Another Victory for Social Justice Warriors!!

[Joe Guy]

Flyers remove statue of late singer Kate Smith


PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia Flyers removed a statue of late singer Kate Smith outside NHL team's arena Sunday, two days after covering it amid allegations of racism against the 1930s star with a popular recording of "God Bless America."

"The NHL principle 'Hockey is for Everyone' is at the heart of everything the Flyers stand for," Flyers President Paul Holmgren said in a statement. "As a result, we cannot stand idle while material from another era gets in the way of who we are today."

On Friday, the Flyers said Smith's "God Bless America" recording had been removed from their library, following baseball's New York Yankees.

The Yankees suspended use of Smith's recording during the seventh-inning stretch amid conflicting claims about several of her songs, including a 1939 song "That's Why the Darkies Were Born." The tune originated in the 1931 Broadway revue "George White's Scandals," and was considered satire at the time. Smith's likeness also appears in a 1939 ad that heavily uses the mammy caricature, one of the most well-known racist depictions of black women.

Smith's connection with the Flyers started in 1969 when a team executive ordered her version of "God Bless America" to be played instead of "The Star Spangled Banner." That led to her performing the song several times before games in the 1970s. A year after her 1986 death, the team erected the statue.

source

Next: Nullify Barack Obama's presidency because he once used the word Nigger on national TV. We must remove all records and/or images of people who may have said something once that had a potential to offend somebody if the potential offendee had become aware of what was said.

[Bicycle Bill]

For the record, Kate Smith only sang the songs.  Someone else wrote them, as was the case for almost all of the popular songs of that day.  "Tin Pan Alley" (28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in New York) was in its heyday, with writers cranking out hundreds if not thousands of songs for various performers in vaudeville and beyond.  So if anyone is to blame for 'racist' songs, it is the writers, not the performers.

"God Bless America" was written by Irving Berlin, a Russian Jew who emigrated to America as a child in the 1890s. In addition to the song Kate Smith made famous, he also is known for writing such classics and standards as "Alexander's Ragtime Band", "Easter Parade", "Puttin' on the Ritz", "Cheek to Cheek", "White Christmas", "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)", and "There's No Business Like Show Business". I'm also sure he wrote a couple of songs which, under today's microscope, would be considered offensive — so let's throw out his entire body of work too, shall we?

Also for the record, "God Bless America", while best associated with Kate Smith (she did, of course, introduce it, and hers is the standard to which all others are compared), has also been recorded by countless other artists ranging from Bing Crosby to Connie Francis to Rosemary Clooney to LeAnn Rimes to Frank Zappa's 'Mothers of Invention' to Celine Dion to the Boston Pops to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (these are just the ones I could find documented evidence of in a five-second Google search) ... which of course makes all these people and groups unabashed racists too, right?

Never mind that the song was even adopted by various factions within the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Secondly, as I have posted here and elsewhere several times in the past, there's nothing like applying today's sensibilities to the historical facts of the past.  It is, unfortunately, one of the more reprehensible aspects of the 'victim culture' that seems to have permeated our society these days.

-"BB"-

[RayThom]

Kate Smith's "Not So Greatest Hits":


Now, up until yesterday Smith's cover of "Pickanniny Paradise" was available on YouTube. Unfortunately it has been deleted from their playlist. Here's one of the earlier versions by Blackface performer, Emmett Miller. Sit back, relax, and get a feel for it as though Kate was singing. Ah, those were the days. Oh, and God Bless America!

[Burning Petard]

"That's Why the Darkies Were Born." was also performed and recorded by Paul Robeson. He too, MUST be removed from the music pantheon.

I will look very carefully at all the words in my collection of Ella Fitzgerald recordings (currently 636 songs) 'Stone Cold Dead in de Market' comes to mind. It demeans Hispanics and glorifies domestic violence. The First Lady of Song must be banned.

Oh yes, it was also recorded by the young Maya Angelou. Social Justice for All.

snailgate

[Big RR]

I hardly think Kate Smith is in the "music pantheon" or a peer of Robeson. Indeed, I don't particularly like her version of God Bless America (not even a real fan of the song), and won't miss it.

As for the Yankees and Flyers dropping it (and the Flyers removing the statue), they are private entities and can do what they want, but there aren't a lot of singers from that time who didn't sing that sort of song, so those who seek to revise musical history will be busy.

FWIW, I wouldn't mind if Crosby's White Christmas suffers the same fate (hell, he did a blackface minstrel piece called Abraham in Holiday Inn, the film that introduced that song).

[Joe Guy]

FWIW, I wouldn't mind if Crosby's White Christmas suffers the same fate (hell, he did a blackface minstrel piece called Abraham in Holiday Inn, the film that introduced that song).

Imagine the outrage if Crosby had sung 'White Christmas' in blackface.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeere's Bing! - Abraham in Holiday Inn

[RayThom]

... Imagine the outrage if Crosby had sung 'White Christmas' in blackface.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeere's Bing! - Abraham in Holiday Inn

Oh, dem faux darkies!

That does it. I'm going to petition that my local Bing Crosby museum close down immediately. No one should have access to this kind of racist travesty.

[BoSoxGal]

As I recall, Bing Crosby lost much of his sparkle way back in the 80s when it was revealed he was an abusive parent. The courage of his sons brought attention to the issue of child abuse in ALL kinds of families, just as the tell-all about Joan Crawford’s abusive mothering did.

[Bicycle Bill]

So our idols — Bing Crosby (abusive parent), Joan Crawford (ditto), Cary Grant (closeted gay), Michael Jackson (pedophile), Roman Polanski (ditto), Frank Sinatra (drug user/alcoholic), Walt Disney (racist/pro-Fascist) ... I could go on and on — are human and have feet of clay.  Who woulda thunk it?

-"BB"-

[Big RR]

Idols? If so, perhaps you should choose more wisely.

I appreciated the work of some of them, didn't understand the appeal of the work of the others, but never looked up to, let alone idolized, any of them.

that being said, personally I think the work should stand for itself, regardless of what idiots the creators are. For example, I think Elia Kazan was a POS in the way he threw others under the bus during the communist witch hunt, but IMHO it doesn't diminish his work or the accolades that the work received.

[Burning Petard]

The Monday 29 April NY Times had another story about this, this time about how Wildwood NJ, a popular shore spot, was not gonna change. A brief quote from a much longer article:

"At the height of summer, when the boardwalk in Wildwood, N.J., is mobbed by beach-loving visitors, pretty much everything comes to a halt at 11 a.m.

That’s when the sunscreen-drenched crowd falls silent, the cacophony of loud voices replaced by a patriotic medley blasted from the boardwalk’s loudspeakers — “The Star-Spangled Banner’’ followed by Kate Smith’s famous version of “God Bless America.’’

The daily ritual, rooted in national pride, is a beloved local tradition. But it has now come under scrutiny after recent revelations that Smith’s recording catalog featured racist songs.

Nevertheless, the town’s mayor, Ernie Troiano Jr., insists that Wildwood had no plans to silence Smith."

Me, I wonder just what Kate Smith did that was so terrible that she should become an un-person, soviet style.

So I have a question for the NY Yankees and the Philly Flyers: Why do you accept and hand out paper dollar bills at your box office and vendor services?
Have you ever looked at the picture of the notorious slave master that is pictured on that bill? G. Washington owned slaves from the time he was 11 years old, right up to and beyond his death bed. How could you NOT switch exclusively to the one-dollar coin, commonly called 'goldies' with its depiction of a native American female?

snailgate

[RayThom]

... Nevertheless, the town’s mayor, Ernie Troiano Jr., insists that Wildwood had no plans to silence Smith."
Me, I wonder just what Kate Smith did that was so terrible that she should become an un-person, soviet style...
snailgate

The meaning of "human context" is slowly, but steadily, eroding in the world. Without it, no one -- past, present, or future - will survive any serious scrutiny. Formal politeness and courtesy for our cultural figures is quickly being discard by nothing more than mindless impulse.

sg. As far as the "Kate" statue is concerned it appears that Mayor Troiano and the American Legion want to give it a resting place near their boardwalk Convention Center.

https://www.nj.com/cape-may-county/2019 ... erans.html

[Big RR]

Formal politeness and courtesy for our cultural figures

You really include Kate Smith as a "cultural figure"? What kind of culture. I don't get it. There are singers, even composers/songwriters I sincerely respect, but it wouldn't bother me in the least if a private entity took down or put up a statue to their honor; free speech works both ways, and the Yankees and Flyers have a right to their own free speech and can rightly be judged on it by others.

Likewise for the VFW, it can do what it wants; but I sincerely hope the town doesn't wade in on this; there is a big difference between government action and private action, and the action of a governmental authority is subject to a different standard.

[Burning Petard]

"You really include Kate Smith as a "cultural figure"? What kind of culture. I don't get it."

The kind of culture that feels insulted and abandoned as 'fly-over country' by elitists and put Trump in the White House out of spite and pain-driven anger..

snailgate.

[Big RR]

I still don't get it, but then, FWIW, I can't think of any entertainers I think of as "cultural figures"; it has nothing to do with red or blue states or elitism. Indeed, I doubt any who are now angered by this action (or indeed, who support it) could name one other song sung by Smith until the reporting came out, let alone many who even knew all the words to God Bless America--I don't see her as a great cultural icon of any state or region.

Sorry if I hit a nerve BP.

[Bicycle Bill]

Big RR does have a point when he wrote

There are singers, even composers/songwriters I sincerely respect, but it wouldn't bother me in the least if a private entity took down or put up a statue to their honor

and I suppose I wouldn't mind if the Flyers took down the statue of Kate Smith and stopped playing her version of "God Bless America" because after fifty years they felt it was time to move on, any more than I would protest if the powers that be decided to remove, say, the statue of Henry Winkler a/k/a "The Fonz" from its location along the riverwalk in Milwaukee (it was placed there because the show "Happy Days" was set in Milwaukee) either because it's an old show that doesn't have the same appeal it once did.
(side note — the Roy Rogers Museum, which moved from its original location in Victorville CA to Branson MO, recently shut its doors and liquidated many of the exhibits — including the taxidermied 'Trigger' and 'Bullet' — for just the same reason ... it just wasn't relevant to enough people to justify keeping it open).

But to come right out and express such a cock-and-bull reason as "Ohmygod!!  Six decades ago, she sang a song that we now consider to have racist overtones, so she must have been a racist herself!!" to justify halting the playing of the song and the removal of the statue just doesn't set well with me ... and with a lot of other people as well.  Because once you start down that slippery slope, who or what is the next target?  Perhaps we should retire "Rock and Roll Part 2" as performed by Gary Glitter, who was convicted and jailed for possession of child pornography and child sexual abuse?  Or maybe "We Are The Champions", written and performed by Freddie Mercury, who was a furriner from India, was — gasp! — GAY, and died of complications of AIDS?

-"BB"-

[Big RR]

Point taken BB, but then if you believe the actions of the Yankees and/or Flyers were taken for unwarranted or even asinine reasons, you can choose not to patronize their games, but their merchandise, or even protest if you feel that strongly; but for many I think this is much ado about nothing.

My guess is that many of the people who are now criticizing her as being (potentially?) a racist never even heard any of her songs before (other than GBA), and many of those reacting and saying we must put up a statue to her and help to honor veterans and the American way are in that same boat. Perhaps there are a few legitimate Kate Smith fans on botth sides of the debate who are legitimately offended, but I think far more of the participants are just concerned become someone chose to stir the pot.

As I said before, I won't mourn the stopping of GBA at games--I don't like the song and can't stand her rendition of it (in the few games I went to when it was played, I went to get a beer when it began).

And wasn't Gary Glitter doing research which is why he had those images? ( ).

[Burning Petard]

Why are these songs played/performed at all before sport events? What does a Canadian hockey team do as an opening ritual? I suspect they play their national anthem, but did they do it back when it was the Canadian game with a few American imitators teams from cities near the border? Before a Red Devils football game at Old Trafford, does ever body stand and sing "God Save the Queen'?

At least, for the Indy 500 they play 'Back Home Again, Indiana'

snailgate

(later edit. If you want to buy a piece of the action, Manchester United is traded on the New York Stock Exchange)

[Big RR]

I have been to baseball games in Toronto and, as I recall, they played both the Canadian and US national anthems--ditto for games in the US where Toronto played. When may daughter had gymnastics meets out side the US (actually only in the Bahamas both anthems were played as well. but how this tradition started is beyond me--do they play God Save the queen at cricket and soccer matches in England?

Personally, I would dispense with playing the national anthems except if this is a contest of national teams (like the Olympics), but that's just me. local anthems, like My Old Kentucky Home this weekend are OK with me as they are played only for special occasions (and not at every Churchill Downs race).

[Burning Petard]

I know this is a violation of the first rule for this site (just argue) but now I am totally agreeing with you RR

snailgate