Tim Anaya – Kate Smith Sings God Bless America
Legendary singer, the late Kate Smith, ran afoul of today’s PC mob earlier this year. Critics went back in time to parse her body of work, and declared some of her performances from 80 years ago to be offensive. That’s all it took in this day and age for her to be shunned and the playing of her recordings banned at games of her beloved Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Yankees. But it does not condone her behavior or actions to say that her rendition of God Bless America is iconic and an uplifting expression of American patriotism. In celebration of our freedom, here is the banned version of Kate Smith’s classic rendition of God Bless America, performed at a Flyers game in 1974.
Kerry Jackson – Big Ned
As we celebrate our independence, and remember the sacrifices it took to gain it, let’s not forget the price that others have paid to escape tyranny in their search for the liberty they had been denied. This two-minute trailer doesn’t have much detail on the defection from Czechoslovakia of Vaclav Nedomansky, first to Canada before on to the U.S. But it should remind us how precious freedom is in this world. Unless we are eternally vigilant, as Thomas Jefferson, who died on the Fourth, said, we will lose it.
Rowena Itchon – Yankee Doodle Dandy
Here’s something you won’t see every day – famed violinist Joshua Bell does variations of an American classic – Yankee Doodle!
Ben Smithwick – The Star-Spangled Banner
Staying on the classical theme, Gianandrea Noseda conducts the National Symphony Orchestra as they preform Igor Stravinsky’s arrangement of the Star-Spangled Banner.
