[78-L] Kate Smith - The USPS replied

[Steve Ramm]

I actually wrote to Roy about the section that Berlin composed it for Smith in 1938. He replied within hours and I replied back to him as below.

 

Steve

 

 


In a message dated 1/8/2010 3:21:12 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, roy.a.betts at usps.gov writes:

Steve, this is the information we have in our database:
 
In 1938, Ted Collins of the Columbia Phonograph Company, asked composer Irving Berlin to write a patriotic song for Smith to sing on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the end of World War I. Berlin reworked a piece he had written during World War I but had never used, and the result was “God Bless America.” Smith sang it for the first time on The Kate Smith Hour on November 10, 1938, the eve of Armistice Day. “This is the greatest song Irving Berlin has ever composed,” she pronounced at the time. “It will never die—others will thrill to its beauty long after we are gone.” 


Thanks for the fast reply Roy!  Well if you read the info in your database above - which is correct, he composed the song in in 1918. He did not "Compose it for Kate Smith". He "reworked" it for Ms. Smith.
 
You might want to change this in future press releases. But I'm glad she is getting a stamp. With her body size it should be a "large one"!  <vbg>
 
 
 
 
 
Steve Ramm
 		 	   		  
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