Lena Horne: An American Legend

In the years around the turn of the century I was a member of the planning and design team for the newly established Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Alabama. Fundraising was a big part of our mission and we asked a large core group of airmen who they would like to see as a national spokesman for the effort. To a man, the response was, "Lena Horne!" who made a number of visits to their two Tuskegee airfields during World War II. They adored her. She was beautiful, had a sultry voice, the perfect figure for a World War II pinup, and a highly successful musical career on stage and screen. She was also strong-willed and, at times, defiant, both characteristics that served her well in the American civil rights movement following the war. No wonder she appealed to them.

Horne publicity photo from 1964, NBC Bell Telephone Hour

Who was this international star and favorite pinup? Lena Horne was born on this day in Brooklyn in 1917. Those familiar with the singer will always remember her remarkable talent as a legendary performer with a sparkling personality and a beautiful smile, In her almost seventy years in entertainment she worked the big band and cabaret circuits, movies, Broadway, and television. She became politically active in the fight for civil rights following World War II, a decision that placed her on the federal entertainment blacklist for over a decade. Readers can learn more details about Horne's life and career in a New York Times obituary published following her death in May 2010.

Horne at Tuskegee Institute banquet, Tuskegee, Alabama, during World War II

Due to her age and disabilities, Horne was unable to take on the role the Tuskegee Airmen so enthusiastically desired but fundraising commenced in a different direction and eventually contributed to construction and interpretation at the park. Her image and the stories of her visits are embedded in those exhibits.

I remember Horne well from her frequent television performances and recordings beginning in the 1950's. She's always been a personal favorite among pop and jazz singers and the stories of her association with the Tuskegee Airmen tells me she was one very special lady.

Here she is performing her signature song, Stormy Weather, from the 1943 film of the same name.

And here is a fine synopsis of the life and times of Horne prepared for a segment of the PBS News Hour in 2010.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photograph, NBC Television, Wikipedia.org
banquet photo, Noel Parrish Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington

Happy Birthday, Mel Brooks: He's 99 Years Young Today

When he was 14, Mel Brooks, began his career in show business as a comedian at several Catskill Mountain resorts north of New York City. After service in Germany in World War II - he dismantled booby traps and defused land mines among other duties - he returned home determined to establish a career in entertainment where he soon found himself enjoying writing more than performing. He honed that skill for several years on Sid Caesar's Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour. Around 1960 he teamed up with Carl Reiner, also a Caesar comedy writer, to develop a sketch that would make both of them famous.

Entitled "The 2000 Year-Old Man," the concept featured a comic Brooks as the old man being interviewed by Reiner as the straight man. Over fifty years the duo produced several recordings of the often ad lib sketches produced in studio as well as live on countless television programs. After this success and a move to Hollywood filmmaking wasn't far behind.

Today we wish the 2000 year-old man a very happy birthday. The performer, writer, director, producer, songwriter, and perpetually wacko comic personality is 99 years old. In his seventy year career he's brought us some of the finest comedy to grace the American stage, big screens in theaters, and the television screens in millions of our homes. And there's no end in sight either with his work in animated features and now rare television appearances. It's only a guess where his talents could emerge in the future.

Brooks in a still from Blazing Saddles, 1974

His film career began with The Producers in 1968. The rest is history, a laugh track of films including:

Blazing Saddles (1974) "Mongo only pawn...in game of life."

Young Frankenstein (1974) "Abby...Normal."

Silent Movie (1976) "Non!"

High Anxiety (1977) "Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup!"

History of the World Part I (1981) "It's good to be the king."

Spaceballs (1987) "May the schwartz be with you."

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) "Actually Scarlet is my middle name. My whole name is Will Scarlet O'Hara. We're from Georgia."

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) "I have been to many stakings - you have to know where to stand! You know, everything in life is location, location, location...."

The Producers (musical) 2001 "Will the dancing Hitlers please wait in the wings? We are only seeing singing Hitlers.

The Producers (film remake) 2005 "My blue blanket! Give me back my blue blanket!"

Young Frankenstein (musical) 2007 "He vas my boyfriend!"


The American Film Institute's 100 Greatest Comedies list has The Producers (1968), Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein ranked at #11, #6, and #13. Here is the unforgettable three minutes and twenty seconds from the film he calls his personal favorite, the 1968 production of The Producers:

I think one reason why the 2000 year-old man is still laughing with us at 99 rests with the fact that the Mel Brooks on stage and film is most often the same man one finds in private life. How does he do it? I recall the many stories my National Park Service colleagues told of Brooks and his wife, Anne Bancroft. In the '70's and '80's they were frequent guests at Caneel Bay Resort inside Virgin Islands National Park on the island of St. John. Known for playing practical jokes on the younger park rangers and resort staff during the day, Brooks and Bancroft hosted them at after-hours gatherings where hilarity ruled. Given the public comedy we know, one can only imagine the memories to come out of the spontaneity of such an evening. The world would be a far happier place if all of us could have more evenings like that.

Today, instead of laughing at the comedy and satire Brooks gave us over the years the political correctness of the day would rather smother it and insure we never produce it again. So unfortunate. Regardless, with the passing of Carl Reiner at 98 in 2020, we're looking at Brooks as the last man standing from a remarkable era of comedy entertainment in the US. Here's wishing one of the funniest men on the planet a very happy birthday. It's my hope that we can laugh at his wacko genius for years to come. 


For more information as well as a most entertaining read this summer I recommend Brooks's memoir published in 2021. Without a doubt it will leave you smiling.

But wait, there's more. Brooks has two new projects under developement. First, there is Very Young Frankenstein, a television series influenced  by his earlier film, Young Frankenstein, in 1974. A pilot is expected soon. The second project is Spaceballs 2, a sequel to his 1987 film, Spaceballs. The film is expected to be released in 2027.

1. 
   

George Orwell: To Have A Mind For The Future

For a prescient and enigmatic 20th century personality it is hard to surpass that of the British social critic and writer, George Orwell. In 1949 he published his most significant work, the novel 1984. Can't speak about today but 60 years ago at the height of the Cold War with the Soviet Union virtually every high school graduate knew of the book and many of them read it or parts of it as required reading.

Orwell experienced the rise of collectivist thinking in Great Britain and other parts of the world including the United States. He was also well aware of the totalitarian collectivism in the Soviet Union. The totalitarianism he rejected outright but not all the elements of collectivist thought At the same time he raised issues with republican and democratic forms of government and the capitalism that sustained them. In other words Orwell was a critic at large whose observation and analysis would have broad appeal and give rise to thought-provoking quotes, including this one from 1949:

The new aristocracy was made up for the most part of bureaucrats, scientists, technicians, trade-union organizers, publicity experts, sociologists, teachers, journalists, and professional politicians.

Our volatile nation-wide experience over the last five years - our dance with the Covid-19 coronavirus, laptop coverups, the Russian disinformation hoax, and Soviet-style political trials - has brought us face to face with many members of this new aristocracy. The American democratic republic embraced many of these players in the 20th century first with Progressivism, then with Roosevelt's New Deal, but it was Lyndon Johnson who would embedded significant elements of the "new aristocracy" in his Great Society program. It was after all a national government initiative designed to end in a progressive utopia for the American people. I leave an evaluation of the program's success over the last two generations to my readers. Instead I choose to focus on Orwell who as time passes seems to be more and more a visitor from the future who spoke not in terms of political parties but in an exploration of the human condition, universal rights, classical liberalism, and the power of the individual.

George Orwell - Eric Arthur Blair - was born on this day in India in 1903 and educated at Eton College and through self-study and his experiences in Asia and Europe. Wikipedia defines him aptly as "an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. His work is marked by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and commitment to democratic socialism."

George Orwell Press Photo, 1933

Most of us know him only as the author of 1984 but there is much more to read and appreciate from this man who is consistently described as one of the most influential writers of the last century. If you only know him as a novelist, I suggest you read some of his early essays, especially Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), and Homage to Catalonia (1938). These works explore social justice themes in some of the finest, most vivid, objective, and descriptive writing to be found in modern English. More aspects of Orwell's insight appear in his literary criticisms which are available in several compilations.

For a man who passed away at 46, George Orwell left us an enormous and rich body of work that I am sure will influence social and political thought for a very long time.





Sources:

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain, old accreditation for National Branch of Union Journalists, www.netcharles.com

Text:
George Orwell, wikipedia.org

Two Pilots, One Single Engine Airplane, And A Flight Around The World

Wiley Post and Harold Gatty left New York on this day in 1931 on the first single-engine flight around the world.

The two successful ocean fliers during their stopover at the Central Airport in Berlin - Tempelhof about to start their flight to Moscow .

It's hard to believe this event occurred just fifteen years before my birth. We've come a long way in aviation and when you think about all the aircraft in flight around the world at this very minute the Post-Gatty flight seems insignificant. As readers of this blog know, I'm somewhat fond of aviation so I'm perfectly happy to give these pioneers the credit they deserve in a time when history seems little more than an afterthought. God willing, in fifteen years I may see history made by astronauts on the surface of Mars.

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine

Music, Eric whitacre
Lyrics, Charles Anthony Silvestri

I.
Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine…
Tormented by visions of flight and falling,
More wondrous and terrible each than the last,
Master Leonardo imagines an engine
To carry a man up into the sun…

And as he’s dreaming the heavens call him,
softly whispering their siren-song:
“Leonardo. Leonardo, vieni á volare”. (“Leonardo. Leonardo, come fly”.)

L’uomo colle sua congiegniate e grandi ale,
facciendo forza contro alla resistente aria.
(A man with wings large enough and duly connected
might learn to overcome the resistance of the air.)

II.
Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine…

As the candles burn low he paces and writes,
Releasing purchased pigeons one by one
Into the golden Tuscan sunrise…

And as he dreams, again the calling,
The very air itself gives voice:
“Leonardo. Leonardo, vieni á volare”. (“Leonardo. Leonardo, come fly”.)

Vicina all’elemento del fuoco…
(Close to the sphere of elemental fire…)

Scratching quill on crumpled paper,

Rete, canna, filo, carta.
(Net, cane, thread, paper.)

Images of wing and frame and fabric fastened tightly.

…sulla suprema sottile aria.
(…in the highest and rarest atmosphere.)

III.
Master Leonardo Da Vinci Dreams of his Flying Machine…
As the midnight watchtower tolls,
Over rooftop, street and dome,
The triumph of a human being ascending
In the dreaming of a mortal man.

Leonardo steels himself,
takes one last breath,
and leaps…

“Leonardo, Vieni á Volare! Leonardo, Sognare!” (“Leonardo, come fly! Leonardo, Dream!”)

Sources:

kalw.org, almanac

Photo:

Deutsches Bundesarchiv, photo 102-11928

Lyrics:

 ericwhitacre.com

The First Full Day Of Summer

About ninety minutes before midnight last night the s astronomical event we know as the summer solstice introduced the season on the East Coast of the US.  Today, the first full day of summer, the sun reached its highest point in the sky in the northern hemisphere producing the longest day and shortest night of the year.

Summer solstice sunrise at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England

Although the sun begins its daily descent from that highest point tomorrow, insolation from our star will continue to raise atmospheric temperatures until late July. As this day marks the end of the season of renewal and the beginning of the season of growth and flower, I am reminded of this quote by the renowned American novelist, essayist, and critic, D. H. Lawrence:

The greatest need of man is the renewal forever of the complete rhythm of life and death, the rhythm of the sun's year, the body's year

There's plenty of interesting and appropriate music for the day including this 13th century English round:

Middle English

Sumer is icumen in

Lhude sing cuccu!

Groweþ sed and bloweþ med

And springþ þe wde nu,

Sing cuccu!

Awe bleteþ after lomb,

Lhouþ after calue cu.

Bulluc sterteþ, bucke uerteþ,

Murie sing cuccu!

Cuccu, cuccu, wel singes þu cuccu;

Ne swik þu nauer nu.

Pes:

Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu.

Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu nu!

Modern English

Summer has arrived,

Loudly sing, Cuckoo!

The seed grows and the meadow

blooms

And the wood springs anew,

Sing, Cuckoo!

The ewe bleats after the lamb

The cow lows after the calf.

The bullock stirs, the stag farts,

Merrily sing, Cuckoo!

Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing,

cuckoo;

Don't ever you stop now,

Sing cuckoo now. Sing, Cuckoo.

Sing Cuckoo. Sing cuckoo now!

Here is a tone poem, A Song of Summer, written some 700 years later by Frederick Delius and transcribed and arranged by Eric Fenby:

And then there is summer as the season of youth, the school break, the summer job, of free time and good friends, and for many what the renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell called "friendship set to music."

May your summer living be easy and wonder-filled.











Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
photo, nasa.gov

Text:
thoughtcatalog.com

Juneteenth 2025

Juneteenth? So, what is the new holiday about? If you are an American with African ancestry dating to the Civil War era you have known about Juneteenth from very early childhood; otherwise, the term may be vaguely familiar or perhaps even new. I think of Juneteenth as an ingredient in our national experience that is just now blending in the melting pot concept we learned about in elementary school. We're going to hear much more about the day as we should. This description from the Library of Virginia is a good place to start:

[Juneteenth] has grown into a popular event across the country to commemorate emancipation from slavery and celebrate African American culture. Juneteenth refers to June 19, the date in 1865 when the Union Army arrived in Galveston and announced that the Civil War was over and that slaves were free under the Emancipation Proclamation. Although the proclamation had become official more than two years earlier on January 1, 1863, freedmen in Texas adopted June 19th, later known colloquially as Juneteenth, as the date they celebrated emancipation. Juneteenth celebrations continued into the 20th century, and survived a period of declining participation because of the Great Depression and World War II. In the 1950s and 1960s Juneteenth celebrations witnessed a revival as they became catalysts for publicizing civil rights issues of the day. In 1980 the Texas state legislature established June 19 as a state holiday.

Emancipation Thomas Nast, American, 1865

Several significant days have competed to honor the subject including:

September 22: the day Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation Order in 1862;

January 1: the day it took effect in 1863;

January 31: the date the 13th Amendment passed Congress in 1865, officially abolishing the institution of slavery, and;

December 6: the day the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865.


The persistence of the celebration in Texas on June 19 embedded the celebration in the social fiber of former slaves and their families who carried it with them in their migrations to all corners of the nation and to urban areas in particular. Growing wealth among black communities in the 20th century enabled them to hold lengthier and more elaborate celebrations.

Despite a near-century of prejudice and racism, both de jure and de facto, Juneteenth survived across the nation. It was revitalized nationally by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1968), in combination with his Poor People's March on Washington (planned for May 12 to June 24, and its early conclusion with the Solidarity March on June 19.

We extend our best wishes for a joyous day to all those celebrating Juneteenth. And it's the perfect time for all of us to "honor the countless contributions made by African Americans to our Nation and pledge to support America’s promise as the land of the free."

Visit Juneteenth to learn more about story and meaning of our newest national holiday.



Sources:

Photos and Illustrations:
Library of Congress at loc.gov

Text:
virginiamemory.com
loc.gov
wikipedia.com
pbs.org, The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
"honor the countless" quote, whitehouse.gov

Let Us Therefore Brace Ourselves To Our Duties....

Eighty-five years ago today, Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his most memorable speech during Britain's war against Adolf Hitler. The threat of invasion by German ground forces was high. The British people descended almost nightly into their bomb shelters as waves of Luftwaffe bombers flew overheard dropping their terror on thousands of victims.

Churchill was a master of the English language but even he struggled for the right words to both describe the reality his countrymen faced and rally them to endure what he knew would be their darkest hour:

The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.

Churchill would go on to receive the Nobel Prize in literature in 1953 for his many volumes of history, biography and other works. He possessed a vivid, lively writing style well worth reading for information as well as enjoyment. For more on this remarkable leader, here is a link to his Wikipedia entry.

And here is a link to the "finest hour" speech in its entirety of thirty minutes. All of it is worth hearing but as one would expect the conclusion is remarkably powerful beginning at 26:13


Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
public domain photo, Imperial War Museums

Text
Winston Churchill, wikipedia.org

  

Igor Stravinsky: Bringing New Sounds To A New Century

 

Igor Stravinsky, popularly recognized as a leading founder of Modern music in the 20th century, was born in Russia on this day in 1882. He lived in Switzerland and France before immigrating to the United States after World War II. Over his lifetime he composed in a variety of styles but is best remembered for his dazzling, rhythmic music in the early years - 1910 to 1914 - of the Ballets Russes produced by Sergei Diaghilev in Paris.

Portrait of Stravinsky                     Robert Delaunay, 1917

His work during that brief period included The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). One could say they are all signature pieces - experimental and revolutionary - that dazzled and in some cases infuriated their audiences. Regardless, the three compositions as well as other sounds from Stravinsky's imagination had a huge impact on music and the arts. He was 27 when audiences first heard The Firebird. Keep in mind that Henry Ford sold 10,000 cars that year, the U.S. had 1000 miles of paved road, half the American population lived on farms or towns with fewer than 2500 people, and the flying machine was a very rare and thrilling sight.

In the century since the premiere of The Firebird, its innovative sounds have been re-patterned by the likes of Aaron Copeland, Leonard Bernstein, John Williams and others including Philip Glass who has perhaps carried rhythm as art to its farthest horizon to date. In the view of Tom Service writing in The Guardian in 2011,

Stravinsky is the only common influence that composers from Steve Reich to Thomas Adès, from Judith Weir to John Adams, from Elliott Carter to Louis Andriessen, can all agree on. Without Stravinsky, there would be no minimalism, not much neo-classicism, not enough rhythmic energy, and not nearly enough compositional freedom in the 20th and 21st centuries. Four decades on, the Stravinsky that's proved most popular with audiences, orchestras and concert halls is the colouristic brilliance of the three early ballets, Firebird, Petrushka, and the Rite.

Indeed, Stravinsky broke rules. In doing so he made new music. A century later it remains as fresh as the year it was composed. And although Stravinsky left this world almost a half century ago he indeed remains as the title of Service's article describes him, "Stravinsky Our Contemporary." Here's more proof with excerpts from a November 2019 concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of the brilliant conductor, Gustavo Dudamel. The Rite of Spring is one of the orchestra's signature pieces.

Some say the most productive experiments often make the biggest messes until they are better understood. The genius and madman in Stravinsky would very much agree.

For more on the place of dissonance in Stravinsky's music here is an entertaining seventeen minute journey on the subject by the British composer, Davis Bruce. This video can be as technical as you want to make it. By no means am I a musical technician so I enjoyed it by simply listening to how Stavinsky's used dissonance to create some of the most popular music of the last century.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
portrait, public domain, Robert Delaunay, New Art Gallery Walsall, West Midlands, England

Text:
Igor Stravinsky entry, Wikipedia.org
quotation, Tom Service, "Stravinsky Our Contemporary", theguardian.com, April 6, 2011

It's Bloomsday For Book Nerds

Today is far from an ordinary day in the world of western literature. It isn't that a number of significant events occurred or that any event occurred that day. Instead, June 16 (1904) is the setting for a several hundred page descriptive stream of happenings in the life of the fictional character, Leopold Bloom. The work is Ulysses, published in book form in 1922. The author is James Joyce. The day is Bloomsday.

Ulysses is a shape shifting piece of art written out of the ashes of the Belle Epoque, a period of peace and prosperity in Europe from around 1875 to 1917, and the alienation of an increasingly existential world. If you accept that meanings are in people this book assuredly means something different to every person who accepted the challenge to read it. You can't get more existential than that. The Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, said this about it:

What is so staggering about Ulysses is the fact that behind a thousand veils nothing lies hidden; that it turns neither toward the mind nor toward the world, but, as cold as the moon looking on from cosmic space, allows the drama of growth, being, and decay to pursue its course.

First edition copy described as "unread except for the racy bits."

To say the least, Ulysses is an adventure. For some it may be merely pornographic or a huge word puzzle or a unique work of art in its truest form. However you chose to view the novel keep in mind that people are celebrating this work and its author across the world today on what has become known as Bloomsday. And even those who know nothing about Bloomsday, never read the book or know little about the author have likely encountered bits and pieces of Joyce's skill in school and through popular culture. This memorable paragraph ends the book:

I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

I came to appreciate that quote so much for its realism and balance between the sensuous and sensual that I used it for almost twenty years in a descriptive writing course. Other quotes could have been useful but their playfulness simply made them interesting, maybe even enjoyable if you had a reading guide - an essential - at hand:

Meditations of evolution increasingly vaster: of the moon invisible in incipient lunation, approaching perigee: of the infinite lattiginous scintillating uncondensed milky way, discernible by daylight by an observer placed at the lower end of a cylindrical vertical shaft 5000 ft deep sunk from the surface towards the centre of the earth: of Sirius (alpha in Canis Maior) 10 lightyears (57,000,000,000,000 miles) distant and in volume 900 times the dimension of our planet: of Arcturus: of the precession of equinoxes: of Orion with belt and sextuple sun theta and nebula in which 100 of our solar systems could be contained: of moribund and of nascent new stars such as Nova in 1901: of our system plunging towards the constellation of Hercules: of the parallax or parallactic drift of socalled fixed stars, in reality evermoving wanderers from immeasurably remote eons to infinitely remote futures in comparison with which the years, threescore and ten, of allotted human life formed a parenthesis of infinitesimal brevity.

So there is word play at its best with lots of traditional arts and sciences, a dash of Dadaism, even a precursor or two of pataphysics. Rest assured there's more there than the racy bits.


If you want to learn more about the day, the book, and the author, visit these sites: Bloomsday, Ulysses, and James Joyce.





Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

theguardian.com, June 4, 2009, photo by Martin Argles


Text:
quotations, goodreads.com
Malcolm Cowley, Exile's Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s, revised, Viking Press, 1964

Flag Day 2025 And The United States Army's 250th Birthday

Today is Flag Day, a day for commemorating the adoption of a design by Francis Hopkinson as the official Flag of the United States on this date in 1777. President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation in 1919 declaring June 14 as the official day.

Francis Hopkinson Flag, 1777

Here are some words about the Hopkinson flag from the link above:

Hopkinson is recognized as the designer of the official "first flag" of the United States. Although he sought compensation from Congress, the letter was somewhat comical. He asked for a quarter cask of wine in payment for the flag, the Great Seal, and various other contributions. Congress used the usual bureaucratic tactics of asking for an itemized bill. After some back and forth, Congress eventually refused on the pretext that Hopkinson was already paid as a public servant. The letter also mentioned that Hopkinson collaborated with others on his designs because he was one of many contributing to the Great Seal.

While there is no known Hopkinson flag in existence today, we do know from his rough sketch that it had thirteen stars and thirteen stripes. It is believed that his flag used red and white stripes and white stars on a field of blue. Because the original stars used in the Great Seal had six points, we might also assume that Hopkinson's flag intended the use of a 6-pointed star. This is bolstered by his original sketch that showed asterisks with six points.

The legend of Betsy Ross as the designer of the first flag entered into American consciousness about the time of the 1876 centennial celebrations. See Betsy Ross Flag for the full story. Today many Americans still cling to the legend that she designed the first flag with it's familiar circle of thirteen stars, At the same time most are unaware of Hopkinson's legacy.

There are any number of songs written about our national flag. Among the best of them is George M. Cohan's 1906 rouser, You're A Grand Old Rag, written in 1906 for his musical, George Washington, Jr. Here it is performed by Billy Murray, the best selling recording artist of the earthy 20th century.

That's right, you read and heard "rag" instead of "flag". Cohen wrote the song inspired by a Civil War veteran clutching a tattered US flag he referred to as a grand old rag. Although the song was an immediate success many individuals and patriotic groups were uncomfortable with "rag" referring to such a sacred symbol. Eager to please his audience, Cohan soon published a revision with new words and a new title, You're A Grand Old Flag. 

And while you admire the Grand Old Flag remember that today is the 250th birthday of the United States Army. These words from the America250 webpage say it all:

On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress voted to establish the Continental Army. This action marked the creation of America’s first national military force, more than a year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

For 250 years, the United States Army has played a vital role in defending America. From the Revolutionary War to the present day, Americans have served selflessly–many sacrificing their lives–in defense of the country. Our service members’ courage, loyalty, and dedication have inspired generations. At the same time, Army-led innovations and breakthroughs–from radar and the internet to everyday items like wireless communications–have advanced our national security, transformed global commerce, and propelled America’s economic competitiveness.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Hopkinson Flag, public domain image, Wikimedia.org
America250.org

Text:
Francis Hopkinson, entry, Wikipedia.org
"You're A Grand Old Flag," entry, Wikipedia.org

D-Day: It Was The Largest Amphibious Invasion In History

 

Into The Jaws Of Death, US Troops Wading Through Water And Nazi Gunfire

Eighty years ago on June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6 the Allies gained a foothold in Normandy. The cost was high - more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded - but more than 100,000 soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler.

We don't teach history much these days. If students simply learned that "more than 100,000 soldiers began the march across Europe to defeat Hitler" and his National Socialist movement, I would be somewhat pleased. I'd also like every student to know that 16 million Americans served during World War II. About 66143 are still alive. Last year that number was 119550.D-Da In a short time all of these eyewitnesses to history will be gone. There will be no one to thank, no one to question. Only our memories will survive.

For more on the significance of this day link to the U.S. Army D-Day Page.

A portion of 9388 interments at Normandy American Cemetery adjacent Omaha Beach

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:photo, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Public Domain Photographs, 1882-1962

map, Department of History, United States Military Academy

Text:

U.S. Army D-Day Page

statistics, U.S. Army D-Day Page