songs were all-too-commonly heard."
"But they were also a product of their time and place," the paper continued. "And if the nation bans everyone who ever sang such songs and pretend they never existed, it would have to wipe out pretty much the entire history of American film and music."
No person is without flaw. Numerous highly paid professional athletes have monstrous criminal records. Assault and battery and sexual abuse are objectively worse than the late Kate Smith's having sung regrettable musical numbers in a decade prior to many current sports fans' births.
Yet, athletes who've worn handcuffs and glowered through steel bars are toasted by the same sports world that just dumped Kate Smith's statue. Her early wrongs should not overshadow her plentiful later positive contributions.
The latter were the original reason for her recognition. And that reason was not changed by unflattering disclosures.
That is the treatment accorded law-breaking players. But, I suppose, star players offer financial returns dead singers don't. Discarding Smith for inarguable, long-passed sins while overlooking contemporary players' more egregious ones makes cash-register sense.
But to fair-minded observers, it stinks.
Yankees and Flyers private-office poobahs who made the decisions to heave to the curb iconic American Kate Smith may reason contemporary fans who are perpetually outraged over SJW causes far outnumber those concerned about a deceased singer from an earlier era.
Too, decision-makers surely are mindful of squawking celebrities, online petition pressures, and finger-to-the-wind advertisers.
In years following those song's releases, Smith worked indefatigably on the war-bond effort. She raised tremendous resources for America's ultimately successful battle against Hitler's globalist fascist menace.
"At the height of her career, during World War II, she repeatedly was named one of the three or four most popular women in America," read her June 18, 1986 New York Times obituary. "No single show-business figure even approached her as a seller of war bonds during World War II. In one 18-hour stint on the CBS radio network, Miss Smith sold $107 million worth of war bonds which were issued by the United States government to finance the war effort. Her total for a series of marathon broadcasts was over $600 million...President Roosevelt once introduced her to King George VI of England, saying 'This is Miss Smith. Miss Smith is America.'"
In 1949, the New York Times obituary recalled, Smith was repeatedly attacked by the American Communist Party's Daily Worker. The paper raged against her patriotism and attention to matters related to her Catholic faith.
(It's unlikely Smith's Catholicism was at all a factor in her recent banning. But it wouldn't give her new attackers pause, either. Catholics are increasingly despised in liberal circles. Ask Amy Coney Barrett, who was last year publicly grilled over her Catholicism by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris,)
The PC dogma that inspires today's historical revisionism maintains that individuals' isolated transgressions demand nothing less than total elimination of those people, regardless of what laudable achievements they'd put elsewhere on the record.
In time, corporate sports teams' drumming-out of Kate Smith will fade from memory. But before it does, recognize that it represents something much larger and more dire.
Calls for tearing down monuments and erasing historical accomplishments bespeak a philosophical rejection of the permanence concept. Only the current moment matters.
Political machinations and congressional actions are pursued based on Right Now, without care for how posterity might be impacted. There is no longer regard for tradition or attention to long-range effects on American institutions and processes.
No respect is paid the memories of yesterday's heroes. ($600 million for the World War II effort!)
"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea, let us swear allegiance to a land that's free," began Smith's spoken introduction to "God Bless America."
Those storm clouds are here, now, cultivated partly by the Yankees and the Flyers. America does not thrive upon meager and disloyal spirit such as theirs, but by the robust and upright passions epitomized by their better, Kate Smith.
And I suspect people will be humming "God Bless America" long after they've forgotten whatever inane jingles sports teams are presently toodling.
posted by DC Larson at
April 22, 2019
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