Kate smith god bless america philadelphia flyers

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Then some luck.

“Kate Smith had an elderly uncle living in West Philly and he sent her clips from the Inquirer and Daily News about her being a good-luck charm for the Flyers,” Scheinfeld said.

Smith told her agent she wanted to sing here. But I am a human being — and I do know something about people. I would be happy if you put it to a jury — your fan base.

Yet the sports writers dared not mention my name, nor even play my song. I admit it now, although I didn’t see it then. “In the sports world, that trumps every other meaning.”

Rod Brind’Amour, who came to symbolize what it meant to be a Flyer in the 1990s, found it to be a moving experience for anyone present.

“It’s about the fans and how much they get into it,” Brind’Amour said.

His son Craig believes that if he were alive when these accusations were made, I would at least have been presumed innocent until proven guilty of the serious charge of racism. Using my song that way gave this country girl a thrill because everyone knows how patriotic I was, how I loved our great country.

Almost immediately, the Flyers overreacted, if you don’t mind me saying so, and my team canceled my version of “God Bless America.” More shamefully, after a “review,” they said, the statue of me that was placed outside the Spectrum in 1989 was wrapped in ugly black tarp, and then carted away, as if I were some traitorous Confederate general.

It was humiliating.

Me, who had been given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1982 by President Ronald Reagan, for my charitable, wartime fund-raising, and performing activities. At a conference table in Geneva? It is called presentism.

"People don’t think about the historical context, and they don’t think about nuance at all. “The song naturally evokes a sense of pride for your country.

“When you combine it on top of the passion Flyer fans have, it takes the song to a whole new level for everyone in the building.”

In the years that followed, the club would add Lauren Hart via videotape as a duet.

“That set the arena on fire,” Brind’Amour said.

But for modern listeners, it is difficult to hear a white woman sing lyrics like, “Someone had to pick the cotton/Someone had to plant the corn/Someone had to slave and be able to sing/That's why darkies were born.”

Critics have also pointed to “Pickaninny Heaven,” which Smith performed for the 1933 film Hello, Everybody!, according to CNN’s Harmeet Kaur.

It didn't work and the Flyers defeated the Bruins 1-0 that day and won their first of two Stanley Cups.

The record for "God Bless America" at the Spectrum? Not by a long shot.

Yes, it seems to me that the one thing the peoples of the world have got to learn if we are ever to have a lasting peace, is — tolerance. Promotion director Jay Seidman had tried for over a year to get Smith to appear, but her agent balked. The reason? “People were angry and kind of unpatriotic at the time.”

Perhaps a different song could evoke a new response, Scheinfeld wondered.

That was eight years after the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the racist color line by hiring Jackie Robinson. She loved everybody.”

But Paul Holmgren, the Flyers’ president, defended the team’s decision. Superstition?