god bless america

On this day in 1939, singer Kate Smith recorded the venerable Irving Berlin tribute to America...."God Bless America.."  She had first introduced the song on her Armistice Day show on radio in 1938. Kate Smith would forever be associated with this patriotic song and she sang it literally thousands of times over her 60-year career...

Irving Berlin sure knew how to turn a phrase. Born in Russia in 1888, his family moved to New York City when Irving was five.  He started writing and selling his little ditties when he was a teenager, honing his craft while listening to the immigrant sounds of the teeming Lower East Side of New York...

Kate Smith was one of the most important personalities in American 20th-Century entertainment.  Amazingly she was the first superstar of BOTH radio and television! Older generations remember her with fondness from her #1 long-running radio shows and for her introduction of Irving Berlin's classic "God Bless America...