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November 10, 1938…First Ever Performance, “God Bless America”

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Eyes Of A Generation.com


November 10, 1938…First Ever Performance, “God Bless America”

Tomorrow is Veterans Day in America, a tribute day that was originally called Armistice Day. It is still observed in many countries by it’s original name, and as Remembrance Day, which marked the end of World War I on November 11, 1918.

From one veteran to all the others past, present and future…Thank You for your service!

Irving Berlin had originally written the song in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a USO type revue called ‘Yip Yip Yaphank’, so he set it aside.

In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish, and a first-generation European immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a “peace song”, and it was introduced on the Armistice Eve broadcast of ‘The Kate Smith Hour’ November 10, 1938. Kate Smith was the fist to sing it and this is a recording of that first ever public performance as broadcast on her CBS Radio show.

Turn it up and listen. If you are like me, you may have to wipe a tear from your eye afterward. Enjoy and Share! -Bobby Ellerbee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1rKQReqJZg

“This is the original FIRST broadcast radio performance of God Bless America by Irving Berlin as introduced by Kate Smith on November 10, 1938. She later rec…

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5 responses to “November 10, 1938…First Ever Performance, “God Bless America””

  1. Bill Shrode

    Now this is just a personal observation. I’ve seen the movie “This is the Army” countless times. I’ve seen the “short” that describes it as one of the stateside propaganda films made during the war. 2 things strike me having read the information above. In the movie the removing of the song from the show (which starred among others Irving Berlin) it is for President Ronald Reagan who is shown as the person that removed the song from the YipYip Yaphank program and also when the performance of G B A is “introduced for the first time ” on radio, I could swear that the 2 microphones that Kate smith is singing into are “shaded” (1 each) in red and blue which I took to indicate the red and blue networks (seperate feeds) of the NBC network. Just my own casual observations. ‘Not trying to confuse the facts.

  2. Linda Doane Yamamoto

    My Dad loved to hear Kate Smith sing God Bless America.

  3. Tom Williamson

    I remember seeing Kate Smith on TV in the 1950’s

  4. Dexter Lovrien

    IIRC, she gave the rights to the song to the Boy Scouts of America.

  5. David Powell

    Kate Smith lived many years in my neighborhood in Raleigh, NC but I never met her.

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